Into the Woods audition song help?

Question

I'm auditioning for Into the Woods tomorrow. I need an "appropriate-to-Sondheim style piece". I'm not too familiar with Sondheim, so I was thinking of doing On My Own from Les Miz because I'm really strong with that song. Is that appropriate? What would you consider "appropriate-to-Sondheim"?

Answer 1

DON'T DO LES MIZ!

sorry, but it's way too overdone, and not complex enough. As for that, don't do anything that's really popular at the moment (yes, that means no Wicked, Hairspray, Aida, We Will Rock You!)

As you're auditioning for a sondheim show, why not do sondheim? if not, you could do something that he did the lyrics for and not the music (eg. west side story, gyspy)

it depends on what role you're going for, too. Like, if you're going for cinderella, you wouldn't exactly sing Killer Queen from 'we will rock you" would you?

that's probably a bad example, but you do need to think about the role as well as the composer of the show

Good Luck!

:D

Answer 2

"Appropriate to Sondheim" means complex rythyms, and lots and lots of fast paced lyrics.  Sondheim is known for his clever use of the langugae and his characters sing as fast as they think--there's a song called "Your Fault" in 'Into the Woods' that illustrates this point well.

"On My Own" is slow, rythmically very basic, and favors emotion over intellect.  Sondheim's songs (although some of them are very emotional) tend to have more intellectual punch.

You've got no time to learn a new song, so think over hte ones you know, and look for one that is more complex.  If you look up Sondheim recornings on Amazon you can hear little clips which might help you understand the style.

Good Luck!

Answer 3

Les Miz is not appropriate to Sondheim, but its probably too late to learn a new piece and do it well.  So just go with that if you don't feel comfortable learning something else.  I would almost think that an old Rodgers and Hammerstein type show would be even better than a Les Miz for this audition, and if you research them chances are you will be familiar with some of their songs.  I dont know if "appropriate-to-Sondheim" means that you can in fact do a piece by Sondheim himself, I would think it would, in that case try to learn something simple like "Anyone Can Whistle."  Just dont do a song from Into the Woods itself.