The Best Musical Theatre Male Audition Songs for a Baritone

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.

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”

The Glorious Ones is a musical by Flaherty and Ahrens set in 17th Century Italy and concerning a theatre troupe in the world of commedia dell’arte. It is based on the book by Francine Prose.

The musical is a mixture or slapstick and serious, and tells the story of commedia dell’arte and how its bawdy comedy captured the publics adoration. The Glorious Ones has been called smutty, nutty, sentimental and moving.

I Was Here is a beautiful song about the things we give up as artists, the struggle we go through to leave something behind. The emotion and story behind it should really hit home as a performer and it could make a terrific audition number.

The Baker’s Wife is a Stephen Schwartz musical which has never had a succesful West End or Broadway run, yet remains hugely popular amongst musical theatre afficianados.

The story revolves around a small Parisian town which is enamoured by bread produced by the newly arrived middle aged baker and his beautiful young wife. The wife has an affair with a handsome gigolo and the baker loses his will to bake.

Amiable the Baker has had to admit to himself and the townsfolk that his wife Genevieve has run off and left him. He sings If I Have To Live Alone, as he decides that he will live alone with dignity.

The song is a lovely piece for any actor, it is the story of a broken man rebuilding his life. The character really goes on a journey and it is a gem for a baritone to sing at an audition.

Carousel was the second musical by the team Rogers and Hammerstein. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker 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.

When Julie has announced her pregnancy to Billy, he is overwhelmed with happiness. He imagines all the fun he will have with his son, Bill Jr, then he realises the child could be a girl, and reflects soberly on the duties he will have being a father to a girl. All of this reflection is done alone on stage in the epic musical song ‘Soliloquy’

The song is seven and a hlaf minutes long! And through it Billy daydreams happilly, then is horrified, then disappointed, then tender, and then motivated. It is a huge song for any singer and is done well can be a tour de force. It is the closest I think musical theatre gets to having an aria.

Interestingly when Sinatra released ‘Soliloquy’ as a single the song was not complete on Side A it had to continue on side B.

“I-i got to get ready before she comes!
I got to make certain that she
Won’t be dragged up in slums
With a lot o’ bums like me”

Alongside Sondheim and Schwartz the composer William Finn is also a favourite at auditions. The song Sailing from the musical “A New Brain” is worth checking out, but on our top five is the beautiful love song What More Can I Say from Falsettos.

Falsettos the musical consists of two mini musicals March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland and tells the story of Marvin, his ex-wife Trina, his psychiatrist Mendel, his son Jason, and his gay lover Whizzer Brown.

What More Can I Say is sung by Marvin as he sits and watches his sleeping lover Whizzer and wonders how much he loves him. It is a lovely, ballad, tender and sweet with soaring melodies, and it is one of the most tender love songs I’ve ever heard.

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.

“Glass of Water” is a song from the cartoon series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (yes, I’m serious).

In the song, the nefarious trickster spirit Discord (voiced by John de Lancie of Star Trek fame) is sick, so he asks his “friend” Twilight Sparkle and her sister-in-law Cadance for a simple glass of water, among other things. Hijinks ensue.

The song was composed by Daniel Ingram and written by Ed Valentine for the episode “Three’s a Crowd”. It also marks de Lancie’s first solo number as Discord, performed in a sprechgesang style of half-speaking and half-singing.

Beyond being filled to the brim with countless blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pop culture references in the latter half, the song perfectly captures Discord’s zany, off-the-walls personality that makes him — and the show, to an extent — so popular. (It also helps that the role was originally created as a tribute to his role from Star Trek as “Q”.)

”I’d like that glass of water please
Some magic spell to cure disease
A firm ‘gesundhoof’* when I sneeze
A fresh bouquet of roses

Some lozenges will soon appease
My wheezing when I start to sneeze
A wig to keep me from the breeze
And blankets for my toes-es”