Maybe I Don't Need To Be Popular

I have a bit of an issue with musical auditions.


I have an ok voice. It's nothing to brag about but I can carry a tune and I know enough music theory to get by. But I've had little to no formal training which makes me a bit anxious. Not only that but I know very few musicals. I know, I know, in some people's book this is a cardinal sin. Not in mine. But when I my buddy Peter introduced me to the Wicked soundtrack I enjoyed it. A particular guilty pleasure was the song Popular.


I told him one day I was thinking of using it as an audition piece and he gave me a look. A look that spoke volumes. Unfortunately most of those volumes sounded something like "That is a stupid idea. Don't do it." And the volumes spoke loudly.


When I got that email about the flamboyant hitman in the mafia musical (talk about speaking volumes) I'll admit it wasn't my first idea. But it did come to me eventually and when I mentioned it to Brenda she said that she thought it would be perfect. So I decided to sing it an octave lower (funny, how I can't hit the same notes Kristin Chenoweth can) and practiced a little.



Kristin Chenoweth I am not.


After singing it through once at a bit of a stumbly pace, the director asked if the accompaniast could bump it up a bit to hear more of my range. So she tried her damnedest to put it up a fifth and I tried to sing it there. I hit all the notes fine, but I'm sure it sounded as awkward as it felt. That's the trouble with musical auditions, you don't know the accompianist, the accimpianist doesn't know you, the accompianist may or may not know the music very well, and there's really no other way to figure out if you can sing.

All in all, it wasn't terrible. I've had worse musical auditions.
I'll know in a couple of days.