Musical Theatre - Where to Start
First of all - Listen. Listen to musicals. I continue to be amazed that people venture into the world of Musical Theatre but don't know much about the canon. You must know your material as well as your craft.
Knowing Wicked, Next to Normal and Avenue Q - is not enough. So today before we "Figure out Your Voice Type". Ask -"Should I take lessons" (The answer is yes and btw more voice teachers to come but check out the ones I already posted) "What song should I sing?"" What should I have in my audition book?" "How do I talk to an accompanist?" "What should my audition cut look like"....oh yes many posts to come!
Before all that a SHORT Quiz / homework. Ready?
Sondheim and Webber: Is there really fan rivalry? ( don't know who these two are? hmmm)
Who is Patty Lupone?
Who is Mandy Patinkin?
Who is Sutton Foster?
Ok - if you know the cannon - come back later this week. If not - here are just a few OH so few musicals for you to listen to and get to know. I believe all of these are before the 90s. Here we go.
A Chorus Line. (Every Little Step is a great documentary to go with this)
This is the first musical I fell in love with. Sadly I was cursed with movement dyslexia and will never be a dancer.
Into The Woods, Assassins, A Little Night Music
Evita
Anything Goes
Oklahoma
Fiddler on The Roof
Show Boat
The Secret Garden
Grease (The Musical - not John and Olivia much as I love them!)
West Side Story
This is just a starter course - smaller than an appetizer. Seriously - if you don't know these musicals hop online and read about them. LISTEN to them. Go see them if you have the opportunity.
I consider myself pretty versed in Musical Theatre... but I have no idea who Patty Lupone is. I do, however, know who PattI Lupone is B-).
ReplyDeleteI can't echo this sentiment enough. Listen to musicals!!!!! Daisy chain your musicals. If you listen to something you like learn the composer, or singers and find more by them. I find a great resource to be www.castalbumdb.com .
If you think it doesn't matter... it does. I am the resident music director at The Red House Arts Center in Syracuse and I am much more likely to cast someone who knows the musical theatre canon. And not just the big shows. My assumption, my baseline, is that if you are auditioning for musical theatre you know ALL of Sondheim's shows. Not just Sweeney and A Little Night Music, until you prove me wrong I assume you know Anyone Can Whistle, I assume you know Dick Tracy, I assume you have SEEN the DVD of Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park With George.
These are twofold: 1. You want to seem intelligent and knowledgable about the field in which you work. It is not an asset to be someone who is not a "Musical Theatre head" like some actors seem to believe.
2. If you are cast in a well known show... you want to know that show before you are cast in it. this is a subtle point but monumentally important. If you are cast (for example) in Into the Woods, the assumption is that you are already familiar with the music but we do not want you to have learned your music from the CD. There is a level of being informed that you CANNOT fake. The ITW cast album is ingrained in our consciousness, if you don't know it BEFORE you are cast you are coming at the show from a disadvantage. (I'm hoping Detta will tell me if this didn't make sense).
I've made my (admittedly outdate) listening list publicly viewable:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KwSBInQnbgKEVUYEKF3REf0k9LQTW-G1lNiqHfkzwEk/edit
Hence the reason I just hired an editor, ;) . I foot always catch when my auto correct, well, corrects. Thanks, Ann!
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