<p>I know that there have been dozens of discussions here over the years about audition material and how important it is to choose the right songs. I was away for a few days this week with a group of old, old theatre friends, three of whom participate in college admission auditions, and one of the many theatre-related things we talked about was song choice. One friend who has been doing college auditions for years was asked what her favorite audition was in the past few years and she said that, without a doubt, it was a young woman who sang A Trip to the Library from She Loves Me. Probably not a conventional choice but this young woman apparently ended up being admitted to every program she auditioned for, but one. Not that this particular song was, or was not, the primary factor but I thought it was interesting in that an unusual song choice didn't play negatively, despite what some may think in this process.</p>
<p>I love that song, by the way! Perhaps she, or her parent, even participated here on CC. If so, bravo to her. :)</p>
<p>That is an interesting story. I was just listening to that song this week in my car on Sirius radio’s Broadway Channel. </p>
<p>I just saw my MT daughter over Thanksgiving in NYC. While this doesn’t have to do with college auditions, she was telling me an example of a Broadway audition. She was talking about how she loved teaching and coaching the Pace BFA MT students, and how talented many of them are and how they audition often for professional work while in school. She related a story to me about a male student of hers and how she worked with him on his audition material for a Broadway audition and how the song was an unconventional choice and normally sung by a female (I so wish I could remember what song she said it was!) and how he got cast on Broadway with the song they worked on.</p>
<p>Nothing like a really good Harnick/Bock song to woo the judges. She Loves Me is a really underappreciated show if you ask me. Maybe it is because it is dwarfed by the next show Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick collaborated on, Fiddler on the Roof. Here’s is where Cliff from Cheers would say “it’s a little known fact that She Loves Me is based on the play that the movie “You’ve Got Mail” is based on.” I digress.</p>
<p>Maybe that song didn’t get the young lady admitted to those programs, but I’ll bet having the confidence and guts to make an unconventional choice was big in the mix, I am sure. Plus, she obviously followed thru by performing the heck out of it too. And, it is just a really good song.</p>
<p>Anyone know of good places to get sheet music for some less well known songs/shows? I have searched the usual musicnotes.com type sites and I cant find anything for a Kander and Ebb song “In the Cards” from the Off-Broadway musical Diamonds. I also can’t find a songbook from the show. Would public libraries in big metro areas like DC or NYC have those? Or would a library at a university allow someone from the public to access their stacks of Musical Theatre librettos? i have a couple of other songs we would love to get sheet music for but have struck out so far. Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>Try pianofiles.com – it’s a sheet music sharing site we’ve used to find a lot of MT songs, both common and obscure. I just searched for “In the Cards” and there’s at least one pianofiles member who has the song from Diamonds listed. Good luck!</p>
<p>@alwaysamom thank you for taking the time to share your story. It surely does show you that sometimes conventional wisdom doesn’t win the day. I love “A Trip to the Library” but as it is such linear storytelling sort of song I would have thought it would be hard to find a 16 or 32 bar cut that wouldn’t lead you wishing for more and feeling unsatisfied. It’s a heck of a fun song to tackle from beginning to end however for a MT that is also a strong comedic actor. Great story and great to know it would be OK to cut it and assume the astute auditors can fill in the blanks!!!</p>
<p>halflokum, that was the genius of Sheldon Harnick’s lyrics. You can get the full idea in one verse and as you say, the auditors are astute, they know their stuff, and they are more than capable of seeing a kid’s strengths in those 32 bars.</p>
<p>^^Agree. My daughter was in a class last year at Tisch that did a whole unit on “She Loves Me” and she has sung this character’s songs. But as far as auditioning for a college program goes, I wouldn’t back then have realized how well the auditors know their stuff and could appreciate what they were seeing within the context of the bigger picture. Now I know that they are indeed smart cookies who you can trust to know their stuff which allows for some bold choices. :)</p>
<p>My son did the song “She Loves Me” as one of his audition pieces, and it was well received. I had never heard of that musical. His 2nd choice was Anthem from Chess, where he could show his range. The two were well received, and showed varying styles from both a singing and acting perspective.</p>
<p>Interesting story and useful. I heard two boys saying they were singing She Loves Me at BW, my S was surprised to hear that. He had Try Me on the list but then thought it was like begging the auditors for a chance, I didn’t really get that but he did so he dropped it.</p>
<p>My D is doing a song from another Harnick and Boch show, The Apple Tree, the lyrics are very clever and the music is fun for her to sing. And the character is a total opposite of her “type” so she’s hoping that works in her favor.
Break a leg to all those auditioning with songs off the beaten path!</p>
<p>So glad to hear that there are other fans here! In one of those life’s small coincidences, one of my Ds called me this morning to see if I wanted to go see a performance of Parfumerie tonight. This is the original play by Miklos Laszlo on which She Loves Me, You’ve Got Mail and two other films were based.</p>
<p>alwaysamom…what city are you seeing Parfumerie in? I am guessing you mean Toronto? If not, my D’s good friend from years together at theater camp is in the production that is in LA now.</p>
<p>Yes, Toronto, Soozie. The Soulpepper Theatre Co. is doing it, for the third time, I believe. I wasn’t able to go last night but I’m hoping to get to see it before the end of the run. Small world, though, an old, old actor friend is in that L.A production. :)</p>
<p>I don’t know if you would call this “interesting” - I worked auditions last year and I remember one girl who was going to audition with “On My Own”. A month after the movie came out.</p>
<p>I wanted so badly to save that girl from singing it.</p>