Audition Songs from contemporary musical theatre writers

I’ll Be Here is taken from the musical Ordinary Days by writer and composer Adam Gwon.

When Deb loses the notes to her graduate thesis she unwittingly starts a chain of events that turns the ordinary days of four New Yorkers into something extraordinary.

Told through a series of intricately connected songs and vignettes, Ordinary Days is an original musical about growing up and enjoying the view.

This song is sung by Claire who is embarking on a new life with her boyfriend Jason, she has had to face her difficult past before she has been able to commit and this truly beautiful song tells her story.

Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham chose ‘I’ll Be Here’ as a great audition song because:

I just love this song and it really is one of those perfect audition songs for a character actor.

The song was written for a specific project which Drew did not get but he loves the song and so put it out as a stand alone song. The song is a celebration of any young person who is cast aside for their love of something which isn’t considered very ‘now’, the character singing this song’s passion is magic.

Here is what the composer Drew Gasparini has to say about this song

The links here are for Gasparini’s cd but you can buy the sheet music for this song here

Jasper in Deadland is written by the awesome Ryan Scott Oliver. It tells the story of 16-year-old Jasper as he journeys into the afterlife to save his best friend.

This song is a terrific number as Jasper persuades his afterlife guide Gretchen that life is to be lived not just passed over and hidden from.

Musical theatre composer Will Van Dyke chose this as a great audition song for these reasons:

Here is what Ryan Scott Oliver himself has to say:

The links here are for Ryan Scott Oliver’s cd but you can buy the sheet music for this song here

“Let others walk around an ocean,
Let others try to build a bridge across.
But you and me, we fall in, we fall in
Never sure we’ll survive.”

This great little number was cut from the show String by Adam Gwon.

A workaholic Greek god gets tangled up with a security guard in the basement of the tallest building in the world. One mistake leads to another – a lost pair of scissors, a kiss, a stolen string – and soon Atropos is breaking her own rules to offer forever to an ordinary man. Can the fabric of the universe stand a flaw? An original musical about the three Fates in the modern city.

Here is why the song’s writer Adam Gwon thinks this song would be a great audition number for a comedy actor:

The links here are for Adam Gwon’s CD Ordinary Days but you can buy the sheet music for this particular song here

I just love Joe Iconis and his story songs. Most of them would make amazing audition songs and ‘Jeff’ is a great song for any bold actor who is prepared to make a brave choice at a casting.

Here is what fellow new musical theatre composer Nick Blaemire has to say about this terrific song:

The links here are for Joe Iconis’ brilliant CD but you can buy the sheet music for this song here

Michael Patrick Walker is a hugely gifted musical theatre writer who co-wrote the smash hit musical Alter Boyz. This wonderful stand alone song comes the wonderful collection of songs which form his first album ‘Out Of Context’

When asked to choose one of his own songs for auditions, Michael Patrick Walker chose ‘More’ because:

Maria and Me is taken from Will Van Dyke’s album Chasing The Day. An album which features songs that were written on the road. Aboard planes. Across time zones. Between sets. In hotel lobbies. At 24 hour coffee shops. Miles apart. When the thought of home is your only companion. A collection of songs about the places life takes us and the people who bring us back.

Here is why Will Van Dyke chose this song as his audition song recommendation:

“Marie and Me wanna get together
Just like before this world tore us apart
Marie and Me, can we make it happen?
Lets take a ride make a start”

This song comes from the musical The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown written by the hugely talented team of Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk.

The show is set at dawn on the day that Samantha Brown is supposed to leave for college, she is sitting in her car but can’t turn the keys. She is filled with doubts and the show is told through a series of flashbacks from her senior year as Sam comes to terms with her parents expectations, her first love and a lost friendship.

This love song is sung by Sam’s boyfriend Adam as he tries to get her to run away with him!

Here is what Kait Kerrigan had to say about using this for an audition:

“Let me be your ride out of town.
Let me be the place that you hide.
We can make our lives on the go.
Run away with me.”

Joe Iconis is one of my favourite of today’s young musical theatre writers and Lisa is a wonderful example of his fantastic songs – full of character and storytelling.

The song is taken from the show The Black Suits: A rock musical about a high school garage band on suburban Long Island trying to win The St. Anne’s Battle of the Bands. The story of two teens and their struggle to learn how to be real friends as the inevitability of adulthood threatens to pull them apart. A musical about dreams, blood, Pop Tarts, records, drug runs, blue hair, the St. Anne’s Battle of the Bands, and the undying transformative coolness of rock and roll music.

Here is why fellow musical theatre composer Rob Rokicki thinks this song makes a good audition song:

Lysistrata Jones is a musical comedy adaptation of Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn. The show tells the tale of the men on a losing college basketball team whose cheerleader girlfriends refuse to have sex with them until they win a game!

When She Smiles is sung by Mick towards the end of the show – the leading guy, a real jock – who is thinking of seducing the slightly nerdy poetry loving Robin as a move to win the war against the girls but things don’t go according to plan as she treats him with respect and challenges him to be a better person and awakens something new in him.

Songwriter Kait Kerrigan chose this as one of her top audition picks and has this to say

“Cause when she speaks
It’s like my heart just skipped a beat
And when she moves
It’s like my world is falling thorough
It’s when she smiles”

This wonderful song comes from Homemade Fusion a song cycle from the wonderful song writing team Kooman and Dimond and the YouTube video featuring Broadway star Patina Miller has had over 100,000 views making it a hit!

Here is what fellow new musical theatre composer Zoe Sarnak has to say about this terrific song:

“Why couldn’t I be cast for a part in The Color Purple,
‘Stead of a random black girl singin’ the soul?
My agent gave me advice.
Those words I’ll never forget.
He said “Don’t think you’ll ever be cast
As Eponine or Cossette.”

“See Rock City and Other Destinations” is a contemporary musical by Brad Alexander and Adam Mathias about connections missed and made at tourist destinations across America. With a score that incorporates pop, rock, folk and more, each story builds on the last to create a vivid travelogue of Americans learning to overcome their fears and expectations in order to connect.

Here is why composer Adam Gwon thinks the title song Rock City makes a great audition number:

“Out there it waits for me
Just off I-24
I’ve got to see Rock City
Answer to every prayer”

Rob Rokicki is a New York based composer, lyricist and performer.

The song is taken from the Relativity by Rob Rokicki and Michael Ruby. You can’t escape the effects of time…or your family. That’s the concept behind RELATIVITY – a new pop-rock musical about perspective…about how your points of view on time and family continually change and impact each other…and about discovering what and who are really most important in your life.

Here is why composer Rob Rokicki chooses this as one of his favourite songs (written by himself) for auditioning: