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.
Five Audition Songs for Men (with videos):
Here is a list of Five Popular Audition Songs for Men.
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Click on image to buy from Amazon
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Buddy’s Blues (click to view video)
Follies
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. -
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Soliloquoy (click to view video)
Carousel
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” -
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Nothing In Common (click to view video)
Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes
This is one of my favourite songs by Jason Robert Brown. It is a beautiful song about the relationship between brothers, it hits home for me being the acting-geek of a family of sporty brothers!Jason write this for his brothers wedding where he was asked to deliver a toast but decided to do it with a song. If it connects with you like it did with me then it will be a lovely number to deliver at audition, full of emotion and telling a real story about differences and how they come to mean nothing when a relationship is so strong. -
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King of the World (click to view video)
Songs For a New World
King of the World is sung by a man in prison, as Songs for a New World doesn’t have a story as such, we have to create the back story from the song itself.For me the song is about a political activist who has been imprisoned for his beliefs but knows that the fight and the cause are bigger than him. Even in jail, even facing death, this is a man who survives.You could play this in a number of ways, might be interesting to play it as a serial killer who believes in himself and believes what he has done was for the greater good this might give it a darker interesting edge, or play it as a Martin Luther King Jr type of persecuted activist. Either way works and each gives it a unique slant. -
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Purpose (click to view video)
Avenue Q
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. -
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