Audition Inspiration St. Pat’s Edition: Finian’s Rainbow

Don’t write off this classic:  Finian’s Rainbow is actually one of the more subversive slices of American musical theatre.  Finian moves to the “Missitucky” from Ireland with his daughters to bury a stolen pot of gold.  Inevitably, they are followed by a leprechaun.  Hijinks ensue, and of course the daughters find love.  However, one of the most intriguing subplots concerns the racist Southern senator who is “too busy defendin’ the Constitution to read it,” who, through a bit of Celtic magic, is turned into a black man so that he can experience the prejudice in his district.   Overall, the musical is charming, maybe a little hokey, but full of still-relevant commentary on our culture.  

It’s rarely done.

In case you do get the chance to audition for it, here are some suggestions for you!  Finian’s Rainbow premiered in 1947 with music by Burton Lane, who also wrote On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and lyrics by E. Y. “Yip” Harburg, who wrote, among other things, the lyrics for Wizard of Oz.  

1.  “Lady’s Maid” from Titanic.  (There are men’s audition cuts in this as well.)

2. “Change” from A New Brain

3.  “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from Wizard of Oz

4.  “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” from Showboat

5.  “Hey There” from Pajama Game

6.  “On the S.S. Bernard Cohn” from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (one of my faves!)

7. “Two Men in My Life” from Big Fish

8.  “Love, Look Away” from Flower Drum Song

9.  “People Will Say We’re in Love” from Oklahoma

10.  “Orange Colored Sky”  (by Milton DeLugg and Willie Stein)

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Anyone with sense can look at what’s playing on Broadway and see that pop music is here to stay. Catchy riffs and repetitive lyrics have proven to be just as profitable on the boards as on the radio. Yet most formal training programs have been slow to catch up to this development. Today’s Broadway singer needs to be able to move between pop and traditional Broadway as seamlessly as Jessie Mueller moving from Waitress to Carousel.

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National Tour, 101 Dalmations

Date: 4/22

Audition: EPA for Nt’l Tour of upcoming Disney mega-musical 101 Dalmatians

Outfit:  Black pencil skirt, black 3/4 sleeve top over beige lace underlay.  Paired with nude fishnets and my unlucky shoes.  (Seriously, I’ve never gotten so much as a callback wearing these shoes.  In music theatre, you audition the shoes.)

Song: ??

I get to Ripley Grier studios at 9 AM, right when sign up begins.  I manage to book my lucky time, 10:30 , so despite the shoes, things are looking up.  Ten thirty is lucky because the casting director has at that point seen enough people that he or she is primed for someone to be good, as opposed to 12:00, when all he can think about is lunch, or 3:00, when he’s wishing everyone would go away, or 5:00 when he’s seriously contemplating a martini, and so forth.  My theory is tested and true.

Dave Clemmons is casting this, and fortunately Dave himself is not in the room.   He saw me at Carnegie Mellon years ago, told all the teachers how I was the next Patti Lupone, then refused to cast me at every opportunity.  Oh, except for the Cats tour, which he personally did not cast, but Rachel Hoffman cast.  She now works at Telsey.  But it doesn’t matter because I didn’t take it anyway, opting for the Gateway Playhouse and my Equity card.  But I digress.

I am unsure of my song choice going into the room, so I decide to give Joy, the casting director, some options.  “Since it’s a new musical, I’m unsure of what to sing,” I say to her, emphasizing the liquid u in ‘new’ (pronouncing it n-yew), therefore drawing attention to my training.  We decide on “You Can Always Count on Me” from City of Angels.  The piano player begins the song, disregarding the tempo I gave him, plunking it out like a geriatric matron returning home from a long night of Bingo.  I try to work it anyway, and at the end she says, “Thanks, Molly.  Good song choice.”  I can’t tell if she’s just being nice.  But it is nice that she’s nice, regardless.

As I head to the train, I pass a street promo where a loud black man is yelling, “Got a cat?  We love your cat!  Get your free cat food!  It’s Earth Day!  Free cat food here!”  So I pick up two cans for Pants as well as a ‘Buy Six, Get One Free,’ coupon.  (Um… great deal.  Thanks.)  I hear somebody go, “Hey, that guy’s eating his.”  The loud man shrugs.  “We tell ’em it’s cat food,” he sighs.  “Some people are just hungry.”

Another day pounding the pavement in New York…