sualabama

Hi All,
Thanks for all the great info. I see on CMU's Fine Arts Requirements sheet where it says what monologues are overused, but it doesn't indicate any MT songs not to perform for an audition. Do any of you have any insight into whether CMU has songs they do not want to hear at auditions? Is this a questions appropriate to email to the school to get an answer?

Thanks!

mhappiness

Do not do Jason Robert Brown. My D called ahead to make sure that they could play JRB..they said yes we like him..but when the audition day came the pianist could NOT play it and the auditioner was very embarassed and frustrated by the whole thing. It turned out to be a bad audition because the auditioner was very short tempered after that. It was the strangest audition experience my D had out of the 13 schools she auditioned for MT. It was strange in more ways than one.

dropofgoldensun

I agree, JRB has some great songs but they can be really complicated for pianists and the accompaniment is really important for his songs. I don't actually know much about CMU in specific, but generally JRB's songs are really driven by the piano part and it can be hard to take creative license with them without over-emoting or tensing up your face. I'd also generally suggest staying away from Phantom of the Opera, just because it tends to be overused.

CarnegieMT2012

Also be careful of some Sondheim songs, most are ridiculous to play, and some are worse than others, also be careful/wary of "story-telling songs" they're long and don't usually show the range that you need in 16/32 bars.

Confused/Excited

What about songs that are over used?

xatty

The general rule is to not sing over-used songs. I know there are some sites out there with lists -- I think Marymount Manhattan has a list of over-used songs.

mynameinlights

Hey, I'm new to this so don't break my back but this website called musicaltheatreaudition.com that has lists of song that are overdone. They even have a search thing (can't think of what it's called) that allows you to type in your range, age, and sex to figure out what song you should sing.

MO2

Just a suggestion... my son picked a song that some may consider "overdone", but he worked with his vocal coach and they came up with a slightly different arrangement. It worked for him anyway. He was a bit stressed over the overdone notion as well.