You begin with Do Re Mi...

My elementary school was less than a block away from my parents’ house. There was only one street to cross. It was a one way street with a stop light and a crossing guard. At six years old I could walk to school by myself.

At the end of the year all the neighborhood schools were closed. One huge school, miles away from where we lived was built. My mother had to drive me to school every day. And every day we had to listen to her favorite songs. Road trip rule number one: the driver gets to pick the music.

I live in Queens now. The subway drives me into the City and I get to pick the music. Choosing is easy to do when it’s underscoring for your commute, or grocery shopping, or jogging in the park. Choosing the right song for an audition however, can be just the opposite.

Several years ago I was doing my rounds of “pay to play”, paying a fee to audition for agents and casting directors at places like Actors Connection (more on those in another blog). An agent, who was suggested to me by some colleagues, was giving a seminar at one of these places. I took their advice and signed up.

When the audition time came, I walked into the room and made polite small talk. The agent asked me what I was going to sing. I had decided to sing my “song du jour”, my go to song that I could even sing well on my death bed. Upon hearing the title of my song the agent's reaction was, and I quote verbatim, “Oh Evan, no.” She continued on half-heartedly by saying “I guess I need to hear what you sound like so go ahead and sing it. But just know that I’m going to stop you when I’ve heard enough”.

I thought “Well this sucks. This agent is already biased against me because of the song that I’m choosing to sing”. I wasn’t mentally prepared to sing anything else so I sang what I had chosen. I got through the entire piece. The agent sat enrapt listening to every single note that came out of my mouth. Her entire demeanor towards me changed after I had finished.

Did I sign with that agency? No. Did I care? A little. Was it an amazing experience? Hell yeah.

I did that same song the first day of a six week seminar. The casting director didn’t come right out and say it, but she made it blatantly clear why she thought it was wrong for me to sing this particular song. She went through my resume saying that she could see me being cast in particular shows, but only picking out the “ethnic” ones. She asked me if I sang any Gospel, R&B or Motown, which I didn’t. Her reaction was “you need to decide if you’re serious about this business or not.”

It was a long six weeks. Something good did come from the experience. The accompanist for the six week seminar noticed the horrible treament I received. He gave me the name of a teacher he thought would be good for me. I studied with that teacher for four years and still go back to him from time to time.

That audition season there was a general call for a theatre’s summer line up. While waiting in line to sing, the monitor gave us our instructions. He told us to sing something we loved to sing. When my turn came I walked into the room and one of the men behind the table asked me what I was going to sing.

I told him about my song du jour. I said “I love ‘On the Street Where You Live’. But no one wants to hear me sing it". He gave me the go ahead. When I was finished he told me “You should be singing that song”.

When choosing a song you have to consider how you sound, naturally. Since we sound completely different to ourselves, you need outside opinions through voice lessons, vocal coachings, audition classes and seminars. It’s these places where you start gathering the empirical data to judge whether or not a song is worthy of your particular brand of talents. Always keep in mind that these opinions are subjective. Each set of people behind each table at each audition could have similar or opposite reactions.

My song du jour was right for me, my voice type, and my acting style. The character was one I could easily play.

Which brings me to something that we’ve all heard before: You have to know who you are. What product are you selling and does the song represent you. Casting people have a notorious reputation for being uncreative. Many of them actually believe that any song you sing in an audition is from a role that you believe is right for you. It causes quite a case of confusion when what you sing goes against who the casting people perceive you to be.

The agent at the “pay to play” initially didn’t like my song choice. After hearing me sing it she completely understood who I was and why I choose that song. The casting director from the six week seminar couldn’t get past seeing me as the sum total of the melanin in my skin and basically told me to leave the business. These were two very different reactions to the same person singing the same song. It was what each person behind the table brought to the audition that colored their reactions. Maybe the man behind the table at the summer line up didn't initially think of me as a “Freddy Ensford Hill”, but he sure as hell did after I finished singing the song.

I kept  my song du jour “On the Street Where You Live” in my book for years waiting and hoping for someone to do the show, to be open to Creative Casting and be open to singing from the show for the audition. Because of who I am and what my product is perceived to be, at times I have to be very clear about what role I’m auditioning for. I believe you can be no clearer than singing the character’s actual song.

A good majority of us however, were taught never to sing from the show for which we are auditioning. Why? It’s because our interpretation of the song or character may be very different than that of the creative team. You can never ever know how the people behind the table have envisioned the role. If you feel you are completely right for a particular role, you sing the character’s song really well and the people behind the table say singing from the show is encouraged, then do it.

I have to admit sometimes singing from the show is not a good idea even if the people behind the table say it’s alright. It all comes down to a judgment call, your judgment. It’s based on the homework you’ve done on the show, the theatre, the casting people and the creative team. If the casting director I took that six week seminar with was casting My Fair Lady and had encouraged people to sing from the show for the audition, I certainly would not, under any circumstances have song “On the Street Where You Live”. Hell I wouldn’t have even gone to the audition.

If you have the choice to sing from the show and are still unclear as to whether you should, offer two selections. Have ready an alternate song that the character you’re auditioning for could conceivably sing. Let the people behind the table decide if they want to hear the character’s song or something “similar”. For example I believe the character “Radames” from Aida wouldn’t sing “Me” from Beauty and the Beast. It’s not in his character type, and it has nothing to do with the journey he takes in the show. If you as the actor have the voice type for “Radames”, the song “Love Changes Everything” from Aspects of Love could work for the audition.

It comes down to the product you’re selling and fitting that product into a role or a show. “Bigger isn’t better” is far from the best song choice for a 6’3” man for just about anything. The product he’s selling is big. By singing this song he is literally telling the people behind the table not to buy his product. If Clorox had a commercial that said “we don’t whiten your clothes” you certainly wouldn’t buy it, now would you? However the same exact song, “Bigger isn’t better”, for a 6’3” man auditioning for Naked Boys Singing done with the right intention (wink wink nudge nudge) could help land the gig.

The song you sing has to leave the people you’re auditioning for with a positive feeling toward you. In other words you should avoid songs that make you, the singer, appear like someone unworthy of being hired, a loser. Certainly there are characters in shows that are losers and certainly they sing songs where they talk of being unworthy or unloved. The entertainment factor of watching these “losers” comes from the fact that they continue to attempt to win. The “loser” song is merely informing the audience of the situation. “Mr. Cellophane” from Chicago is a prime example. Through the song, Amos Hart is telling the audience of his dilemma. The casting people already know about his dilemma. How many times can they listen to actors bemoan the fact that “no one even knows I’m there” before they want to slit their wrists? Surely in the entire musical theatre canon there are other appropriate positive songs to sing for this role. I can think of two off the top of my head…but I’ll keep those for myself.

There is another type of song a singer should avoid. Never sing songs that have reached or are reaching mythic proportions. What does that mean? It’s any song that will be forever associated with one particular person’s version: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, “Before the Parade Passes By”, “Waiting for Life to Begin”, “Defying Gravity”, to name a few. Even before you utter one syllable, these songs will instantly get you compared to the vocalists who made them famous. It’s a very rare talent that can battle the titan-like ghosts of these singers and win.

Going the complete other direction is a less than wise choice as well. Singing songs that are completely unknown do you no justice. Sure the unknown songs may make the people behind the table actually pay attention. But the whole time they’re listening they’re trying to figure out what the song is, who wrote it, where’s it from. They may even seem to be enamored with your audition, when in fact they’re listening to hear the words and not listening to your performance of the piece. Your fight here is with the unknown. Any general will tell you fighting a battle against the unknown will always be a losing one.

I was having coffee with a colleague of mine the other day, Dr. Eddie Schnecker (more from the Doctor in another blog). Eddie had just finished accompanying a theatre’s summer auditions. He said the majority of the people who came into the audition were truly talented.  The people who made the best impression were the ones who picked a definitive direction, a particular role or show from the entire season.

In short call backs went to people who sang appropriate targeted material.

Recently I went to a call for a theatre that was doing two very different shows: one contemporary pop and one legit. Because of what the legit show was I thought it was a no brainer for me to be hired. It’s a show I know I’ll do. The other show has a supporting role that is on my bucket list. That’s the role I targeted. The music for the character’s song isn’t in print so I chose something in the style of what he sings. It went over like a lead balloon.  Had I finished all of my homework I would have known not to sing for the bucket list role. Sure I targeted a show, choose my music well and sang the heck out of it. That show was being cast with major dancers in all the supporting roles. In fact the singer’s chorus call notice, which posted after the principal audition, basically said if you don’t dance, don’t come.

A majoirty of the information you need will come from the audition notice. It’ll generally inform you what type of music to sing. It’ll say contemporary pop, contemporary musical theatre, legit, traditional musical theatre, jazz standard, swing, big band, rap and a whole lot more. Some notices will combine some of those words to make something completely new and undecipherable. And each one of these musical categories, even the “new” ones, will mean different things to different casting people. The only way to know what type of song is requested is to contact the people holding the audition and ask them. Will some casting people be too busy to take your call? Sure. But that’s why they have assistants and their assistants have interns. There will be someone who can answer your musical question. If that person steers you in a less than perfect direction, at least you’ll know his or her personal interpretation of the musical categories for when he or she becomes a full blown casting director. That’s future homework already done, so either way you win.

Each and every song will have a different effect on each and every person hearing it. You can’t control what the people behind the table bring with them into the audition or how they will react to your song choice. The only control you have is to do your homework. Be informed about the casting habits of each company. Be informed about what types of music or specific songs they like to hear and which they don’t. Be informed about who you are personally and professionally and what showcases you and your talents best. Then inhale deeply and take the advice that I heard for years while my mom drove me to school:

“…Don’t worry if it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing. Sing a song…”