![Audition Songs for Musical Theatre Duets [i_946] Audition Songs for Musical Theatre Duets](http://www.actorhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Audition-Songs-for-Musical-Theatre-Duets.jpg)
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Choosing a song for a musical theatre or drama school audition or showcase can sometimes be pretty overwhelming. Especially when its not just you who is singing it! When it comes to a duet you need to choose a song where you both can shine and we hope Actor Hub can help you in choosing.
Musical Theatre duets will probably fall into two catergories: comedy songs or love songs, aso think about what you want to show off. Is it your singing or your acting, I would start with that choice.
If you choose a song to show off your singing remember to really explore and examine the acting of the piece. You want to create a real relationship with your co-singer and work in harmony not against them. By building the truth of your relationship you should build a trust with each other and avoid any temptation to over sing them!
If you choose a song to show off your acting, remember that you will be benig judged also on how well your voices work together so spend extra time supporting each other and helping your voices to blend, however unique they are. Its important that together you ‘hit the right note’!
Choose a song which moves you both, which connects with you both, and which gives you both equal opportunity to shine.
Here is a list of duets which would work well at any audition or showcase. Click on the title or image to watch a video of the song. Bookmark this page and keep coming back as we are always updating and adding to these song lists.
Musical Theatre Duets for Auditions and Showcases
This list will hopefully guide you when looking for a duet, have a watch of the video, listen to the song and see if you like it. Do try and read the script or watch the show. If you find something else or have a recommendation let us know via Twitter @actorhub and we can add your choice to the list.
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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The Song That Goes Like This (click to view video)
SpamalotSpamalot perfectly pastiches a broadway love song in The Song That Goes Like This making it a great song for a male female duet.Spamalot is loosely based on the Arthurain Legend, with more than a dash of Monty Python and lots of laughs!This song is ung in the show by The Lady of The Lake and a peasant named Dennis Galahad who she has just turned into a Knight ‘Sir Galahad’. They sing about the one song that occurs in every Broadway musical, and its defining features (incredibly long, changing musical keys, and extremely high notes, the male lead at one point complaining that “Now we’re into E, that’s awfully high for me. But everyone can see, we should have stayed in D,” (although in performance, the corresponding keys of the song are F and G) -
The Marriage Tango (click to view video)
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now ChangeI Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is a musical romp about the modern mating game, from dating to marriage, to children, and all that comes after. It’s a collection of funny scenes, punctuated with sometimes hilarious songs. The actors get to jump from one wildly different character to another.The Marriage Tango is a really funny song performed by a married couple who are trying to ‘have an early night’ for a bit of passion. Their attempts keep getting interrupted by their young kids.The lyrics make this such a funny song. Great for a comedy couple to sing and fill with humnour. A song with the line: “I cleaned up legos and gorillas, ninja turtles and godzillas and one large tyranasarraus rex.Now who would have guessed but soon I’ll be undressed. Im married, and im gonna have sex.”, desrves to be sung! -
The Temp and The Receptionist (click to view video)
Homemade FusionMichael Kooman and Christopher Dimond are new writers on the musical block and have quite a following already.Their musicals include Dani Girl, Orphie and the Book of Heroes and The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes.The Temp and The Receptionist is from their musical Homemade Fusion, which is a series of musical snapshots which is ‘trying to make sense of an increasingly senseless world’The Temp and The Receptionist is a great song about an office relationship between two shy colleagues. It really is a showstopper with so much room for comedy and fun whilst showing off your singing skills. As a self confessed nerd, I would love to sing this and just need to find my receptionist! -
Therapy (click to view video)
Tick Tick BoomTick Tick Boom is a musical written by the musical composer Jonathan Larson who is perhaps most famous for Rent. The show tells the story of an aspiring composer called Job who lives in NYC in 1990 and his worries that he has made the wrong choices in life. It explores this along with his relationships with his girlfriend Susan and his best friend Michael.The song ‘Therapy’ is a phone call between Jon and Susan who has phoned wanting to see Jon on an evening when he had planned to spend composing. They argue throughout this song in a very passively agressive and psychological manner which barely seems like an argument and more like a therapy session – hence the title!A deliciously funny duet with lots of room for humour and the brilliant show-offy factor of having a huge Patter section!“I was afraid that you’d be afraid
If I told you that I was afraid of intimacy
If you don’t have a problem with my problem
Maybe the problem is simply co-dependency” -
With So Little To Be Sure Of (click to view video)
Anyone Can WhistleA beautiful love song sung as two lovers part ways.Surely this has to be one of Sondheim’s most romantic, beautiful and lush songs.“Thanks for everything we did, Everything that’s past, Everything’s that’s over too fast. None of it was wasted.”This is a song which always touches me and like all of Sondheim’s best songs it conveys a simple message with clever lyrics and music. -
Outside of That, I Love You (click to view video)
Top HatTop Hat is a stage musical which is based on the 1935 screwball comedy with Fred Astiare and Ginger Rogers. The stage show is a celebration of 1930s song and dance with songs by Irving Berlin.The story is about an american dancer who comes to London to star in a show and falls in love with the woman from the floor below in the hotel who has complained about his tapping! The story is full of twists, turns and the mistaken identity we all know and love from musicals of this period.Outside of This, I Love You is a show stealer added to the stage production and given to the supporting characters of Horace and Madge Hardwick, the bumbling producer of the musical and his wife. It is a great , funny, sarcastic number and works terrifically for male female duos looking to do a bit of schtick! -
Sing (click to view video)
A Chorus LineThe classic musical A Chorus Line has a terrific duet for a man and woman in the song ‘Sing’A Chorus Line is a musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch. Centred on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line, the musical is set on the bare stage of a Broadway theatre during an audition for a musical.The song is performed by scatterbrain Maggie and her husband Al. Maggie laments on how she can not ‘Sing!’ whilst her husband Al finishes all of her phrases. Its a great song for a funny woman, as she gets most of the gags but as she is ‘tone deaf’ she gets less of the singing. -
Baptize Me (click to view video)
The Book Of MormonThe Book Of Mormon is a show from the writers of South Park, the show lampoons organised religion and also traditional musical theatre.The Book Of Mormon tells a tale of two Mormon missionaries who are sent to a village in Uganda to teach their religious teachings! The locals are more worried about war, famine, poverty and AIDS than religion.Baptize Me is sung by Elder Cunningham, a fat, insecure, nerdy missionary and Nabulungi daughter of one of the villagers they are there to teach the Mormon way to. The song’s lyrics although about being baptised, could quite easily be misunderstood! Its a really funny song, and has to be played completely straight to really get the humour across. Both must sing it with complete conviction that the song is about being Baptised
Be bold, daring and creative and you can’t go wrong.
Musical Theatre Actor Hub Advice