If I have one piece of advice for actors it’s this: stop putting the cart before the horse.
Many actors get up at 4 a.m. for auditions multiple times a week and wait for hours in a holding room, only to say to their accompanist when they finally get called in, “Sorry this copy is such a mess.” As a result, they give one mediocre audition after another.
If you’re making it difficult (or impossible) for your pianist to be with you, your auditioning is the equivalent of busy work and it won’t get you anywhere. Before going to one more call, make sure all your cuts follow these simple rules:
1. Make sure the come from a piano/score.Always bring in a copy from a piano/vocal score. Piano/vocals have your line on the top and a two-handed piano accompaniment with treble and bass clefs underneath. A “chart” or “leadsheet” that only has a vocal line with chord symbols above it isn’t acceptable for a musical theatre audition.
Individually-published versions of the songs are best. Full scores can be complicated and hard to read. The Singer Pro editions on musicnotes.com are a great resource, as are most compilation books. Or you can hire an accompanist to
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