Our story began way-way back many centuries ago. Just kidding. In 1967 ALW and Tim Rice were asked to write a 15-minute pop cantata for a school in England. It was first performed at Colet Court School in London on March 1st, 1968. ALW’s father like the cantata so much he arranged a second performance at Westminster Central Hall, and the cantata was stretched to 20 minutes long by May of 1968. November of 1968 when the third time the cantata was performed, and now it was 35-minutes long. Then in 1969, JATD was taken to a recording studio to make an album. Two years later, the recording was brought to the US after the success of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Throughout the early ’70s, JATD had many amateur productions in the US and UK. By 1974 JATD was now a full-length musical. The very first place the full-length show was performed was at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester. Across the pond in the US, JATD was first performed by Playhouse in the Park in Philidelphia. Later in 1981, JATD received an off-Broadway production with Bill Hutton as Joseph. This production was then brought to the now Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in 1982. The show received many Tony Award nominations including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The show closed on Broadway in 1983 having done 747 performances.

Even though the show was done in the US, in 1991 JATD was back onstage in England at the London Palladium with Australian pop-singer Jason Donavan as Joseph. When the cast album was released in the UK, it was number one on the charts for two weeks. After Donavan departed from JATD, former children’s TV presenter Philip Schofield dawned on that coat of many colors. The next year, the musical opened in Toronto at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres with one of the most well known Joseph’s of all time, Donny Osmond. After his time in the Toronto production, Osmond then toured around North America in the role. Finally, in 1992 a major production opened in Australia in Melbourne. The musical was revived for a short time on Broadway in 1993 at the Minskoff Theatre.

In 1999, a direct to video adaptation was released with Donny Osmond reprising his role as Joseph. There were no significant changes. The film was set in a school and the actors playing teachers become the characters in the story and the students become the children’s chorus. Many of the design elements are the same as the professional productions of the ’90s.

The biggest thing of the 2000s that was technicolor related was the talent search called “Any Dream Will Do”. With the rise of talent searches such as “So you think you can dance” and “American Idol” this was a televised talent search where the public would vote for the actor they wanted to see as Joseph. Each of the contestants would have a solo performance each week while also doing a mission of that week proving that they would be the right choice to play Joseph. Some mission were, practicing being aggressive with John Barrowman, climbing the barricade and singing “Do You Hear the People Sing,” to singing “Pharaoh’s Dreams Explained” in a loincloth in front of their mothers. The two men with the lowest amount of votes would have a sing-off to decide who would stay and who would go home.

The winner of “Any Dream Will Do” was Lee Mead. Before winning the contest, Mead was an ensemble member in Phantom of the Opera and understudied for Raoul. The show ran from July 2007 to May 2009.

Not too much Technicolor wise has happened in the 2010s besides a few tours in the UK and North America. I was very fortunate to see the US tour with Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo back in 2014, for my 15th birthday. Back in March, the musical celebrated its 50th birthday.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a well-loved musical for all generation. It is a great show no matter how big or small. Schools, churches, and community theatres around the world have been performing this show worldwide. Because of this timeless musical, many people have been introduced to the wonderful world of theatre.

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Fast forward to later that summer, when I have made it into an audition only theatre track. My only experience before this was very insignificant. The other students were much older than I am. They all had something unique about them whereas I had six years of martial arts. When asked to “save the day” in a superhero sketch, I accidentally bashed two actors heads together. But then, the worlds of martial arts and Theatre are brought together when I learned about stage combat. In that class, I learned about what it means to be an actor that people want to work with. We have lessons about “Leaving our ego at the door” and that “If you think you know everything about theatre, you are very wrong.”

Fast forward to that fall. I’m now fifteen years old on the Hair and Make up crew for my school’s musical, Barnum. During the day, I have an hour of Theatre class where I learn the history of the art and play improv games. After school, I get to put what I learned in class into action. 

That next fall, I’m sixteen years old and an ensemble member in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. I’m always two steps behind where I need to be, and I’m always tripping over my feet since it’s my first time wearing high heels. Learning the waltz is becoming tedious as I constantly feel like I’m letting down the rest of the cast. Instead of being pushed to the back in all the dance numbers, a kinder solution is found, and everything is slowed down and simplified. 

Suddenly, it’s the end of my senior year. My time as a Drama Club leader is coming to an end. That year of school I had a principal role in my school’s musical, went to the Michigan Thespian Festival and earned an Excellent on a musical theatre solo, learned about directing during the winter play, began adapting scripts and using them in real performances. As a seventeen-year-old, I announced in front of a crowd of my peers “I Mac McDonald, know that I will do theatre for the rest of my life.”

Around the same time the following year, I am eighteen years old, and I am apart of the premiere in an original musical. I would have never thought that I would have an opportunity like that until I was at least 30. A few weeks later, I said for the first time out loud that I want to go to college to become a director.

The world of theatre became more than three dimensional as I began to see it from more than just an audience perspective. You taught me that it takes a small army to bring words on a page into something we can see. It takes so much hard work to see just a glimmer of success, but that glimmer of success is so worth it. Theatre is an art not only for entertainment, but it can bring people together in such a unique way. You taught me to take pride in my craft no matter what I’m doing or where I am.

To my theatre teachers, you have taught me more than what I can explain in an article. No matter how long you have taught me about Theatre, you have been so influential in why I am the Thespian I am today. It takes a phenomenal teacher for a student to realize their full potential. For that, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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Did you know that Lea Salonga was only eighteen years old when she originated the role of Kim in Miss Saigon? The story goes that the creative team was unable to find an East Asian actress in the UK so then there was an international search. Salonga sang “On My Own” from Alan Boublil and Claude Michel Schonberg’s other musical Les Mis. The panel then asked her to sing “Sun and Moon” from the show. She then earned the leading role of Kim. She then played Kim on the West End, Broadway, and Manila, Philippines.

Salonga is a trailblazer. She was the first Asian woman to win a Tony Award for performance. That was only back in 1991 when Salonga was only 20 years old. She was also the first Asian woman to portray both Eponine and Fantine in Les Miserables. You can see Salonga as Eponine in the 10th-anniversary concert and then as Fantine in the 25th-anniversary  “The Dream Cast” concert.

Growing up in a world post-Disney renaissance, I grew up with some of the best Disney princesses. Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan. I still remember the day at the mall when I got to go into the Disney store and get a Mulan doll. Mulan was one of the biggest reasons I was interested in martial arts. Lea Salonga provided the singing voices of not only one but two Disney Princesses (Jasmine and Mulan).

Salonga has graced the stages of Broadway, West-End, and her home country of the Philippines. After the West End run of Miss Saigon, Salonga has played Eliza Doolittle, Lizzie Fields, Grizabella, and Helen Bechdel in the Philippines. That’s just to name a few of her roles. 

Lea Salonga is a spectacular actress whose voice and accomplishments have paved the way for aspiring actresses all over the world.

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Here’s my guide for the different kinds of musicals that you can tell what it’s about just by the title.

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Right now on Broadway, there is a trend of adapting a movie or a popular series to the stage. Mean Girls, Pretty Woman, Waitress, Anastasia, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child are just a few. And in the recent years we’ve seen stage adaptations of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange, and A Brave New World. So should The Hunger Games be brought to Broadway?

PRO

The author of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, wrote her books in a three-act format and has a background in playwrighting. So when adapting it to the stage, each chapter is or two is like a scene and there is also that whole theatrical arc. Also, this story is based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and it wouldn’t be the first time audiences have been exposed to Greek Mythology since Theatre comes from the ancient Greeks. Plot-wise, The Hunger Games flows like a play.

The books are written from Katniss’s perspective, the audience sees everything that she sees. We are with Katniss in the arena and we are in her head as she monologues. It made sense in the movies that we see things from the Gamemakers and the world outside of the arena because it fit the medium of film. In a stage adaptation, we don’t have to see everything that is being planned before it happens in the games which would let the audience be surprised by certain things instead of being told what is going to happen. 

The Hunger Games breaks gender stereotypes. Katniss is blunt and a bit emotionally inept. She hides what she is feeling. Peeta, on the other hand, is sweet, gentle and openly expresses himself. How many pairs can you name that have swapped stereotypes? Plus this isn’t a teen love story. It’s a story about survival and justice. I would love to see an actress play an honest portrayal of an introverted  and tough as nails rebel.

Going over to design elements, The Capitol Citizens have very theatrical and elaborate outfits. The hair and make up of the Capitol would be very interesting to see onstage. Cinna’s costumes with the fake fire could become a reality with the right technology. We’ve already figured out how to transform one dress into another if you have seen Cinderella. Then we see the District citizens who dress very simply. Think of something like Of Mice and Men, or a standard 1930’s period piece. Costuming for The Hunger Games would be very interesting to see blending ideas from The Great Depression, New York Fashion Week, and Survival Gear. With the tech advancement of digital screens, creating those elaborate metropolis, war torn buildings, or outdoor scenes are a lot easier to do now than five years ago. Imagine seeing those sweeping fields beyond the fence of District 12 or even the Training Center before the games. Now imagine the scene with the interviews with Caesar Flickerman with you the audience as the Capitol audience members. Wouldn’t that be interesting? 

If The Hunger Games was adapted into specifically a musical, we can already gather some inspiration from the 3 soundtracks inspired by the film. Imagine some bluegrass, Appalachian Folk, indie rock, and alternative pop when we’re in the districts and arena and then something very showtuney and jazzy while in the Capitol. Andrew Llyod Webber mixed genres of music in his musicals, why shouldn’t that happen for The Hunger Games. Also, three songs were mentioned in the books. There’s “Deep in the meadow” aka Rue’s Lullaby, “The Valley Song” which Peeta mentions in the first book, and “The Hanging Tree” from the third book. Two of the three songs were given a melody for the movie. Plus in the books, Katniss has a beautiful singing voice.

CON

Content-wise, The Hunger Games is very dark and graphic. It is a story about a televised event where 24 kids from the ages of 12-18 are put in a dog-eats-dog survival competition until there is one survivor. The later books get more in-depth about what happens afterword if you survive the games. All of the movies have a PG-13 rating. To keep the first movie from being rated R, we don’t see all of the blood spilled on screen. Once you see something, you can never unsee it. With a live audience, it would be tricky to know how much murder is okay for an audience. Is it something very realistic or done very artistically and symbolically like in Sweeney Todd? A project like that would have to have a director and creative team that knows how much is too much. The intensity would change whether this would be on a proscenium, thrust, or even a real arena stage. With casting, someone would have to decide how young is too young for these characters to look. In the first movie, a few of the leading actors were around 2-7 years older than the characters they were portraying. It would be nightmare inducing seeing someone that young being murdered onstage.

The Hunger Games doesn’t end after the first installment. It is Three, 3-act plays, each with their own arc. The big story being a girl from the middle of nowhere becoming the face of a revolution. But each book builds on itself with each act of the story. So either you only turn one of the books into a stage adaptation, speed through really good parts of the story, or have an 8 hour long show. Lord of The Rings musical anyone?

Even though the books are written from Katniss’s perspective, there’s a bunch of other interesting characters. And since their are so many characters, would there be more of an ensemble feel of a show? Would that change the story from person vs. nature vs. society to more of a People vs. Society? If we crammed all three books in one play would we see the same actress play Clove and Johanna? Do the actors playing stylist, and prep teams also play tributes? Would there be a divide between older and younger actors? Do some characters get cut from the stage adaptation? Some of these characters help to drive the plot forward. How expensive would it get to Costume all those people?

The Hunger Games is still very new. We would have to wait at least 10 years to see a stage adaptation. The last movie was released almost 3 years ago.

Finale

The Hunger Games would be very interesting to see onstage with its grand spectacle elements. Content and length wise it all comes down to sensitivity of the audience. Maybe the movies is as far as it will go. It would be very ironic to make a spectacle of the thing the author warned us about.

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What is Dyspraxia? The Dyspraxia Foundation defines that “Dyspraxia, a form of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a common disorder affecting fine and/or gross motor coordination in children and adults. It may also affect speech. DCD is a lifelong condition, formally recognized by international organizations including the World Health Organisation…Individuals may vary in how their difficulties present: these may change over time depending on environmental demands and life experiences”. Like mental health, everything is on a spectrum. It’s not that some people have it and some people don’t. For example, my dyspraxia makes it very hard to learn dance routines in a short amount of time whereas another actor can pick it up quickly. I feel so out of control and uncomfortable in my own body most times if I can’t do what is asked of me. But because I’m dyspraxic, that doesn’t make me a bad actress or a bad dancer. That just means it takes a little more time for me to pick up that skill. 

During my first musical, I struggled with learning the dances. I felt so ashamed of myself because I felt like I let the rest of the cast down because I was bumping into other people, turning the wrong way, falling off of a set piece, staring at my feet instead of the invisible audience members. Frequently, I had to leave the stage during rehearsal because I was having an anxiety attack. I thought that I wasn’t good enough to be a dancer because of my disability. I thought that I was too dumb to be an actress because I couldn’t pick up on a dance routine as fast as my other cast mates. Luckily, I was very fortunate to have a director who was willing to help me in any way possible. So, he paired me up with one of the kindest and supportive dance partners. If the dance rehearsal got too stressful and I was going to have an anxiety attack, I was excused. Opening night of that show I felt sick to my stomach because of how anxious I was about dancing. I still thought that the audience would see me as an awkward teenager instead of the person I was portraying onstage. To my surprise, I was not the person I saw in the mirror. I was a graceful and sophisticated person. I learned how to dance.

Each show I am apart of there is always a new challenge to face. I might move a bit differently or learn a show a bit differently than my fellow cast members, but that doesn’t mean I’m a bad actor.  My high school theatre teacher once said: “If you rearrange the letters in ‘Theatre’ it spells problem-solving.” Dance is one of the biggest problems I have when learning a show. I may never be the best dancer onstage, but that doesn’t keep me from trying my best. During breaks, that has been a time to work with my dance partner or the dance captain to review the dances. I may have to watch a step by step video on the dance routine or have to write the steps in my script. 

My dyspraxia does make things involving gross motor skills very challenging. I have had moments when I’ve felt defeated and wanted to give up. If I didn’t have a learning disability, I wouldn’t be the hardworking and dedicated thespian I am today.

To my fellow actors out there who deal with disabilities, no matter how big or small the challenge that you face is, you are here onstage for a reason. What may be seen as a weakness can become your strength. You will go through many adversities, but in the end, you will come out okay. Trust me. To quote Tony Winner Ben Platt “Don’t waste any time trying to be anyone but yourself. The things that make you strange make you powerful”.

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When I say kids, I mean 6 to 13-year-olds. So, up to the end of middle school. If your voice has already started to develop or you’re in high school go check out my other lists.

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The post 10 Baritone/Bass Audition Songs That Are NOT ” Luck Be A Lady” Or “If I Loved You” appeared first on Theatre Nerds.