<p>At IU we are not allowed to sing anything that was on Broadway within the last five years. Just a rule of thumb. (This can be bent if it is a show most people do not know, for example, I sing from Sweet Smell of Success) I would not sing L5Y, or any JRB for that matter. No Sondheim- I have personally witnessed really talented people look like asses because they could not get it together with the accompianist. Standards are always good, but be werary of overdone ones like Younger than Springtime or On the Street Where you live (at MUNY callbacks a few years ago, I watched about 6 or 7 people sing the exact same 16 bar cut, don't use this one). Basically if your instincts tell you not to sing it, your probably right. Look for obscure stuff. You may have to pay somebody to transpose it off of a CD, but it is entirely worth it. For example, my roomate worked on pre-production of Little Women on B-Way. There were some songs cut from the show that he has rehearsal recordings of, it is material like this that COULD work very well. (It would be kind of shady to use this but that is for a different thread.)</p>
<p>Remember who you are singing for. (Off topic, a voice teacher once told me to sing Lost in the Wilderness for a Falsettos audition. That would be an example of a bad choice, just be sensible.) Your high school choir teacher probably has no idea what you should be singing even if they say they do. There are NEVER any definate answers to this question.</p>
<p>If you can sing Think of Me better than Sarah Brightman, by all means be my guest, but remember the person auditioning you will have probably seen her perform the role and it is impossible in an audition setting to duplicate the atmosphere created by costumes, sets, lights, sound and a real orchestra. This is one reason people stay away from current Broadway.</p>
<p>Last thing, MAKE BIG, BOLD, ASSRETIVE choices. If it is the wrong choice, at least you made a choice. Let go of whatever you are holding onto and just go for it. Be original, no one wants to hear immatators- I bet a lot of people out there can run like Darius DeHass, but than you are no more than a copier. Read auditioning for musical theatre by Fred Silver. This will teach you about phrasing and all that if you dont already know abou it.</p>
<p>I have an audition in March for AMDA, and I was thinking of singing 42nd Street. Good idea or bad idea?</p>
<p>I have no idea what else to sing. I plan on doing a classical monologue so I want a contrasting song. I'm a mezzo/beltor, and I highly enjoy singing jazz songs. Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>just a quick opinion.
In a musical theatre audition, if you are only performing one monologue, I would suggest you choose contemporary, unless they have specifically requested classical.</p>
<p>I think that 42nd Street is fine, but be sure to fill it with acting values (don't merely "report" as the character, but "convince," "tempt," "glorify," etc. - keep the objective strong).</p>
<p>I suggest you look at Cy Coleman musicals - great for belters, and much is jazzy. </p>
<p>Also, the more obscure choice - Gershwin musicals. Classic material in a different vein.</p>
<p>prof., do you have any suggestions for classical monologues that are not trite? (ie. romeo and julliet, a midsummers ngihts dream) I am planning on transfering this spring and I need a classical monologue, and although I had great training in hs, my coach rarley if ever did classical pieces- so i don't even nkow where to begin with my classical search- ANY help would be appreciated</p>
<p>The Actor's Book of Classical Monologues : More Than 150 selns From gldn Age gk Drama Age shakesp Restoration by Various (Stefan Rudnicki (Editor) / Penguin / 1988</p>
<p>If you are less into Shakespeare, the world opens up. For individual titles, here are a few that spring to mind:</p>
<p>Lucky Chance (Aphra Behn)
The Way of the World (Wm. Congreve)
Love for Love (Wm. Congreve)
The Country Wife (Wm. Wycherly)</p>
<p>Good luck with your search, and break a leg!</p>
<p>thanky you very muchm I am not married to Shakespeare..at all! I just don't even know where to begin my classical monolge search! Thank you again!</p>
<p>Right...so, I'm in the middle of trying to find some good songs...can people tell me if the following are overdone or too hard to play?</p>
<p>"Christmas Lullaby" Songs for a new World (JRB, yes, but it's really easy to play. I've played it and I SUCK at the piano. =D)
"Goodnight My Someone" Music Man
"Life of the Party" Lippa's Wild Party
"Good Morning Baltimore" (doesn't follow the 'broadway' rule, but I was wondering if it was really overdone..)
"A Change In Me" Beauty And the Beast (although it's supposedly not on Broadway or in any of the tours or anything...)
"Hold Down the Fort" John and Jen
"Good and Evil" Jekyll and Hyde.</p>
<p>Also, I wanted to know something about the NYU auditions. They ask for "three contrasting songs from musical theater or classical". Does that mean all three need to be from one or the other or a mix of the two?</p>
<p>Thanks for all the help I've seen on this site so far, and I hope you can help me with my audition problem. Heehee.</p>
<p>Sorry, I can't comment on the song choices - don't know them or you well enough....</p>
<p>But with regard to the number of songs for NYU, I'm thinking that because you were asking about THREE song choices, that you are applying to Steinhardt (as opposed to Tisch). If yes, my memory says you really can pick three of each or a mix, i.e., 3 classical OR 3 MT OR 2 of one and 1 of the other. If you are auditioning for MT, it probably makes the most sense to pick 2 MT and 1 Classical if you have one available in your repertoire. At the Steinhardt audition, you are allowed to choose which of the three songs you sing first and the auditors will then select one of the remaining two songs for you to perform. At least that is the way it was conducted when my daughter auditioned in November of '03. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Love the screen name. If you're applying to Tisch, as my d did, you need to bring a taped recording, so you won't need to worry if it's too hard to "play". They might have changed since last year, though. I would probably stay away from Music Man (too common). Life of the Party is a great belt song, but I'm not sure if it's overdone. I love it, personally! My d uses A Change In Me from Beauty and the Beast for an audition song; it's a great song, too, but not sure if it's overdone. I thought it WAS from the play? It certainly isn't in the movie. Well, good luck to you!</p>
<p>I have been told to steer clear of Wildhorn pieces (jekyll and hyde) because colleges aren't too crazy about his music, same with ALW. Jekyll and Hyde is probably done a lot anyway. Beauty and the Beast is on the "do not do list" for CCM at least. i would say jon and jen and christmas lullaby are not overdone. just my two cents</p>
<p>I just received CCM's "Do not use" list for admission in fall 2006.</p>
<p>Vocal
Rent, Les Mis, Phantom, Jekyll and Hyde, Scarlet Pimpernel, Secret Garden, Mystery of Edwin Drood, Miss Saigon, Beauty and the Beast, Aida, and any of the mature theatre songs of Stephen Sondheim.</p>
<p>Acting
No dialect, age appropriate
Not from: Baby with the Bathwater, Laughing Wild, Loose Ends, Beyond Therapy, Night Luster, Boy's Life, Plaza Suite, Odd Couple, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, Star-Spangled Girl, Wit, Quilters, The Fantasticks, Fat Men in Skirts, Oleanna, Vagina Monologues, Darlene Dances, Gypsy, 'Dentity Crisis, The Woolgatherer and Extremities.</p>
<p>They have also added a regional audition in Atlanta on Jan 21.</p>
<p>Don't be surprised that Wicked isn't listed. They've only listed three current Broadway shows and probably, only because those are long-running popular shows. It's a given that anything which is currently running or which has been on Broadway in the past five years shouldn't be used, and I'm sure that CCM is assuming that their applicants will know that.</p>
<p>I'm not sure why everyone keeps saying Jason Robert Brown is terribly hard to play. Some of his songs are, but a lot of them are ridiculously easy on the piano. I'm seriously considering "You Don't Know This Man" from Parade as one of my audition choices. It's super-easy to play (I play it.) What do you guys think? Auditors, is this terribly overdone? I like it because it shows off my high belt mix extremely well, and I connect with the emotion of the piece.</p>
<p>"You Don't Know This Man" is an "exception" song in Brown's body of work as far as ease of accompaniment. When people refer to the difficulty of JRB's accompaniments, they mean songs like "This Is Not Over Yet" and "Old Red Hills of Home," also both from PARADE (and bith men's songs, so of course you are ok there). I have a friend who has done several Broadway musicals (and was just cast in Elton John's new show LESTAT) who was forced to choose a different song for a major Broadway audition IN THE AUDITION ROOM because the accompanist couldn't play "Old Red Hills of Home." So...it's all dependent on the song - just as Sondheim AS A RULE is rough to play and rougher still to stay melodic as the singer within if you are at all nervous, but SOME Sondheim songs are easy to play and sing. </p>
<p>As for using "You Don't Know This Man" - if you TRULY connect to the song, it may be a great choice, especially if you have a strong high belt, as you indicate. However, there are many "angst-y" acting traps in that song - since it is such an impassioned plea and such a life-and-death situation in the context of the show, I see many young (and not-so-young) actors really OVER-act this song. A good GENERAL rule if is you truly can't find emotional levels and CONTRASTS (or opposites, as Michael Shurtleff calls them in his acting "bible," Audition) in a song, DO NOT use it for an audition piece. NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU LOVE SINGING IT!!! As an auditor, it is NOT pleasing to watch someone play fairly one-level "troubledness" or "sadness," etc. - and even if an actor isn't "playing emotions" but rather "playing objectives," the performance of the song can seem simply "emotional" on ONE LEVEL. "Emotional" isn't bad - but ONE LEVEL is, because as humans, we don't EVER really operate on just one level or convey JUST ONE thing - there is always joy mixed in with sadness (we are sad because we've lost something we loved a great deal, for example, but we show some of the joy of HAVING that thing even when weeping over its loss), etc. As singers, we often just want to dig into the "most powerful" emotion of a song - especially because that is what pop/rock singers and concert performers do, rather than giving more "real" human emotional range to a song - and because we all love to use our money notes to WAIL OUT those heightened emotions! But remember - never just play ONE thing in a song - and the prettiest, most dramatic songs that we ALL love to sing contain the greatest number of (like a lot of JRB's stuff - what girl or woman DOESN'T love to sing "Still Hurting" from LAST FIVE YEARS? ; ) - which, btw, has some easy sections in its accompaniment and some VERY tough ones) </p>
<p>Having said all of that :) - it's definitely just general advice, not something directed simpy to you, samia - I am not questioning your acting abilities! :) But your post inspired a tangent that is a very important one as all of this year's seniors really begin to settle on their audition song choices.</p>
<p>It's generally warned not to use Sondheim for an audition because it probably won't show off your voice best because of the difficulty for you and the accompianist and no JRB because basically, the accompianist is your best friend and you want to be polite and make their lives easier especially since not all accompianists are that qualified.</p>
<p>Thank you for your wonderful comments, and you're entirely right, of course. The reason I like the song so much is that I approach it the way I would do it as a monologue - more incredulous and angry than sad/troubled, and with tinges of pride and satisfaction that I, as a woman, can beat this moron man who is spewing nonsense about my husband (and therefore, about me.)</p>
<p>I agree; it would be terrible if acted on one general "sad" or "troubled" level.</p>