The Best Musical Theatre Male Audition Songs for a Baritone

The Prince of Eygpt is a 1998 animated epic from Dreamworks which tells the biblical story of Moses and the Book of Exodus. The story follows Moses from being a Prince of Eygpt through to his destiny leading the children of Isreal out of Eygpt. The songs are written by the Wicked and Godspell composer Stephen Schwartz.

This wonderful uplifting song is sung by Jethro a high priest and father to Moses’ wife, Tzipporah. Moses has gone into hiding and journeyed many miles across desert ro reach the land of the Midiantes – who worship the Hebrew God.

Jethro sings a song of thanks to God and welcomes Moses into the tribe. The song is a celebration of life and noticing and celebrating all that the world has to offer.

Stephen Schwartz has this to say about the inspiration for this song:

That was actually the third song written for its spot the other two had more to do with the tribe welcoming Moses into their midst. It was Jeffrey Katzenberg’s suggestion that the song be more about the philosophy of Jetthro, the spiritual leader of the tribe. One of the directors, Steve Hickner, found a well known poem called “The Measure of a Man” which helped to inspire some of the specific ideas in the song.

“So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life, look at your life through heaven’s eyes”

Avenue Q is an hilarious musical which has puppets alongside actors. If you went looking for Sesame Street and got lost and ended up in the wrong neighbourhood you might just find yourself in Avenue Q!

By Act Two all the characters have fallen in and out of love and like with each other and lament happier times with the terrific song I Wish I Could Go Back To College.

It is easily made a solo song, and features in a number of audition song books. This number would make a great audition song, and is completely age appropriate for a younger actor who has recently graduated. Play it for the truth, not just for the funny. Really try and think of how exciting times looked when you were still at Uni and how you can look back with rose-tinted glasses on those times. Whatever you do, don’t mime that you have a puppet on one hand … play the character, not the puppet!

Sweet Smell of Success is a musical based on the 1957 movie of the same name telling the story of the powerful newspaper columnist J J Hunsecker and how he uses his connections to ruin the life of a man who he deems inappropriate for a relationship with his siter.

Sidney Falcone a struggling press agent has met JJ’s sister Susan, Susan is hiding her real relationship from her brother JJ and introduces Sidney as her new “partner in her acting class”. JJ appears to take Sidney under his wing and befriend him. He buys him a new suit, get’s Sidney’s girlfriend a fancy job and introduces Sidney to the movers and shakers of NYC. JJ gets Sidney clients, and urges his new friend to “keep the ‘O’ and change his name to Falco.” Sidney can’t believe his luck, he has the life he has always dreamed of and he sings ‘At The Fountain’

“Yes, go with your gut and your heart,
It’s time to tear through that door,
It’s time now to soar,
So let my life story start.”

Big River is a musical version of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, it is a great show full of bluegrass and country music which might make a nice change for any audition panel to hear.

Waitin’ For The Light To Shine is sung by the leading role Huckleberry Finn, an iconic American character, a vagabond child from pre-civil war Missouri.

Like a lot of terrific audition songs for young men, this is a ‘dreamer song’ just like Corner of the Sky from Pippin. Huck is thinking about the confines of his life and how one day he will be able to find meaning in his life.

Country music doesn’t need to be belted. This song is all the better if it is played softly and with lots of heart. I say it all the time, but find the truth behind the lyrics. Great for drama school auditions.

Meet The Robinsons was released in 2007 and is loosely based on the book ‘A Day With Wilbur Robinson’. The films has twists and turns as the characters travel back and forth through time.

The central character, an orphan, Lewis is desperate to be able to find out why his mother abandoned him and perhaps even stop her doing it. This song is sung at the very end of the movie when Lewis has come to a realisation that he must appreciate what life has given him and the family and friends he already has – and keep moving forward.

The song is more pop-rock than traditional broadway musical, but could really suit the right voice and the right audition. I love it, I think it tells a story about living for the here and now, living for today and appreciating the ‘little wonders’ of life.

“Our lives are made,
In these small hours,
These little wonders,
These twists and turns of fate,
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain.”

The Wild Party takes place in the roaring twenties and tells the story of a ‘wild party’ one night in the apartment shared by the vaudeville performers Queenie and Burrs. They have a volatile rocky relationship and this party is intended to be the party of the decade!

Queenie has been flirting with Mr Black, a strapping young guest at the party, much to the annoyance of the overbearing possessive Burrs. He has scolded her physically for this behaviour, and in the song What Is It About Her he confesses his rage and sadness at her affection for another man.

Burrs is a violent brutal possessive man, and is a joy to get your teeth into for any performer. This song is a gift for any musical theatre performer, it is full of emotion, full of repressed feelings finally getting voiced. If you can discover the truth and let the emotions burst out of you with feeling then you will stand out for all the right reasons.

Avenue Q is an hilarious musical which has puppets alongside actors. If you went looking for Sesame Street and got lost and ended up in the wrong neighbourhood you might just find yourself in Avenue Q!

The song Purpose comes early in Act One and is sung by lead character Princeton. Recently graduated he is keen to find a purpose in life.

Like Corner of the Sky from Pippin, the song is typical of dreamer songs and is great for auditions as it has plenty of character and comedy and story in its lyrics.

Be careful to keep the emotion under control and not be too ‘wide-eyed and jazz-hands’ when singing it. Try to keep grounded and find the truth in the song to really show some acting ability.

The Rothschilds is little known 1970 musical which had a revival off Broadway in 1990. With a book by Sherman Yellen, music by Jery Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.

The story tells of the rise of the Rothschild family from humble beginnings in Germany to having a financial empire which helped them to secure a declaration of rights for European Jews in an oppressive era.

Im In Love, Im In Loveis sung by Nathan Rothschild, the youngest son of the Rothschilds dynasty who has been sent to London and has fallen in love with Hannah Cohen, an aristocratic englishwoman devoted to charity work known as the ‘Jewish Joan of Arc’.

This song is charming and is also a rarity, which probably means they haven’t heard it before. It is a really fun uptempo baritone song.

Anything Goes by Cole Porter is a 1934 show which is still a crowd pleaser today and has recently been on Broadway with Sutton Foster and Joel Grey.

The story is a wonderful madcap journey aboard the SS American ocean liner from New York to London and is full of brilliantly witty, clever and winning songs such as Anything Goes, You’re The Top and I Get A Kick Out Of You.

Billy Crocker is a stowaway who is madly in love with the heiress Hope Harcourt. In Act Two he has been imprisoned in the brig and sings of his love for Hope.

A perfect love song great for auditioning to play romantic or juvenile lead roles. Remember that with Cole Porter a lot of fun can be had with the lyrics so make sure you hit every syllable as well as every note.

A theatre is closing and a reunion is held to honor the Follies shows that once performed there. All of the showgirls return to the theatre where they had once performed as young woman.

The show focuses on two couples, Buddy & Sally and Ben & Phyliss. Both couples are very unhappy in their marriages. At the end of the show the confusions, anger and madness become too much and a fantasy ‘Loveland’ sequence happens and we get to see the real and emotional lives of the couples in a kind of musical breakdown!

Buddy, a travelling salesman, has been having an affair on the road. His ‘Loveland’ song is ‘Buddys Blues’ performed in a vaudevillian style with an imaginary Sally and his girlfriend Margie. It is a real comic tour-de-force but also needs the real and emotional breakdown which makes the soul of the song so heartfelt.