Audition Tips with Artist/Voice Teacher Jodie Langel

Jodie premiered on Broadway as Cosette in Les Miserables while still attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and later went on to play the role of Eponine. Her Broadway tour credits include Martin Guerre, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Cats, She recently completed Bernstein's Mass at Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center with The Baltimore Symphony and was awarded 2008 "Excellence in Performance" for her starring role in the New York Musical Theater Festival's Production of "I Come For Love". Jodie was also awarded "Best National Anthem Singer of 2007" by the New York Mets. To find out about her book and summer workshops, see below and/or contact her at: jodie@makingitonbroadway.net Jodie is the co-author of the book "MAKING IT ON BROADWAY: ACTORS' TALES OF CLIMBING TO THE TOP", with a forward by Jason Alexander. The book is a candid, behind the scenes, and sometimes shocking look at Broadway's stars and is comprised of her interviews with such notables as Jason Alexander, Brooke Shields, Chita Rivera, Deborah Gibson, Ann Miller, Antonio Banderas, Donna Murphy and Idina Menzel. Her renowned program "Making it on Broadway" www.makingitonbroadway.net is currently in session this summer and you can email her there to sign up at jodie@makingitonbroadway.net.

Have great audition material!

Take classes, listen to I-tunes, spend hours on Youtube, go to concerts and cabarets and get the PERFECT audition song - a song that you LOVE and shows YOU - your personality and voice. I will talk about this later. Don't use those 16 bar audition books or Musical Theater Anthologies. EVERYONE and their sisters and brothers will use the same book and auditioners will hear those songs over and over. Be a detective and find GREAT music. That is my specialty and I can't tell you how important it is.

Confidence.

If you don't feel good about yourself, you can't give a good audition. Period. Be as prepared as you can be. take a long shower and think about everything you want to accomplish that day. Do your hair GREAT, put your best outfit on. Go over your music ad nauseum so you know it and are confident with it, then go in, and do it! I swear, auditioners can smell when someone isn't confident. Your audition starts as soon as you walk in the door. Never forget that. Not when you start singing. Walk with confidence. There is no reason that you shouldn't!!!!!!!

Love the song you are singing.

This could possibly be #1. I work with so many students who are kind of blah about the song they are singing or are singing the song because they think the song is "appropriate" for the audition but they really don't like it. NOOO don't do it to yourself! You have to LOVE what you are singing. How else can you give a good audition? Throw out all the music that your singing teacher TOLD you to sing and you don't like that much. Throw out the song that you don't connect to that much. Get a book that is only songs you LOVE!

Say hello when you walk in!

I can't tell you how many people DON'T do this. Again, I go back to my tip "Your audition starts as soon as you walk in. Come in the room with a nice, open demeanor and say "hi!". It speaks volumes. They already like you. You are confident. You are someone I want to work with!

Have your music marked correctly.

Oh boy... this is a biggie. Most of the students I work with blow their auditions because their music is not marked correctly and they have a disaster at the beginning of the song (i.e. they don't know where to come in) or at the end of the song (they don't know where to stop). Then they look at the accompanist like "Um, What's going on?" Has this happened to you? C'mon. Be honest. DONT LET IT! Go to a coach you trust and get it marked to its last life. Trust me, spend the money for a coach and get it right! Your audition depends on it.

Have a 16 bar cut, 32 bar cut and the whole song!

Again, i can't tell you how many students I have that sing a 16 bar cut and then the auditioner says to them "Do you have the rest of the song?" and they DON'T. Then the auditioner will say "Ok, thank you!". So have 16 & 32 bar cuts as well as the entire song prepared for every piece of material you have.

Take your songs out of context.

This is another thing I teach in ALL of my classes. Unless you are called back for a specific role in a show, you should take the songs out of context. You are not Eponine in Les Miserables with dirt all over your face singing "On My Own". You are you, singing this song because of what circumstances YOU bring to it and getting what you want because YOU decide all of these things. Do your homework, take it out of context, bring YOUR life to it and invest in the story and what YOU need to get by the end of the song. Then it's personal, interesting and different than everyone else.

They want to see YOU and who you are.

I think we forget this because we are trying to get a job and be the role they are looking for. What auditioners really want to see is who you are, and how you can interpret this character. They want to get a glimpse of you.

Eye contact.

Some people love it, some hate it. Gauge the room when you walk in. If you have a song that requires it, test it out. If they are uncomfortable then simply place your imaginary person just over their heads. Don't look up too high or have wandering eyes. Remember who you are singing to and what you want in the song.

Remember YOU LOVE THIS!

We love to sing, and perform, right? It is so easy to forget this as we go from audition to audition, putting ourselves out there, facing rejection and being vulnerable. But hey, when it all boils down to it, we love this!!!!!! If you remember that before you go in, I can assure you, you won't be as nervous. Think of it as a chance to perform, and LOVE it.

Expert Insight