Who is Your Audience?

The cardinal rule of public speaking and advertising also applies to auditions: Know Your Audience. I don't mean finding out about your specific audition panel. In many cases, you won't know what members of the staff or production team will be at your audition. You won't know if there's a Simon Cowell judge who hates country music or a director who loves Gershwin. What I mean by audience is more general, i.e. learn about the show and/or company. This way you can choose your audition pieces to the type of roles they are casting. Now they may have made this easy for you and listed in the audition posting what type of songs or monologues they are looking for. Pay attention to see if they've asked for pop songs or musical theatre. If they've specifically asked for musical theatre, performing a Billy Joel song because it was in Movin' Out is probably not what they had in mind. Read below for some examples regarding tailoring your song choices to the type of audition.

If you're auditioning for...

South Pacific (or other classic) - choose songs in your vocal range from Rodgers & Hammerstein shows or other classic musical theatre. There are lots of great selections to choose from, you just have to be wary of picking a song that's really overdone. If I had a dollar for every time a petite performer auditioned with "Honey Bun," I could take a vacation to Bali Ha'i.
 
Contemporary Musicals - really depends on the specific musical, but this category is probably the most flexible. There have been a wide range of styles in the last 30 or so years of musical theatre. Get to know the music of the show you're auditioning for at a basic level - rock opera, retro musical, etc. Pick your best pieces in the wide range of that musical style.

Cruise ship - this is where a little research can help you. Try to figure out what types of shows they do on the ship(s) of the cruiseline you are auditioning for. Are they showtunes? Family friendly? In my experience, many cruiselines are looking for people who can sing both pop and Broadway. If that's the case, look at pop songs and pop style songs from musicals.

Family or children's theatre - perform pieces that parents would like - either classic or contemporary musical theatre is probably your best bet. The people casting you are adults, so watching a grown man sing "I'm a Little Teapot" is just strange. I'd caution you to stay away from popular kid musicals, as the panel may be sick of them. In a full-day audition last year, I lost count of the number of times I heard songs from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. You also don't want to go too far the other way. This isn't the time for a song with swear words or sexy, suggestive lyrics.

Theme park - see "Cruise ship" and "Family or children's theatre" above.

I'll end the post with a little caveat - any song done really well can be a good audition. I've certainly cast people who have sung from ...Spelling Bee. But thoughtful song choices could give you a little bump by helping the audition panel see you as a good fit for their show.