10 Styles of Musical Theatre Songs for Your Audition Book | Musical Theatre Resources

10 Styles of Musical Theatre Songs for Your Audition Book | Musical Theatre Resources

6/14/15, 11:58 PM

Musical Theatre Resources

10 Styles of Musical Theatre Songs for Your Audition Book Posted on June 11, 2014

One of the most common misconceptions misconceptions about musical theatre music is that it can all be grouped into a single musical genre. In reality, musical theatre is an art form that encompasses encompasses many, many many genres of music. music. To prove this, let’s take a look at some of the 2014 Tony-nominated shows and the musical styles featured within each one: After Midnight Midnight (1920s-40s (1920s-40s jazz standards) Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Musical (1960s-70s (1960s-70s pop/rock tunes) A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (‘legit’-style Murder (‘legit’-style musical comedy) Aladdin (1990s Aladdin (1990s Disney tunes) Hedwig and the Angry Inch (1970s-style Inch (1970s-style glam rock) As we can see, musical musical theatre music music is NOT all the the same genre by any any means. Today, performers performers and teachers should have a working understanding of all these musical styles and more. I have created this blog post to provide a simple breakdown of what I consider to be the ten major styles of musical theatre music (there are others). I have also included included representative representative composers for for each style. In most cases, I did did not create these these categories. They already exist in the musical musical theatre world (sometimes under different names). When building an an audition book, performers should consider including songs from each of the categories listed below (some uptempo uptempo and some ballads). ballads). Women should also include pieces pieces that show off off their chest/mix voice voice and head/’legit’ voice, and both genders should consider consider including an operetta/classical operetta/classical piece. These categories are only meant to be simplistic guidelines- there are always exceptions, crossovers, and other perfectly reasonable methods of organizing musical theatre music. TRADITIONAL MUSICAL THEATRE STYLES (1900-1970s) Early Standard (1900-1920s) o George M. Cohan, Victor Herbert, Jerome Jerome Kern, Howard Talbot Jazz Age Standard (1920s-40s) o Cole Porter, George George Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart, Kurt Weill, Weill, Noel Coward, Harold Harold Arlen, Irving Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern (later works), Arthur Scwhartz, Vernon Duke, Marc Blitzstein, Vincent Youmans Golden Age Standard (1940s-60s) o Rodgers & Hammerstein, Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Loewe, Leonard Bernstein, Bernstein, Frank Loesser, Loesser, Jule Styne, Bock & Harnick, Adler & Ross, Burton Lane, Meredith Wilson, Harold Rome, Jerry Ross, Cole Porter (later works),

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6/14/15, 11:58 PM

Irving Berlin (later works) Post-Golden Age Standard (1960s-70s) o Kander & Ebb, Cy Coleman, Jerry Herman, Harvey Schmidt, David Shire, Charles Strouse CONTEMPORARY MUSICAL THEATRE STYLES (1970s-present) Musical Theatre Pop* o Stephen Schwartz, Ahrens & Flaherty, Alan Menken, William Finn, Marvin Hamlisch, Jason Robert Brown, Marc Shaiman, Andrew Lippa, Henry Krieger, Robert Lopez, David Yazbek Musical Theatre Rock o Jonathan Larson, Duncan Sheik, Tom Kitt, David Bryan, Lawrence O’Keefe, Damon Intrabartolo, Pasek & Paul, Michael Friedman, Paul Scott Gordon, Galt MacDermot, Elton John, Stephen Trask, Richard O’Brien Contemporary Musical Comedy o Mel Brooks, Lambert & Morrison, Rupert Holmes, Lutvak & Freedman, Kander & Ebb (later works), individual character songs Sondheim o Stephen Sondheim (yes, he gets his own category) Jukebox & Radio Tunes o Various commercial music artists from the 1950s to present. Songs may be drawn from jukebox musicals, radio, films, television, etc. Choose songs from multiple decades and commercial music styles (pop, rock, country, hip hip, r&b, etc.). Disney Theatrical o Alan Menken, Sherman Brothers, Elton John, Robert & Kristen-Anderson Lopez, Phil Collins, David Nessim Lawrence, Randy Newman

*Performers may also want to include a song from the ‘pop opera’ sub-genre. This category includes the grandiose, pop-influenced scores of the 1980s-90s ‘mega-musicals’ written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Boublil & Schönberg, Maury Yeston, Andersson & Ulvaeus, Frank Wildhorn, and others.

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About Kevin Michael Jones

Kevin is a performer, songwriter, teacher, and music director. He is currently in the Contemporary Commercial Voice Pedagogy graduate program at Shenandoah Conservatory. www.kevinmichaeljones.net View all posts by Kevin Michael Jones !

This entry was posted in Audition Tips, History, Repertoire and tagged audition book, broadway, contemporary musical theatre, golden age, musical theatre, traditional musical theatre. Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to 10 Styles of Musical Theatre Songs for Your Audition Book Luke Arnett says: June 12, 2014 at 12:11 am

What about Les Mis/Phantom style shows…..??? Reply

Kevin Michael Jones says: June 12, 2014 at 12:18 am

Hi Luke, see the footnote. Shows like Les Mis and Phantom fall into a sort of ‘pop opera’ category. The songs are usually written in a pop form/sensibility, but the shows themselves are sung through and typically feature more ‘legit’-type singing technique. Reply

Sammi says: June 13, 2014 at 5:43 am

What about auditioning with Once Upon a Time from Brooklyn the Musical and The Boy Next Door from Meet Me in St. Louis Reply

Dan says: June 13, 2014 at 7:24 pm

Informative breakdown, but it doesn’t address the various types of songs that function the same way throughout all these stylistic eras. Singers need a mix of uptempo songs, charm songs, ballads, etc. as much as they need something by each of those representative composers. Pairing “Bill” with “Fifty Percent” doesn’t provide much contrast, even though the songs were written 50 years apart. Reply

Dan says: June 13, 2014 at 7:26 pm


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Never mind, that’s what I get for only reading your categories and not the full article; rock on! Reply

Kevin Michael Jones says: June 13, 2014 at 8:50 pm

Thanks Dan. You bring up a good point about song function vs style. I completely agree that performers should also know how each of their songs function (‘Story Song’, ‘I Want’ song, ‘Charm song’, etc). Might do another blog post on song type/function.

Dan Roeder says: June 14, 2014 at 4:26 am

LaChiusa’s style is too broad to be constrained within pop– Marie Christine? Reply

Kevin Michael Jones says: June 14, 2014 at 7:31 pm

Good point, Dan. As I mentioned, these are extremely generalized categories. Several composers in that category could fit into other categories as well (or even have their own individual categories for that matter). I hope people will study each individual composer’s works to make the judgement calls for themselves- these are just suggestions. Reply

Erica O. says: June 27, 2014 at 7:30 am

Hi there! I will be auditioning for Rocky Horror Picture Show next month and I am gunning for Magenta. What song would you recommend for my audition? Reply

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10 Styles of Musical Theatre Songs for Your Audition Book | Musical Theatre Resources

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