audition songs/ monologues

<p>emilee,
Welcome to the MT Forum. </p>

<p>One suggestion is if you read through this entire thread, you will come away with a lot of advice and information on this topic. That would be a good starting point. For instance, Astonishing is mentioned many times in this thead alone and you may want to read those posts. </p>

<p>As well, there is this thread you may wish to read which discusses overdone songs:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/90869-do-not-use-list-auditions.html?highlight=Astonishing%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/90869-do-not-use-list-auditions.html?highlight=Astonishing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You also can use the "Search" function and search for posts that have "Astonishing" in them on the MT forum. There are many. </p>

<p>The upshot is that Astonishing is indeed an overdone song and ideally you should try to find something that isn't going to be sung by a zillion other girls. </p>

<p>As far as songs that are pre-1965 and upbeat....one idea would be to get out a list of musicals from those eras and then look up those cast albums on either Amazon or ITunes and listen to clips of songs and you will discover many that are upbeat. Or you could look up songs by certain composers such as: Irving Berlin, Jules Styne, Frank Loesser, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Lerner and Lowe, Rogers and Hammerstein, Rogers and Hart, and others from that time period and listen to clips of songs. There are far too many for me to suggest and I know nothing of your type or vocal skills and so I think this is the best way for you to begin your search. </p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

<p>A lot of Kander and Ebb was after 1965 though.</p>

<p>I forgot to mention Cole Porter too. :)</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice! As for my vocal type, I'm a soprano with a large range, and I love to belt, so I'm trying to incorperate all of that into my audtion selection as well! I will keep looking, and I know I will find something. I have a large selection of ballads, just still looking for that uptemp song! Thanks again!</p>

<p>I was just curious in reference to a previous post about songs that are for a certain ethnicity and whether or not it is right. What about Maria in West Side Story? She is most definately one of the Puerto Rican characters, but I was just recently in a production of this where I was Maria, and I am caucasion. I was just curious about peoples thoughts on this, because Anita and Bernardo were mentioned but not maria.</p>

<p>Well the current trend, particularly with West Side Story, is to maintian the proper ethnic tone and characters. The new Broadway version is being cast with Hispanics in Hispanic roles who can speak Spanish with an authentic accent, since much of the dialogue will be spoken by the characters in their native language. So with that in mind, I would not sing Maria for auditions if i were not Spanish.</p>

<p>Caiti, </p>

<p>In addition to the ethnicity issue, I would not recommend choosing a song from WSS for your auditions as the Broadway production has a lot of 'buzz' in the theatre world right now. It is soon to begin it's out of town run in D.C. and previews in NY will be in full swing in February, during audition season. It's a good general rule not to sing something from a currently running, or recent, Broadway show. One other comment about the ethnicity issue - if you could be considered for a role realistically (and I don't mean in a high school production where the casting options are limited ;)), then I don't see a huge problem in choosing an audition song that would normally be identified with one ethnic group. In the upcoming production of WSS, for instance, although it is true that there are many Latino actors who have been cast, the majority of the cast is not Latino.</p>

<p>I'm still trying to get a few more audition songs together for february, and I have most of my ballads all together and my soprano-esque repetoire, but I really need some good chesty up-tempo pieces. I'd rather not have a belty song that goes above a c, because its easy and sounds powerful in my voice. I would like to have something that just shows off that side of my voice, maybe something a little more spunky and funny. Any ideas?</p>

<p>Songs that spring to mind...</p>

<p>"I just want to be a star" from Nunsense or "Look Ma, I made it" from Nunsense II
"I'm going back" from Bells are Ringing
"Shopping around" from Wish you were here
"Where in the world is my prince" from Miss Spectacular (although not that uptempo)
"You can't get a man with a gun" from Annie get your gun
"I'll show him" from Plain and Fancy
"On the other side of the tracks" from Little Me
"I want to be bad" from Follow Through
"Turn back oh man" from Godspell also "Learn your lessons well"
"I'll marry the very next man" from Fiorello
"More" from Dick Tracy (the lower version)
"Falling out of love can be fun" from Miss Liberty
"Man wanted" from Copacabana
"Rita's Tune" from Sweet Smell of Success
"I wanted to change him" from Hallelujah Baby
"Chain Store Daisy" from Pins and Needles</p>

<p>Also check out Lola's stuff from Damn Yankees, "Gorgeous" from The Apple Tree is good but it's become quite popular now I believe.</p>

<p>Yes, Gorgeous has become quite overdone because of the recent production of Apple Tree in NYC. Take a look at "Pajama Game" -- some good belty songs in that show.</p>

<p>Yes, "I'm not at all in love" is a fabulous audition song and does not go above a C.</p>

<p>Would a classical monologue from Taming of the Shrew be too overdone? I'm pretty sure it would be, but I just wanted to see what other people thought.</p>

<p>I would think that it would be overdone, since taming is one of the most commonly done shakespeare.</p>

<p>If you want a look at lesser done Shakespeare material check out Simon Dunmore's books, he has created volumes of alternative Shakespeare 1 and 2 for both men and women, they are on amazon. His website also lists the most commonly overdone Shakespeare pieces, am not allowed to paste it here so just google his name and you will find it.</p>

<p>This might be a very dumb question, but how exactly overdone is "Just A Housewife" from WORKING? I really love the acting choices that can be done with it.. and I'm struggling to find my contemporary piece. </p>

<p>As for my pre-1960, I know "Mr. Snow" from CAROUSEL is overdone.. but.. how much? I used it for a solo competition and won third place with it. I love the song to death. It may just be my favorite piece ever to sing. I throw everything I have into it.</p>

<p>As far as I know "Just a housewife" is not overdone and a good choice. As long as it's age appropriate (I think 17 or 18 is too young really for this song). I would avoid "Mr Snow" and find a lesser-nown R&H song, there are plenty great ones out there, have a look at Me and Juliet for example. Keep "Mr Snow" on reserve but I would definitely have other songs on offer as well.</p>

<p>Thanks, JIJane. Unfortunately, I'm eighteen! So you wouldn't recommend it ("Just a Housewife") for a college audition, then? </p>

<p>Blah. This process is so confusing. I'm navigating this process pretty much alone and so I'm attempting to find things suitable for me.. and apparently failing miserably!</p>

<p>Hi Georgeanne - </p>

<p>I would say "Housewife" is a definite no for college auditions - colleges are really adamant about age-appropriate material. If you truly OWN Mr. Snow - and someone who coaches/teaches people who go to top MT programs needs to evaluate you to tell you that objectively - it can be a good choice for you, because loving the song as much as you do is a HUGE plus, especially for your college pieces. I LOVE that you say "I throw everything I have into it"!!! But find a coach or teacher who actually knows what they are looking for at your top schools and who sees a LOT of students from everywhere, so that person can weigh in in a truly informed way. Good luck! :)</p>

<p>P.S. You don't absolutely need to have a contemporary song, if that is not what you an an actor and/or singer do best. The only college that requires a contemporary song is the University of Oklahoma. Of course you want to show off as many vocal and acting contrasts as possible, but as a rule, schools would MUCH rather hear 2 great older songs that show off different aspects of you. So if you have a belty uptempo that is old-school, use it! :)</p>

<p>Yeah, I see. I'm just a little late on this whole thing and so I'm kinda scrambling to find material in time for Chicago Unifieds.</p>

<p>I've got a very high legit range and (from what I hear) a nice low to mid range belt. </p>

<p>So it looks like my audition material is out! Blah.</p>