Current Musical Theater Vocal Demands (as of June 2013) - Very interesting submission on College Confidential... My colleagues and I just presented data from a six month survey of casting notices posted on Backstage at an international voice conference. I think the information gives a great deal of insight into what exactly is happening in the casting world and is worth sharing. We setup a filter through Backstage that sent us casting notices for singers 18-24 for union and non-union musicals, cruise ships, and theme park shows. We gathered 1238 notices from mid-October to mid-April. Using a variety of sources, including the notices themselves, we were able to classify the casting notices into four categories: Classical/Legit, Traditional, Contemporary MT, Pop/Rock. These categories represent the type of singing required for the show unless the casting team asked for something else, which did happen occasionally. For instance, some contemporary musicals asked for a pop/rock audition song and stated no musical theatre. That notice was classified as pop/rock even though the show was not pop/rock since pop/rock singing would be required if you were to be successful in the audition room. The terms legit and traditional can be confusing as there are without a doubt soprano roles in traditional musicals. However, the majority of notices seeking sopranos specifically stated legit and were therefore classified as legit. The numbers below represent the type of singing that was expected from performers age 18-24 in the audition room during the six month time period we surveyed. Here are the percentages we found. 5% of auditions were seeking classical/legit singers 40% of auditions were seeking traditional musical theatre singers 30% of auditions were seeking contemporary musical theatre singers 25% of auditions were seeking pop/rock singers If you look at Broadway only, we found: 6% Legit 22% Traditional 33% Contemporary 39% Pop/Rock Contemporary musical theatre vocal style is very closely aligned to pop singing. In fact several authors have begun calling the vocal style found in contemporary musicals FM Sound. If you combine contemporary and pop/rock musicals, you will find that 55% of all auditions and 72% of Broadway auditions require singing that has elements of pop music in it. Traditional musicals have a strong connection to jazz and big band music and often require chest dominant singing including belting. Even if the singer is not belting, a speech-based delivery is often essential. If we combine all categories except legit, we find that overall 95% of auditions required non-classical singing. Here are a few of the vocal demands specifically listed in notices from each category: Classical/Legit technique rooted in bel canto/classical pedagogy opera/operatic Italian-style coloratura soprano lyric soprano glorious legit soprano experience with Gilbert and Sullivan a major plus Traditional vitality in the lyrics speaking on pitch soaring bari-tenor voice robust classic American musical sound big first-rate Broadway belt voice Ella Fitzgerald/Billie Holliday big band sound Ethel Merman true chest belt comedic actress who can sing song-and-dance man Contemporary Musical Theatre Broadway singers with pop sensibility Disney pop sound contemporary with pop flair must sing effortlessly in many styles and vocal registers fantastic belter who can mix through the break to soprano powerful contemporary mix voices conversational belter mezzo folk singer huge pop/rock belt avoid musical comedy Pop/Rock vocal pyrotechnics yodel flip strong falsetto gritty rock belt gravelly distinctive voice smoky belt soulful phrasing gospel/rock power belter vocals in the style of ...(insert various celebrity singers) It became quite clear to us that it is not just an opinion that Broadway is moving away from classical singing, its a fact. We do believe students still need to be able to sing classical musical theatre convincingly. However, we propose that more time should be spent on contemporary styles in academic training as that appears to be what our students will be singing most often once they move to NYC. We will be publishing a full report on our findings and when we do I will post a link to it.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 04:17:40 +0000
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