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So, you have an audition for drama school; perhaps it's Mountview or maybe Guildford and you haven't got a clue what to sing and you are getting STRESSED! Whatever you decide on, you change your mind the next day: "What if they only want to hear belt?!", "What if they are fed up with hearing belt?!", "Should I sing a 'poppy' song as there are so many pop musicals at the moment?!", "Do they only want to hear old stuff and I love *insert your favourite contemporary composer here*?!"
Well the first thing to do is: CALM DOWN.
Always have at least two songs for the audition that show a range of emotion and character or in simple terms: an up-tempo and a ballad. Make sure the song is not longer than 2:30mins MAX - they will not listen to a 6 minute long Jason Robert Brown no matter how much you love it.
If the audition is this week or even today:
Then you have to go with what you know and do best; why make life hard for yourself?! Choose two or three songs that you love singing and show you off best, that you preferably have experience of singing under pressure in a performance environment. The more you start second guessing yourself and trying to please the panel the less you will please yourself. You have paid for your time there and you are there to show yourself off to the best of you ability. A panel would much rather see an auditionee perform a standard confidently then worry for the person in front of them battling stoically through an Adam Guettel piece (make sure the piece is pianist friendly on that note!). You are there to show yourself off, not the cleverness of the composer.
If you have a longer time to prepare:
Make sure you have a good look around for interesting work if you have the time. Little known pieces, new and old alike, can be an attention grabber in an audition (although you must know it inside out like an old friend by the time you get to said audition and back it up with a reasonably known song as an alternative). Youtube is a fantastic resource for this material as one link will lead you to something else and on and on. Your panel could well have a musical theatre geek on it that with relish your interesting choice plus anything to break up the day of listening to the same songs will stick in their heads.
Do no underestimate how far a laugh will get you - if you are good at comedy DO A COMIC PIECE! The panel will be drained if they have to listen to ballad after worthy heavy, ballad. This does not count if you actually have a beautiful up-lifting ballad.
The main thing is to come back to the earlier point of make yourself happy - if you are a belter then make sure you have a couple of notes of belt in there, if you have a beautiful Soprano voice show it off and don't wish you had a whacking big belt voice. You can only be yourself and show what you have to offer not what you think they want to see.
