How to Pick a Song for a Musical Theatre Audition
Pick 16-32 bars from a musical theatre song to sing (if you don't know what that means, go for a verse and a chorus. Don't learn the whole song.) Which verse and chorus? The most interesting ones, of course! Look for the moment the character realizes, explores, discovers, or changes.
The right song is a song:
-You love. If you don’t love it, how can I?
-From a musical. I’m sure you sing Miley Cyrus very well, but that doesn’t tell me anything about your ability to sing in the musical.
-From a musical that is in a similar style as the show you’re auditioning for. See below for more on that, but if you sing someone the song and they say “What a great gospel number! Did you learn that at church?” you probably need to find something else.
-Also, sing it in the style of the musical. So, yes, you COULD sing “A Whole New World” operatically, or as a rap, but…. Don’t.
-has a catchy and repeating tune that sounds good sung a cappella. (No one wants to sit there awkwardly while you wait for the imaginary drum part that is playing in your head to be over.)
Please do NOT pick a song that:
-You have already sung on the Bigelow stage
-Is in the Bigelow songbook (unless it is from this show)
-Is from a jukebox musical (a jukebox musical is a collection of pop or rock songs that somebody wrote a script around after they were pop or rock hits. Examples: Mamma Mia. Jersey Boys. American Idiot.)
-Don’t pick a song from any of the following shows, all of which are in a very different style from the musicals we do: Les Miserables, Spring Awakening, Phantom of the Opera, Rent.
Don’t panic! If you need help picking a song, Ms. Alberts would be delighted to help. But listening to musicals to pick something should be fun. I mean, you like musicals, right? You can always do something from the show we're doing, though I encourage you to look around.
Pick 16-32 bars from a musical theatre song to sing (if you don't know what that means, go for a verse and a chorus. Don't learn the whole song.) Which verse and chorus? The most interesting ones, of course! Look for the moment the character realizes, explores, discovers, or changes.
The right song is a song:
-You love. If you don’t love it, how can I?
-From a musical. I’m sure you sing Miley Cyrus very well, but that doesn’t tell me anything about your ability to sing in the musical.
-From a musical that is in a similar style as the show you’re auditioning for. See below for more on that, but if you sing someone the song and they say “What a great gospel number! Did you learn that at church?” you probably need to find something else.
-Also, sing it in the style of the musical. So, yes, you COULD sing “A Whole New World” operatically, or as a rap, but…. Don’t.
-has a catchy and repeating tune that sounds good sung a cappella. (No one wants to sit there awkwardly while you wait for the imaginary drum part that is playing in your head to be over.)
Please do NOT pick a song that:
-You have already sung on the Bigelow stage
-Is in the Bigelow songbook (unless it is from this show)
-Is from a jukebox musical (a jukebox musical is a collection of pop or rock songs that somebody wrote a script around after they were pop or rock hits. Examples: Mamma Mia. Jersey Boys. American Idiot.)
-Don’t pick a song from any of the following shows, all of which are in a very different style from the musicals we do: Les Miserables, Spring Awakening, Phantom of the Opera, Rent.
Don’t panic! If you need help picking a song, Ms. Alberts would be delighted to help. But listening to musicals to pick something should be fun. I mean, you like musicals, right? You can always do something from the show we're doing, though I encourage you to look around.
