Singer and actress Linda Eder will showcase standards and Broadway tunes at Irvine Barclay Theatre

By Eric Althoff

Feb. 1, 2018 4 PM PT

A cursory surf with a TV remote yields a menu of several singing competitions, from Fox’s “The Four” to returning stalwarts such as “The Voice” and “American Idol.”

But when singer Linda Eder won a then-unprecedented 12 consecutive weeks on “Star Search” in 1987, it was the only such competition of its kind.

Performances were rated rather than critiqued — a hallmark of current iterations with judges in the vein of Simon Cowell often reducing hopefuls to tears.

“‘American Idol’ [is] brutal compared to what I went through, when you’re attacked for not just the singing but how [contestants] look and what they’re wearing,” Eder said by phone.

Despite her early fortune as a 20-something TV wonder, by her own admission Eder never wanted to be world-famous.

“I knew that my life was never going to be mine anymore,” Eder said, reflecting on if she had taken the route to stardom. “I saw that and I felt that. I think that always sort of consciously kept [my career] in a certain way.”

Eder has enjoyed 30 years as a professional musician, releasing more than a dozen albums and performing the world over, including an award-winning run of “Jekyll & Hyde” on Broadway.

Her current tour brings her to the Irvine Barclay Theatre Feb. 10, where she will perform cuts from her latest disc, “Retro,” mixed in with the show tunes her fans have come to expect.

“If they’re lovers of Broadway and standards, they’ll like my show,” she said of the forthcoming Orange County appearance, which will include her signature songs, such as “Someone Like You” from “Jekyll & Hyde” and the titular tune from “Man of La Mancha.”

“I have such a big catalog, I can shuffle the show around a little bit,” Eder said of mixing in the standards with her own compositions.

It was seeing “The Wizard of Oz” when she was 8 that made Eder decide to pursue a dream of being on stage. She idolized Judy Garland, Eileen Farrell and Barbra Streisand, all of whom she was later compared to by critics.

“The funny part is the fans of those [singers], they like you or they hate you [and] call you a copycat,” Eder said, adding that she nonetheless finds being compared to her heroes immensely flattering. “There’s pros and cons to everything.

“I know I’m not Barbra Streisand and I’m not Judy Garland — I’m sort of this combination of all these women. They were definitely my influences and I looked up to them.”

Though she’s known to sprinkle Broadway tunes liberally throughout live shows, Eder calls herself a country girl at heart, which is shown by the country pop songs frequenting her albums of original music.

Eder, 56, who now lives in Westchester County, N.Y., said she must be careful to keep her voice not only in shape but up to professional caliber.

“Age does certain things to you, so I’m mindful of that,” she said, adding that performing is personal and makes one vulnerable. “It’s more of a challenge to have (to) remind myself to keep singing. It is all muscles, and they will atrophy.”

Eder’s passions away from the stage include her horses and also perhaps trying her hand at writing a novel. She advises anyone who wishes to pursue a showbiz career to be well-rounded and have other options to make a living.

It’s all advice she heeded as a young woman.

“I just knew I didn’t want it, and I had so many other interests,” Eder said of the level of stardom she eschewed after winning “Star Search.”

“I was happy [with the decision], and so many people in this business are not happy.”