Photo Credit: Randy Le’Moine via cc
Casting Directors auditioning actors for Musical Theatre often hear the same songs over and over again. Are they bored of those songs? Sometimes. However these songs are often sung time and time again at castings because they are great to show off acting and vocal skills and they become the perfect musical theatre audition song.
With the internet it has become so much easier for people to get access to scores through sheet music download sites and also naughty bootleg sharing sites. Forums are allowing people to share hot tips and new favourites and Youtube makes searching for audition material much easier. It can be wise to try and find something new, something people are going to be surprised with, but often the favourites are the best. The casting director finds it easy to quickly compare you with others and the accompanist will know how to play the song!
The following are popular audition songs because they work for people, they are story songs, they are able to stand on their own and allow you to show off your singing to its best but also, which is so important and often overlooked when auditioning for musical theatre, these songs allow you to show off your acting skills too.
Audition Songs for Women (with videos):
Here is a list of five current popular audition songs for women.
Click on title to view the video
Click on image to buy from Amazon
Click on title to view the video
Click on image to buy from Amazon
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Till There Was You (click to view video)
The Music Man
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! -
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You Don’t Know This Man (click to view video)
Parade
Parade is an epic show dealing with the 1913 trial of Leo Frank who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee. The trial was sensationalised by the media. When Frank’s death sentence was commuted to life in prison by the departing Governor of Georgia, Leo Frank was kidnapped by a lynching party and hanged from an oak tree.This song is sung by Lucille, Leo Frank’s wife, who is singing to a young reporter who has seen the case as a way to build his own career and become famous. This is a real actor’s song and has tremendous power when handled correctly -
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Stars and the Moon (click to view video)
Songs For a New World
Stars and The Moon is a popular one, so make it your own.A twist on the saying “Be careful what you wish for, because it might just come true”. The woman singing tells of the three men in her life and how she rejects the two dreamers and chooses the rich man. The song is about the misapprehension that being financially rich makes you rich in life. The women finds out only too late in life what she has missed out on.A gem of a song to show off storytelling, acting and singing ability. -
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Losing My Mind (click to view video)
Follies
Losing My Mind from Follies is one of those Sondheim songs, like Send In The Clowns, which has flown the coop and made the transition from musical theatre to mainstream.Great songwriting which works equally well inside the show and characters but can also work on its own, which makes it a good audition choice (although probably overdone which means you will be compared to many who have gone before)The melody is haunting and the song is full of heartbreak and pain in the everyday and commonplace ‘the coffee cup, I think about you’. This song is about hearbreak, loss, desperation and emotional breakdown.Do it justice and surrender your heart. -
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Still Hurting (click to view video)
The Last Five Years
The Last Five Years is one of my favourite musicals. It is beautiful, intelligent and simple.The story explores a five-year relationship between Jamie and Cathy. The show uses a form of storytelling in which Cathy’s story is told in reverse order (beginning the show at the end of the marriage), and Jamie’s is told in order (starting just after the couple have first met). The characters do not directly interact except for a wedding song in the middle as their timelines intersect.This song is the opening number of the show and is Cathy lamenting the end of the marriage. I will say it again but I truly believe this song needs no tricks and no big show off belty moments, play it for its simplicity and for the emotion. Also take note of the opening words “Jamie is over and Jamie has gone”, she knows it is over, there is no fight left just a sad realisation of life’s finality. -
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