The Most Popular Mezzo-Soprano Audition Songs

Candide is a musical which is probably more of an operetta than it is traditional musical theatre. It is based on the novella by Voltaire. It is a long, tangled and epic plot with the hero Candide searching for the ‘best of all possible worlds’

Candide beleives that Cunegonda, his betrothed, is dead and has set out on a journey of discovery. Cunegonde turns up alive in Paris, being supported by a welathy lover living in the house of a Marquis and a Sultan. She is being aided by an Old Lady who is serving as her governess. Cunegonda draps herself in her jewels and sings ‘Glitter and Be Gay’

The song is brilliant fun, Cunegonda is bemoaning her lost purity, largely because she feels that she ought to do so, and is trying to convince herself that her glee and delight in jewelry is a sign of character when faced with adversity rather than a sign that she has always liked pretty, shiny things!

If ‘Soliloquy’ is a musical theatre aria for a male singer, then ‘Glitter and Be Gay’ is a musical theatre aria for a soprano.

“And yet of course I rather like to revel, Ha ha!
I have no strong objection to champagne, Ha ha!
My wardrobe is expensive as the devil, Ha ha!”

Not For The Life of Me is from the 2000 stage musical Thoroughly Modern Millie based on the 1967 movie. The story is set in 1922 and tells of a small town girl Millie Dillmount who has come to New York to marry for money instead of love – a thorougly modern approach! She falls in love with the flapper lifetsyle and gets caught up with a white slavery ring in China! The show is very tongue in cheek and a complete pastiche.

This number opens the show and is sung by Millie as she arrives at NYC train station from Kansas and tears up her return ticket!

It is a classic ‘I wish’ song and is very popular for auditions for that reason.

The 1945 musical Carousel is famous for the songs ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, ‘June is Bustin Out All Over’, and the beautiful ‘If I Loved You’. The show tells the story of carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He attempts a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes wrong, he is given a chance to make things right.

This song is first sung in Act One by both Billy and Julie as they talk about what life might be like if they were in love with each other, with neither confessing that they are actually falling in love!

The reprise in Act Two is the version which is normally used by males for auditions. (Spoiler alert!) At this point Billy has died and returned to Julie and his daughter as an angel to make right his wrongs, he drops a star which Julie picks up and he sings this heartbreaking love song to his widow as she feels his presence.

This song is from the ever popular musical The Sound Of Music.

In the original Broadway musical this song took place in the Mother Abbess’s office just beofre Maria is sent away to Captain Von Trapp’s house to work as governess to his seven children. In the hugely popular movie version the song is moved to Maria’s bedroom where she sings it to comfort the children who are afraid of the thunderstorm – in the stage version she sang Lonely Goatherd. Most stage productions nowadays replicate the film’s version.

The happy, optimistic lyrics are a counterpoint to cover up an undercurrent of fear. The song was written to be sung by a young woman scared of facing new responsibilities outside the convent.

The song is a complete ‘classic’ and is often sung as a Christmas song thanks to it’s wintery lyrics.

The 1957 musical The Music Man is all about a con man who poses as a band organiser and sells instruments to the townsfolk of a small town promising to train them up as a band, he has no intention of doing this and plans to skip town with their money. A prim piano teacher Marian sees through him, but falls in love with him.

Till There Was You is sung by librarian and piano teacher Marian Paroo to con man Harold Hill in Act Two when she confesses her love and tells him of the differences he has made in her life.

The song was perhaps the first ‘hit single’ from a musical and was made famous in the sixties by the young Nana Mouskouri closely followed by The Beatles!

I Could Have Danced All Night is from the 1956 musical My Fair Lady about a cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins who himself has a wager with a friend that he can make her pass as a lady. The musical has been called ‘the perfect musical’ by historian Mark Steyn in his book “Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now”

This song is sung by Eliza Doolittle in Act One, she sings it expressing her excitement after an impromptu dance with her tutor in the small hours of the morning.

The song was placed at number 17 in the American Film Institutes top 100 songs of cinema. It was originally sung by Julie Andrews but has been covered by everyone from Jamie Cullum to The Brady Bunch! My favourite beinga cheeky cha-cha-cha version by Peggy Lee!

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy adventure film starring Judy Garland.

Surely I dont need to tell you what this story is? Young Dorothy Gale (played by Judy Garland), her dog, Toto, and her three companions: a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion journey along the yellow brick road to the magical land of Oz.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow is the classic dreamer song, it has become a benchmark for most musicals and they will often have this kind of song near the beginning of Act One where we learn what it is the hero is dreaming, wishing or searching for.

It is a perfect song for pantomime but everyone will already have a interpretation in their minds, so my advice really play it for the truth of the story – a young girl hoping there is more to life than what she currently knows.

The Phantom of the Opera really needs no introduction, it is the epic 1986 Lloyd Webber musical which tells the gothic horror story of a young beautiful soprano Christine Daae who beomces the obsession of a disfigured musical genius.

Think of Me is a song which introduces the character of Christine a swedish chorus girl who has to go on in place of the prima donna Carlotta who is refusing to perform in what appears to be a haunted Opera House.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Cinderella was originally written for television however a new stage version in 2013 starring Laura Osnes has made this song a popular audition choice once again.

I don’t think I really need to tell you the story of Cinderella! Needless to say this song takes place at the beginning and is a classic ‘I Wish’ number with the Cinderella left alone in her corner by the fire to dream of the exotic life she could lead if only she were a princess, or in fact anything other than the put-upon servant she is.