What songs seemed to be overdone this year at MT college auditions (2018/19)?

College Majors Musical Theater Major
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I’m also interested in any input this year’s group can pass on to the rising seniors–thanks so much! In addition to “Always True to You…” being generally overdone, wouldn’t it also be basically off-limits for the upcoming class, as it’s currently in revival on Broadway? I know the show is slated to close before audition season starts, but I’m assuming recently closed shows are also probably not recommended?

AZperformom–my D is definitely finding it tough to find older/Golden Age songs that are appropriate for a younger character. Seems like the ones she finds are all listed as overdone somewhere! The shows that have the most appropriate teen/young adult roles tend to be well-known, and other female roles are often either too old, dated, or a tough fit character-wise… sigh! We’ll keep looking!

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@UMiamiMTDad I agree with you - based on this conversation - my daughter had two of the most overdone songs - One Perfect Moment AND Lost in the Brass and managed to get 5 BFA offers - so, I guess it worked out okay - LOL. She really connected with these songs and felt that they showed great range and were good storytelling songs and age-appropriate. I think When He Sees Me from Waitress seemed to be overdone.

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I really didn’t hang around the auditions areas much but as I was walking by some rooms at Chicago Unifieds I heard several girls singing No One Else

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Hello. My name is Arielle.
I’m thinking of some audition songs to sing for the future auditions. Here’s a list of songs I’m thinking to sing. Could you please tell me if any of the songs I’ve selected are overdone. If so, could you please help me find musical songs that replaces the overdone? Thanks a lot.

Future Audition Songs List:

Home (The Wiz)

No Bad News (The Wiz)

Once More I Can See (Wonderland)

The Sea of Life (Pirate Queen)

No One Knows Who I Am (Jekyll and Hyde)

Once Upon A Dream (Jekyll and Hyde)

Sympathy Tenderness (Jekyll and Hyde)

Love Makes Such Fools Of Us All (Barnum

The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze (The Mikado)

My True Love (Yeston & Kopit’s Phantom)

I Still Believe (Miss Saigon)

The Movie in My Mind (Miss Saigon)

Now That I’ve Seen Her (Miss Saigon)

Maybe (Miss Saigon)

When Will Someone Here (Martin Guerre)

How Many Tears (Martin Guerre)

Only Love (Scarlet Pimpernel)

When I Look At You (Scarlet Pimpernel)

Just Like That (A Christmas Story)

All This Time (Count of Monte Cristo)

When The World Was Mine (Count of Monte Cristo)

If The World Should End (Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark)

All Grow Up (Bare)

I Never Knew His Name (The Civil War)

Chinadoll (Marguerite)

How Did I Get To Where I Am (Marguerite)

A Perfect Life (Dracula the Musical)

Please Don’t Make Me Love You (Dracula the Musical)

It’s A Woman’s World (The Full Monty)

The Secret of Happiness (Daddy’s Long Legs)

Live Out Loud (A Little Princess)

Spanish Rose (Bye Bye Birdie)

An English Teacher (Bye Bye Birdie)

Nothing Stops Another Day (Ghost)

Right In Front Of Your Eyes (The Wedding Singer)

Loving You (Passion)

I Wish I Could Forget You (Passion)

When You Got It, Flaunt It (The Producers)

Special (Avenue Q)

Whatever Lola Wants (Damn Yankees)

When There’s No One (Carrie)

Moonfall (Mystery of Edwin Drood)

Everybody’s Got A Home But Me (Pipe Dream)

Follow Me (Camelot)

You Don’t Know This Man (Parade)

Do It Alone (Parade)

My Child Will Forgive Me (Parade)

Back To Before (Ragtime)

The Fire Within Me (Little Women)

Parents Lie (Freaky Friday)

Where Am I Now? (Lysistrata Jones)

Daybreak (Amazing Grace)

Repent (On The Twentieth Century)

Where’s The Warmth (The Baker’s Wife)

I Got Four Kids (Caroline or Change)

Children of the Winds (Rags)

Living in the Shadows (Victor/Victoria)

Beautiful (Marie Christine)

Tell Me (Marie Christine)

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You should choose songs within 5-10 years of your playable age. Many of these songs aree written for roles much older than you (assuming you are 17-20?)

Also, you need to choose songs that fit your type. What are you? The ingenue? The antihero (who is always battling an obstacle)? The scrappy, spunky “get it done” kind off character? The sidekick? More of a character actor?

From this list here, I cannot determine your type? It is really all over the place. You should definitely show versatility and contrast but acting through the music is a huge component and you need to pick songs that reflect your type AND allow for acting (not just vocal performance). In terms of overdone, I would avoid Jekyll & Hyde (several schools actually have it on their “don’t do” list this year), Live Out Loud, any songs that are written for a specific ethnicity (unless that fits you). I see songs from The Wiz, The Mikado and Miss Saigon.

Pick songs that lend themselves to excellent cuts for your time allowed. (Just because the song is good, doesn’t mean you can get the right cut for it!) Make sure it has opportunities for telling a story and acting, not just a static vocal performance. And, if you take a risk and go outside your playable age OR genderbend a song, make sure it is absolutely amazing and the best choice (vocally and acting) you could make.

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Okay. Well I can narrow my list down to my Top 5 choices if that’s okay with you. I can even put a role next to the song to see get you to know what role I’m going to audition for in the future.

Just so you know, I love to sing ballad, soul and opera songs from musicals.

Are those 5 overdone

Home (The Wiz) (Role: Belle, BATB)

The Sea of Life (Pirate Queen) (Role: Esmeralda, Hunchback of Notre Dame)

I Still Believe (Miss Saigon) (Role: Eponine, Les Mis)

When The World Was Mine (Count of Monte Cristo) (Roles: Lucy & Emma, Jekyll and Hyde)

Love Makes Such Fools of Us All (Barnum) (Roles: Mabel from Pirates of Penzance & Yum-Yum from The Mikado)

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You haven’t expressed what ethnicity you are or “type?” It may be hard for you to sing both “Home” and “I Still Believe.” “Home” was written for The Wiz to be sung by a POC. “I Still Believe” is a duet – older than your playable age (I would assume?) and one of the women is Korean. Many schools and organizations would not be okay with this – especially in light of some of the issues in theatre over the last five years regarding race and cultural misappropriation.

“Love Makes Such Fools of Us All” is not a great choice (IMO) because it is more vocal performance (and art song) than musical theatre. It really doesn’t lend itself to much acting through the music.

“The Sea of Life” is fine. There is one song done often from that musical, but this is not it.

As far as overdone, to my knowledge, they aren’t.

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Good points, my theatre teacher in high school is always recommending songs to people that they should not be singing, ever. It is definitely something to consider when picking music for auditions.

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My type of ethnicity is white. Please no hate.

But unfortunately, when I auditioned in a youth theatre, the directors didn’t recommend songs I shouldn’t sing.

I love the song “Sea of Life”. And by the way, that song is included in the list of audition songs for the role of Esmeralda (one of my dream roles to play in a musical) from HoND (one of my favorite Disney musicals, even though it’s dark).

I did want to mention that based on musical composer category:
I might sing “The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze” (Mikado) if I were auditioning for an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan because The Mikado is one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas.

I might also sing “I Still Believe” (Kim’s solo part) (Miss Saigon), Maybe (Miss Saigon), “How Many Tears” (Martin Guerre) “When Will Someone Hear” (Martin Guerre) if I’m auditioning for Les Mis because Les Mis, Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre are musicals by Schonberg and Boubil. Those songs that I’ve mentioned are on the audition song list for one of my favorite Les Mis characters to play (Eponine and Fantine).

I might also sing songs if I were auditioning for musicals by Frank Wildhorn (one of my favorite musical composers. Please no hate because I’m a fan of Wildhorn)

  • “When The World Was Mine” (Count of Monte Cristo)
  • “All This Time” (Count of Monte Cristo),
  • “No One Knows Who I Am” (Jekyll and Hyde),
  • “Sympathy Tenderness” (Jekyll and Hyde)
  • “A Perfect Life” (Dracula)
  • Please Don’t Make Me Love You" (Dracula)

My kind of personality would be that I’m a high-spirited, a dreamer, creative, motherly, caring, smart and kind person, but I have moments where I can be sassy, naïve, strong and tough to defend myself.

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There is no hate, only advice. I work with a lot of kids auditioning and what was okay 20, 10…even 5 years ago is not necessarily okay now. Since this is a world and industry you want to be part of, you need to read about what is happening. Many events over the last few years have brought strong incidents and feelings to light. For example, did you know that the Gilbert & Sullivan Players in New York had to cancel their 2015 production of The Mikado because the Asian-American community (including actors and performers) brought media attention to the “yellow face” used in their production? Twenty years ago, this wasn’t an issue. Today it is.

So many other incidents and news stories I could list, but the fact is, it is not a good idea to go into an audition today and singing a song that is specifically written for a particular ethnicity. You also need to make sure that role is within 5-10 years of your playable age. Overdone would not nearly be as big of an issue today as singing a song deemed inappropriate for your ethnicity. Many programs have called out for not balancing the diversity of their incoming classes. Pace is one that has just gone through a lot of media attention and the removal of their MT head for some pretty serious issues involving allegations of racism within their department. Others have been called out for lack of BIPOC representation in acceptances, directors, chosen works and more.

You need to truly know your type. Choose songs that are not based on what you “like” but who you are and what characters you play best. Make sure you have contrast. Golden age and contemporary, ballad and uptempo…maybe a patter song. Make sure that all of your songs make good cuts (16-bar, 32-bar/ 60-90 sec). Make sure you show your range and the cuts are not too repetitious. Show your mix, if you have it. Show your belt, if you have it…but avoid cuts that are overly “belt-y.” (Some directors detest belting.) I cannot stress this enough: make sure your song has real opportunity to “act” through your music. It should not be a song that is primarily for vocal performance or an art song (unless your school requests that).

I hope this helps…and, btw…I love Wildhorn also.

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This actually helps. Thank you very much. Like what you said, I’m not actually singing musical songs for an audition based on ethnicity. I’m singing musical songs based on my personality and connection to the character I’m auditioning for.

Is that correct?

Anyways, like I said, besides personality and connection to the character I’m auditioning for, I’m also singing musical songs based on the category of the musical composer.

For example: If I’m auditioning for Jekyll and Hyde and the role I’m hoping to get is Lucy Harris, I should sing songs that’s from other Frank Wildhorn musicals like Dracula, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Civil War. And those Wildhorn songs should relate to the Wildhorn character I’m auditing for. Right?

Audition songs for Lucy → other Wildhorn musicals

  • I Never Knew His Name (The Civil War)
  • Please Don’t Make Me Love You (Dracula)
  • Storybook (The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Do you agree with me?

And here’s another thing I would like to show you. I was looking at audition songs for Dracula the Musical and The Hunchback of Notre Dame at theatretrip.com because I’m hoping to play Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra and Esmeralda if I’m auditioning for those musicals. But the auditions songs has a mix of different musicals

If you look at theatretrip.com/auditon-songs-for-dracula for the audition songs for Mina, there are 3 songs from Jekyll and Hyde and 1 song from Passion (Sondheim musical)

Audition Songs for Mina

  • Loving You (Passion)
  • Someone Like You (Jekyll and Hyde)
  • Sympathy Tenderness (Jekyll and Hyde)
  • No One Knows Who I Am (Jekyll and Hyde)

What do you think should be the best option out of all of the four songs for the role of Mina?

As for the role of Lucy Westenra, Mina’s best friend, the audition songs for that character has 2 songs from different Wildhorn shows and the other 2 are some different musical that are not Wildhorn.

Audition Songs for Lucy Westenra

  • Once Upon A December (Anastasia)
  • Only Love (The Scarlet Pimpernel)
  • The Sea of Life (The Pirate Queen)
  • When I Look At You (Scarlet Pimpernel)

What do YOU think is the best option?

And as for the role of Esmeralda at Audition Songs for The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Theatre Trip, there are two options

Audition Songs for Esmeralda

  • The Sea of Life (The Pirate Queen)
  • Sympathy Tenderness (Jekyll and Hyde)

What do you think is the best choice?

Thanks for your advice. Feel free to ask me some questions and I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

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@ashimoni2002 Your latest posts seem to be asking about audition songs that might be good options for auditioning for specific roles in particular musicals. This thread is truly about choosing audition songs for MT College Auditions, which is entirely different, because in this situation, you are not auditioning for a particular character in a certain show. Rather, you are demonstrating your skill set. There are guidelines for choosing appropriate material, but it really is not related to particular shows or characters (other than the characters who normally sing the song should be believable in terms of your stage age and type).

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