<p>The guy who wrote the Audra McDonald song “I Won’t Mind” just came out with a whole songbook and it’s really great. Lots of good acting pieces/audition material. His name is Jeff Blumenkrantz, and he used to be an actor, so his stuff is really actable, but also really good musically. And no one’s ever heard most of it, so you don’t have to worry that you’re singing overexposed songs. I’ve sung his songs in auditions and they always go over so well that people want to know what they’re from, and then I get to spend more time in the audition room!</p>
<p>Hi there, and thanks to MB for posting about my songbook. Also, thanks to those who have ordered it already.</p>
<p>I wanted to mention that I recently added audio clips to my website. I know that it’s hard to figure out whether you will like a songbook without actually hearing the style of the songs. (Beware that some of the women’s songs have audio clips of me singing them. If you look carefully at the webpage, you can find info about which songs were written for men and which for women. Some of them are unisex.) If you want to know the background for each individual song, you can find that info on my Songbook FAQs page.</p>
<p>I love the idea of young performers using my material for their college auditions. I remember how tricky it was to find great material that I really connected with at that age. </p>
<p>I think some of my songs are really appropriate for this group. There’s a song called “Toll” which is a really sweet and funny story song sung by a girl who works in a tollbooth in love with one of her customers. There’s “I’m Free,” which is an exciting uptempo for a young leading lady. There are two country-style songs from URBAN COWBOY, the musical. There are my Audra McDonald hits, “I Won’t Mind” and “My Book.” “Take the Filter Off” is a fun song for a high belter. And “Hold My Hand” is a oddly heart-breaking off-beat ballad for a young man or woman. Also, for more legit singers or people who are looking for recital material, there is a handful of art songs set to the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. (Theatre singers, don’t be put off. The Millay songs are really nice acting pieces too.) </p>
<p>Full disclosure: I should mention that there is the odd, racy reference, and the “F” word makes two appearances. </p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t realize I had so much to say about my own book! :-)</p>
<p>I have a question about using this type of material for auditions. Have these songs actually been produced in a musical? Sounds like some have and some haven’t. If they have not, could they still be used as audition pieces? I’ve wondered about this with other songs such as Disney songs which are really from movies and the shows have not been made into musicals (yet?) such as Hunchback of Notre Dame. Or music written by people who have written for musicals (such as Mr. Blumenkrantz) but the songs are not yet in a specific musical. My daughter’s voice teacher actually gave her a song to work on and said it would be a great audition piece, but it isn’t from a published musical either. Not that my daughter has used anything like that for an audition, but what do you think about using songs that haven’t actually been in a musical yet. Is this possible?</p>
<p>nydancemom, you’ll have to check with each school your D is interested in to see what their audition requirements are. Tisch requires that audition songs be from musicals, and I would be surprised if most other schools’ requirements are much different.</p>
<p>I’m speaking as an actor now. (For those of you who don’t know me, before my composing career, I appeared in several Broadway shows, all musicals.) </p>
<p>My rule of thumb for audition material is: Is it actable? and Do I love acting it? i.e. Do I love going through the experience that the character is going through in the course of the song. It could be a pop song, a commercial jingle, or a theatre song, but if the journey resonates with me, and it’s a good fit for my voice, then it’s a good audition song.</p>
<p>At the same time, I agree with alwaysamom in that, if there is very specific criteria for an audition, you should follow it as closely as possible. If they’re asking for “traditional” theatre songs, you should probably look at the repetoire from the 40’s-60’s. If they don’t specify, I say sing whatever you want, but make sure it’s an acting piece, whether it’s from a play or not.</p>
<p>For the record, roughly half of the songs in my book were written for theatre projects. </p>
<p>I think checking is always a good thing to do also. Overall, they really do want songs to be from musicals but I’m not sure how black and white this is though it should be musical theater repetoire type of songs. But I will give an example from my own kid that you might say is slightly “fuzzy” on this. For the schools that wanted a pre-1960 song, she sang a song by a well known musical theater composer. He wrote this particular song for a movie. However, my D had sung the song in a published musical revue of this composer’s music. So, she had sung it in a known musical revue (which is all musical theater songs by this composer) even though he originally wrote this song for a movie. Nobody said a word about it and in fact, it seemed to go over well and was a rather “unique” song, doubt anyone did it. She got in some places where she sang it. That is not exactly the same situation being discussed here but relates a little. </p>
<p>And if Jeff Blumenkrantz is reading this thread…let me say I’m a parent of a long time fellow Stagedoorian (you are an alum) and I saw you perform your work at Stagedoor’s 30th Anniversary Celebration this past July. It was great.</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>PS…oops, I see my message crossed with Mr. Blumenkrantz’s.</p>