Singer Linda Eder celebrates Minnesota high school performers

Linda Eder
A Broadway star since the late 1980s, Linda Eder is back in her home state of Minnesota to celebrate the best Minnesota high school musicals. She says she probably would not be where she is today were it not for her high school music experiences growing up in Brainerd.
MPR photo/Euan Kerr

Linda Eder is best known as a Broadway star. The role of Lisa in "Jekyll and Hyde" was written for her. Yet she credits her start to performing in high school in Brainerd.

"You can be in the smallest town in northern Minnesota but you feel like it's the big time," she said. "You think in your mind, 'This is the best production of this show anywhere ever in history.' ... You want people in the theater to have that emotion, because that's what makes it special."

Eder appears at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis Monday evening to present the annual Spotlight Showcase Awards, which honor Minnesota's best high school musical performances of the year.

Eder told MPR's Euan Kerr she doesn't believe she would be doing what she does today were it not for her start performing in high school in Brainerd.

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