Alto Songs for musical theatre auditions

The Secret Garden is based on the classic children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The story tells of orphaned Mary Lennox who is sent to live with relatives she has never met in Yorkshire, and how she finds solace and blossoms in a neglected garden she discovers in the grounds of her uncles house.

Mary sings The Girl I Mean To Be at the opening of Act Two. She dreams of the Secret Garden she has found and how perfect it will be, in reality the garden is rough, neglected and wild. Just like herself and her uncle.

This is a sweet little song, and is perfect for young actors who might be playing children or auditioning to play a child. It needs a naivety and innocence in the characterisation to make it work.

Hairpsray is a musical based on the John Waters film, and is in fact now a movie musical in it’s own right.

The show tells the story of Tracey Turnblad a plump teenager who lands a part as a dancer on a local TV show and manages to use that show as a platform to bring racial equality to her little corner of America.

Good Morning Baltimore is the opening number and is sung by Tracey. It is a celebration of her life and her love for her hometown, dancing and her desire for fame.

The song is intentionally funny and has great lyrics such as ” Good morning Baltimore, There’s the flasher who lives next door, There’s the bum on his bar room stool, They wish me luck on my way to school”. The best way with any comedy song is to play it straight, really play it for the truth of the song the fact that Tracey is full of zest for life and sees the world in a ‘glass half full’ way. Play it for the truth and the humour will be natural and not forced.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tell Me On A Sunday is full of songs perfect for an alto to use at a musical theatre audition. In my opinion the song Take That Look Off Your Face gives the most scope for you to show off your acting skills along with your singing prowess.

This one woman show tells the story of ‘The Girl’ (she is never named) who has moved to New York in search of love. Her romantic adventures take her from Muswell Hill to NYC to Hollywood and then back to Manhattan.

Take That Look Off Your Face opens the show and is about ‘the girl’ being told of her boyfriend’s infidelity. The woman denies this fact and sends her newsbearer friend away.

The song is full of emotion which is great for any audition and takes the singer on a real journey from incredulous disbelief through to realisation, hurt, and anger.

Starlight Express is an Andrew Lloyd Webber rock musical about trains!

The show is a child’s dream where his toy train’s come alive and take part in races. The show was really a dance show where the cast famously wore roller skates and skated around the theatre in and out of the auditorium on race tracks.

All of the different coaches and engines have personalities and Belle is the sleeping car. She is an old coach who is asleep in a coal bunker and wakes and sings this song which is the story of her life and how she once was loved and glamorous but now is faded, peeling and old.

A great song to play around with character, imagine a woman who has had a checkered past full of adventure and lovers but now is the kind of old faded beauty you find propping up the bar. Enjoy the challenge of really getting into character and delivering the song with some oomph!

This song was cut from later versions of the show, so be sure to get the right sheet music

A Man Of No Importance is a musical by Flaherty and Ahrens based on the 1994 Albert Finney film about an amateur Dublin theatre company putting on a production of Salome at their local church. Alfie Byrne the director of the theatre company is struggling with his own sexuality as well as with the church’s objections to his theatrical endeavours.

Burden Of Life is sung by Alfie’s devoutly Cathloic sister Lily who has delayed her own marriage to Mr Carney, the butcher next door, until Alfie is wed. He has been her ‘burden’, she belives he has met a girl and is happy for him as now her life might begin.

The character of Lily would suit an older actress, the song has humour as well as pathos and would make a great audition piece.

Caroline or Change is a musical by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori which combines blues, motown, folk, classical and Jewish klezmer music. It has run on Broadway and in London.

The musical deals with the American civil rights movement in 1963 in Louisana, the time of the assasintaion of JFK. Caroline is a black maid for a Jewish family and the musical follows her life and relationship with the family’s young son Noah, with whom she has a strong connection.

‘Lot’s Wife’ is sung by Caroline towards the end of the show as she beg’s God’s forgiveness for keeping some money she had found in Noah’s trousers when doing the laundry and all the bad it has caused, it caused her hatefulness to come out and it made her into a person she didn’t want to become. She asks God to make her not want anything anymore, so that she can never be evil again.

“Murder me God down in that basement,
murder my dreams so I stop wantin,
murder my hope of him returnin,
strangle the pride that make me crazy!”

Hairspray is a 2002 musical based on the 1988 film Hairspray from cult director John Waters.

The musical tells the story of plump Tracy Turnblad who wins a role as a dancer on the Corny Collins TV dance show and uses her fame to integrate the show. The musical us a commentary on the injustice of American society in the early 1960s.

I Know Where I’ve Been is sung by Motormouth Maybelle owner a local record store and host of the Corny Collins monthly Negro Night show. She sings of the struggle and long fight for equality.

A real powerhouse number, full of emotion and belting. Don’t just play it for power and fall victim to ‘over belting’, connect with the struggle, the dream and the pride of the people who after justice. The belting will come naturally from the emotion when you find the truth of the song.

The Drowsy Chaperone is ‘a musical about a musical’. It revolves around a musical theatre fan’s obsession with a show from the 1920’s called “The Drowsy Chaperone”. He listens to his LP recording of the show and the characters come to life in his apartment.

The show within the show is the story of Janet Van De Graff and her upcoming wedding to the debonair Robert Martin. This story gets mixed up with gangsters, a maniacal Broadway producer and a ‘drowsy chaperone’. The Brides Lament is sung by Janet when she dreams of her lost romance and her decision to return to the stage. It is a big, funny, show-offy number with a wonderful dream sequence and some hilarious dancing monkeys!

Janet is attractive, vivacious, with an outgoing personality – she adores being the centre of attention and is a consummate 1920s starlet – a gem of a role for any leading lady.

“I’m Janet, Janet Van De Graaff
Ain’t no nail that I can’t hammer
Why give up a life of glamour”

Gypsy by Jule Styne with lyrics by Sondheim is loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee the famous striptease artist.

The stroy focuses on Gypsy’s mother Rose whose name is now synoymous with being the ultimate pushy showbiz mother, Toddlers, Tiaras and Tantrums has nothing no Rose! The story follows the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise her two daughters to perform on stage.

By the end of the show the girls have grown up. Rose’s daughter June has run away and Louise her other daughter, all grown up, has been pushed in to perform as a striptease artist at a burlesque house. She has become a huge burlesque star and no longer needs her mother, she is now the sophisticated Gypsy Rose Lee.

Rose relaises she is alone, she has lost her lover Herbie, her daughter June and now she has lost Louise too. She feels sad, useless and bitter and sings ‘Rose’s Turn’, she asks ‘Why Did I Do It, What Did it Get Me’. Her unrequited dreams of stardom and her personal demons surface. She fantasizes about her own lit-up runway and cheering audience, and finally admits “I did it for me.”

“One quick look as each of ’em leaves you
All your life and what does it get you?
Thanks a lot and out with the garbage
They take bows and you’re battin’ zero”

Bye Bye Birdie is a 1960 musical inspired by Elvis Presley and his draft notice into the US Army.

Rock and roll star Conrad Birdie has been drafted into the army, his songwriter Albert and his secretary Rosie come up with a publicity stunt whereby Conrad will sing his song One Last Kiss and give a member of his fan club a kiss, his last kiss, before he heads off to the army.

An English Teacher is sung by Rosie to her sweetheart, and boss, Albert as she makes him promise to quit the music business and become an English teacher.

Its a lovely song full of character as Rosie persuades Albert to become An English Teacher, the comedy comes from how sexy she finds that profession compared to the glamour of the showbiz. It is a longing, dreamer song, and perfect for ‘playing the girl next door’ type.

The 1966 Broadway show Sweet Charity is one of my favourites musicals and the character of Charity is such a beautiful and complex character I think it is a perfect choice for an audition as it gives you lots of scope to show off your acting.

The show is all about the fortunes and misfortunes, the romantic ups and downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute called Charity Valentine.

Charity has ended up back at the apartment of the film star Vittorio Vidal. Charity is starstruck she sings this song whilst he is out of the room fetching her some old movie props which she can have to prove to her friends that she was actually there!

Charity is full of heart, wit, humour and honesty. The song is a reflection on her charmed life and is full of fun lyrics and Charity’s quirky character which makes it a joy to perform.

An amazing song which just begs to be performed and lived.

The song is full of bitterness, resentment and depression.

What begins as a witty, sardonic song sung by a clever, witty and sardonic character to a bossa-nova beat, suddenly changes as Joanne begins to sing it about herself and to Bobby.

So here’s to the girls on the go, Everybody tries. Look into their eyes, And you’ll see what they know: Everybody dies.

This powerful ending lets us see the terror behind the song, and the emotional heart of this song and character. Watch Elaine Stritch and how this ending happens not with showy vibrato but with guts and honesty.

Another Hundred People is one of those songs which just resonates perfectly with young actors. The dream of moving to the big city, the excitement of being a part of a bustling metropolis!

It has a fast paced rhythm and a pulsing beat which echos the hustle and bustle of New York. The character of Marta is singing about the veneer which she has built up by living in this ‘city of strangers’, She sings of how she loves this disconnected city, she knows that she is not what Bobby needs, throughout the song we see glimpses and shadows of Marta’s yearning for vulnerability.

A wonderful song full of character and emotion.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 animated Disney feature which has music by Alan Menken and lyrics written by Stephen Schwartz. The story is of the famous deformed bellringer Quasimodo and his struggles to gain acceptance into society.

‘Someday’ was originally intended to be sung by Esmeralda but was discarded and replaced with the song ‘God Help The Outcasts’.

To understand the song you can look at the German stage version of the film. This song (translated as Einmal) occurs when Esmeralda is imprisoned and questioning her life and the world, she sings this song about how she hopes the world will learn after countless war and bloodshed to live with love and not hate.

The song in the stage show ends with Esmeralda about to be put to death which makes the song more poignant and dramatic as it is possibly her dying wish for the world. Here is a link to the stage version Einmal

“Someday
Our fight will be won then
We’ll stand in the sun then
That bright afternoon”

Nine is a musical based on the Federico Fellini film 8 1/2. It tells the story of film director Guido Contini who is having a midlife crisis as his 40th birthday approaches. The musical has found recent fame as a movie starring Daniel Day Lewis.

This song is a phone call from Guido’s mistress Carla who has arrived in Venice to see Guido and is lonely in her hotel room.

The song is very naughty and pretty filthy and takes some bravery to really give it all in performance at an audition, but if you are able to really go for it and show you are a brave actor who doesn’t mind taking some risks then it could be a great audition piece.

I would choose this one only if it really suits the character you are auditioning for, no point in singing this if you are auditioning to play a goody two shoes!