3 Types Of Songs You Must Have For Musical Theatre College Auditions

For musical theatre college auditions, many programs will ask prospective students to prepare two contrasting songs - often one ballad and one uptempo. It’s important to choose material that not only highlights your strengths, but shows the program how you handle all genres of theatre.

There are three categories you’ll want to be sure you have covered - contemporary musical theatre and traditional musical theatre, and pop/rock.

1. Contemporary Musical Theatre

Many historians argue over the exact time frame for contemporary musical theatre. A good rule of thumb is to choose a song that was written after 1980 (any earlier and you’re running the risk of the song sounding too traditional.)

Amelie, Anastasia, Avenue Q, Be More Chill, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Elf: The Musical, Finding Neverland, Fun Home, Heathers, Legally Blonde, Little Women, Matilda, Mean Girls, Seussical, Shrek, Sister Act, Spelling Bee, The Addams Family, The Book of Mormon, The Last Five Years, The Light in the Piazza, The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Urinetown, etc.

Popular contemporary musical theatre composers and lyricists are:

• Ahrens & Flaherty

• Alan Menken

• Andrew Lippa

• Jeanine Tesori

• Kerrigan & Lowdermilk

• Kitt & Yorkey

• Laurence O’Keefe

• Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman

• Nell Benjamin

• Pasek & Paul

• Jonathan Larson

• Lin-Manuel Miranda

• Jason Robert Brown

• Andrew Lloyd Webber

• Stephen Schwartz

• Frank Wildhorn

• Stephen Sondheim

• Maury Yeston

2. Traditional Musical Theatre

Otherwise known as the Golden Age of Broadway, traditional musical theatre fell somewhere between the 1940s and 1960s.

A Funny Thing Happened...Forum, Allegro, Annie Get Your Gun, Anyone Can Whistle, Bells Are Ringing, Brigadoon, Bye Bye Birdie, Cabaret, Call Me Madam, Camelot, The Kind And I, Carousel, Cinderella, Damn Yankees, Fiddler On The Roof, Finian’s Rainbow, Fiorello!, Flower Drum Song, Funny Girl, Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, Hello, Dolly!, How To Succeed In Business... Kiss Me, Kate, Mame, Man of La Mancha, Me and Juliet, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, Oliver!, On The Town, Once Upon A Mattress, Pal Joey, She Loves Me, South Pacific, Sweet Charity, The Fantasticks, The Most Happy Fella, The Music Man, The Pajama Game, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Wonderful Town

Popular traditional musical theatre composers and lyricists are:

• Adler & Ross

• Bock & Harnick

• Cole Porter

• Comden & Green

• Cy Coleman & Dorothy Fields

• Frank Loesser

• Jerry Herman

• Jule Styne

• Kander & Ebb

• Leonard Bernstein

• Lerner & Loewe

• Meredith Wilson

• Rodgers & Hammerstein

3. Pop/Rock

There are hundreds of sub-genres within pop music. Whether it’s Rock n’ Roll, Folk, Country, R&B, 70’s Classic Rock, 80s Rock, Alternative, etc., most programs don’t care which genre you chose.

Avoid choosing “pop-sounding” songs from musicals. The goal is to choose a song off the radio - not made popular by a musical!

ACTOR AESTHETIC ONLINE COURSE

The Ultimate Guide To Preparing For Musical Theatre College Auditions (IN 5 STEPS!)

Tell Me More!

---

Find this helpful? Be sure to check out the Actor Aesthetic podcast. New episodes every Monday!

Happy auditioning!