SCHENECTADY GAZETTE TV SECTION 1973
Janice Lynde has never been a loser and she is now awaiting the verdict on her audition with a symphony orchestra as eagerly as are several million television viewers.
Janice portrays Leslie Brooks, an aspiring concert pianist in Screen Gems' "The Young And The Restless" daytime-serial for CBSTV 12-2:30. As Leslie, she recently auditioned for the position of concert pianist with the Mid-America Symphony Orchestra and it will be another four weeks before she and the viewers will know the resu!ts.
Although scripts are written well in advance, one of the keys is to let the characters develop their own situations and "never, never do we divulge the information to the actors," according to producer John Conboy. "That way the cast looks forward to each week's scripts as eagerly as does the audience at home watching the story unfold," explains Conboy.
"I can hardly wait to find out what happens," laughs the lovely Janice. "I hate to lose anything even if it's on the show." .Janice, who draws an unusual amount of fan mall, has had a thorough education in music and is one of the few concert pianists to turn actress and portray a concert pianist on television. She is one of the few actresses in the business who has to learn her lines and rehearse music at the same time each day
Janice started piano studies at the age of five in her home town of Lake Charles La., desiring some day to be a concert pianist. But when she was 15, Janice started studying voice, hoping to be a dramatic coloratura in grand opera. She returned to the piano for a while when she lost her voice following a tonsillectomy. She was so good that she often soloed with the symphony orchestras of Dallas, New Orleans, Houston and others. ''My voice finally returned," recalls Janice. "I was majoring in opera at the University of Indiana and had a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music when a talent scout for Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians persuaded me to leave school. They made me an offer of soloist with the group which I couldn't turn down."
Janice admits that although she still studies she had become bored with opera and piano. "There was a lack of freedom and creativity in opera. It must be done exactly the way it had been done for 200 years. And piano was too one dimensional. I really wanted to be singing and dancing. And I've become a big 'belter,' singing the pop thing my way." After her stint with Waring and success as a background singer and dancer in New York, Janice struck out on her own. Her first major role was in the national stage company of "Butterflies Are Free" followed by the Broadway rock musical, "The Me Nobody Knows." And she played the lead role of Eve in the Broadway production of "Applause."
By
Paul Raven ·
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