Expert: J. Spyder Isaacson - 9/28/2007

Question
Hello. My name is Tarah and I go to school at Penn State Berks Campus. In order to audition for the Penn State University Park Musical Theatre program, I have to prepare two pieces. One piece has to be up-tempo, which is probably of the broadway type. The other piece is a ballad from the musical repertoire. One song should have been written prior to 1960. I am not aware of many theatre songs from the 1960's or before. Maybe you could give me a few choices?
My range is Soprano/Alto, I can sing probably up to a G-A above the staff and sometimes if worked at it a C. Thank you for your time.

Answer
Well, you certainly don't have a dearth of possibilities.

It's better to try something relatively obscure than something very recent and fresh in directors' minds - for example, "On My Own" from "Les Mis" won't win you any brownie points, and "Tomorrow" will put you RIGHT out of the running!  Likewise, from my own position, and no director wants to hear another baritone doing "Impossible Dream" or "If I Ever Leave You."

The first one that comes to mind is "I'm Shy" from "Once Upon a Mattress," although I'm not sure of the original production date - it might be after 1960.  Pretty much any upbeat song from the Rogers and Hammerstein stable - musicals such as "The King and I," "Cinderella", "The Sound of Music," "Carousel," and "South Pacific" for instance.  One that seems to have stopped being a popular audition piece is "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Head" from "South Pacific" - upbeat, and definitely written prior to 1960.

Likewise, there are a huge number of ballads, both from musicals and simply popular standards.  If it doesn't necessarily have to come from a musical, you might try the swing hit "Where Is Your Heart".  Otherwise, I would suggest possibly "The Boy Next Door" from "Meet Me In St. Louis" (a show I was just in), the title song from "Beauty and the Beast", "my Wish" from "Here's Love" (if you can find the music - it's a fairly obscure musical), or REALLY surprise them and do "Over the Rainbow," starting with the little-heard verse!

The problem is that there are so many it's hard to select just a few good ones.  I hope the songs above at the very least give you a springboard toward finding the right songs.

Break a leg, and let me know how it turns out!

My best,

Spyder