<p>I’m not sure about college auditions, but I know that for other big auditions, like Strawhats, the following Sondheim songs are considered “severely over-used”: Anyone Can Whistle, Being Alive, Johanna, and That’ll Show Him. I’d be interested to know if these are among the songs colegePLEASE feels are overdone in college auditions.</p>
<p>By the way, here is a quote from the Strawhate website: “We also strongly suggest that for combined audition purposes you avoid material by Stephen Sondheim (and others)…although these composers are highly respected and popular, their material is difficult to perform even under the best of circumstances, as they often comprise difficult and/or multiple time signatures and complex passages with extensive arpeggios.”</p>
<p>There is some wonderful audition advice in the members-only area of the above-mentioned website. Very interesting and well-written; including a great list of songs and monologues to avoid.</p>
<p>I read through all the tips and everything before my audition, but I still ended up picking a JRB song AND a Sondheim song (a ‘mature’ one at that!). I sounded best singing them, I was most connected to them, and I enjoyed them immensely. I took them to a friend who is a student accompanist, and he had no trouble with the Sondheim and only a bit of trouble with the JRB, so I took them to the audition despite all the rules. The accompanist provided by the school was excellent, and the judges actually complimented my song choices. Just wanted to throw this in there so that you know it isn’t always set in stone. =)</p>
<p>Edit: when I said “mature” I meant written later, not written for an older character.</p>
<p>Sorry I was so brief; I am always in a hurry these days! </p>
<p>yes, “overused” not over used–my bad. </p>
<p>i talked to some auditors, educators, and working professionals last year and asked them what audition material i should stay away from. some names that kept popping up: sondheim, schwartz, jrb, and webber.</p>
<p>these are popular in the musical theatre world. yes, they are overused. </p>
<p>now, im not saying that everyone must refrain from using them at all. certainly, that is not the case and many have had successful auditions with using one or more of these composers. however, generally as a rule of thumb, i wouldn’t suggest any of these composers to a friend looking for audition material. </p>
<p>i mean, i heard someone singing wicked at unifieds!!! i was in the next room in a dance audition. the auditor stopped the music and laughed. she said and i quote, “i hope none of you are singing any of that!” it was funny… for us. but for that girl, she had idina menzel working against her. </p>
<p>i think song choice is key; in my opinion, it can make or break most auditions. you could have the most excellent singer singing “the sun will come out tomorrow”, and the auditors could not like it. there are thousands of good songs you can choose from, why choose one the that everyone does? </p>
<p>ColegePLEASE…the question you posed regarding what material to stay away from is NOT the same as asking what material is overused. Sondheim is NOT overused in college auditions. The advice about avoiding Sondheim is often regarding either the difficulty in sight reading the accompaniment or for SOME songs, the songs are too mature for a teen (mature…meaning the character is mature…not older Sondheim material). </p>
<p>I do not think that all Schwartz should be avoided. Wicked is overdone and should be avoided.</p>
<p>Yeah, really inappropriate. Imagine if you were one of the kids in that room and you were planning to sing something from “Wicked”! Though I wouldn’t advise kids to use songs from that musical, I don’t think it is impossible to be admitted to a good program if you <em>do</em> sing something like that. As has been said before, it’s important to choose good material that is right for you. But that doesn’t mean that someone can’t come in and impress the heck out of the adjudicators with an overdone song.</p>
<p>…in my second post, i was referring to auditions in GENERAL, not just college auditions. excuse me for the confusion. i know the question is different, but to deny that they have no correlation is ridiculous. i am just going on what i believe to be credible advice. this is a free and open forum, and i have the right to share any experiences i have had with the good intentions of helping or warning somebody else. i do believe sondheim is generally overused, i don’t know if it is or isn’t in COLLEGE auditions. i don’t think they release any statistical data to support or contradict either of our OPINIONS. but, i still wouldn’t normally recommend sondheim to anyone i knew auditioning for college. that is my opinion, take it or leave it. </p>
<p>additionally, i just want to say that my comments are honest and unfiltered. however, i do hold myself to a code of decorum when conversing online. and, i hope that no matter what age you are, if you believe my information is right or wrong, factual or not, you treat me with the respect every human being deserves. whether that is online or off.</p>
<p>i just wanted to put that out there. i think we all should be reminded of the way the Internet skews reality. </p>
<p>“As has been said before, it’s important to choose good material that is right for you. But that doesn’t mean that someone can’t come in and impress the heck out of the adjudicators with an overdone song.” NMR</p>
<p>I would strongly recommend that you stay away from “Popular” – great song, but extremely overdone. I hope you have an alternate up-tempo selection. “I’m Not That Girl” may not be as overdone, but most people suggest that you avoid shows that are currently running. You certainly should NOT do two songs from the same show. Some schools require that at least one song be chosen from the more classic Bway repertoire; even if your schools do not have that requirement, it’s not a bad rule of thumb. Performing two very different composers and styles shows your versatility.</p>
<p>If you’re considering Sondheim, it’s probably best if it’s an audition where you provide your own recorded accompaniment. My DS was considering Jet Song, Cool and Unworthy and it took the school’s accompanist six takes to get the 32 bars. This guy is amazing - he’s working for the school for the health insurance. He’s from europe and is a very accomplished pianist and accompanist. </p>
<p>Watching him struggle with tempo and such, when he had the music for a few days beforehand convinced my son not to use any of those for live situations. He’ll use the CD.</p>
<p>I still don’t understand why a top musical theatre school cannot find a fantastic pianist who knows the musical theatre literature. They certainly are out there.
If a potential student is willing to pay 40k a year to go to the school why can’t the school hire someone who can PLAY THE DAMN PIANO! I think it says alot about the school.</p>
<p>Just one more thing… you can’t blame Sondheim for West Side Story being hard to play… he just did the lyrics… you have to blame L Bernstein for the music.</p>
<p>I agree with Tom about live accompianist. Possible technical problems with tapes, CD"s etc just makes the whole audition that much more stressful.
These kids do have so much on the line already. Acting is my passion- but if I don’t get cast from an audition- it just affects my participation in one show or job. These kids are auditioning for where they will study and live for possiblly the next four years.</p>