A Thought About Song Preparation

I was recently reading an article on Christiane Noll - a question and answer type of article. Christiane is one of those artists that gets every bit of life out of the song. Many times, like she did in Ragtime, she finds different angles or bits of the song that people formerly blew over. In the article, which I now can't find, she talked about how she separated out the preparation. There is the music, the ebb and flow, the music line, and the technical work behind that. Most singers at her level do not have to work at that because they have fined tuned their instrument to the point where it will naturally do what it should. She looks at the text - the whole and the individual, and then takes the text out of the music. She said something to the affect that her next step of preparation was to tell the whole story without the lyrics - to do it only through the music and her acting. And that is how she gets the performance she gets! Amazing! She's also hysterical!

"What I Did For Love" - A Chorus Line

I cannot tell you how many times I have played this song, read the lyrics, and thought I understood what the song was about. And then I did the research on the plot of A Chorus Line. I knew how it was conceived: back in 1974 there was a taped session and two workshops for dancers held in NYC. None of the dancers, or gypsies as they were called, really knew what the project was about, they only knew it could lead to a job in a chorus of one of the musicals. In reality, 8 of those dancers would be picked for the production A Chorus Line and the plot revolves around the story of dancers and their journey to Broadway. It is very raw and very real; the stage has no set except a dance mirror and a harshly painted white line, from proscenium arch to proscenium arch, where the dancers stand in their perfect lines with their head shots in hand. The disembodied voice of the director is heard over head. As you watch the show you learn all different stories, some very progressive to put on stage in 1975. Perhaps that is why the show ran on Broadway from 1975 all the way to April of 1990 for a total of 6,137 shows.

Before I break into my thoughts on "What I Did for Love", for those of you Gilmore Girls fans out there, Emily Gilmore was played by Kelly Bishop. In 1975 she was still Carole Bishop, changing her name while on Broadway, and she originated the role of Sheila. I'll put a clip of her below.

So "What I Did For Love" is a love ballad about saying goodbye to a loved one, right? Because the dancers are all so focused on their craft they had to let all close relationships go? Or maybe its about a failed relationship, one that has really stuck with you, one that really hurt to give up? Well, close. As the show is headed full steam toward the finale, the final 8 dancers, Paul falls and breaks his leg in a tap routine and is rushed off to the hospital. He is out of the running. The director, still poking and prodding at his cast asks the dreaded question, "What would you do if you couldn't dance anymore?" And after some thought someone finally answers....

"Kiss today goodbye,
The sweetness and the sorrow,
Wish me luck, the same to you...
But I won't regret what I did for love,
What I did for love..."

The whole song is not actually about love for a person, but love for their craft. It shows their discipline, motivation, and living daily without regret.


Not a live video, but it is the revival recording with some good shots...



Kelly Bishop, about 8 years into the role....

24 Hour Musical

They did this crazy thing in NYC where they took 15 Broadway actors, a handful of writers and composers and created 4 short musicals in 24 hours. Meaning...they auditioned, cast, (then) WROTE, learned, directed, and performed the whole thing in 24 hours. Here is a clip of what it was like - FYI - the woman in red with the blonde hair is Scarlett Strallen, who at the time was Mary Poppins on Broadway.

Tom Andersen's "Yard Sale"

There's nothing else to say here....

"You'll Never Walk Alone"

Leave it to Richard Rodgers to write a song with each new line beginning on the next scale degree (do, then re, the mi and so on) and turn it into a smash hit. "You'll Never Walk Alone" has been covered by everyone from Elvis to Alicia Keys. It makes appearances in graduations and is even the anthem to football clubs in England. It originally took to the stage in Rodgers and Hammerstein's production of Carousel, opening at the Majestic Theater in 1945 for a total of 890 performances and then a revival in 1994 and a movie in 1956. It was a period show, set in New England between 1873-1888.

The plot is complicated, so let's bring it down to the bare bones: Nettie, Julie, and Billy. Billy is rough around the edges, capable of love but also capable of a darker side. Julie falls for Billy, and though he has physically struck her, Julie marries Billy. Billy is a decent man but makes many poor choices, gambling and getting mixed up with the wrong people. When Julie gives Billy the news that she is pregnant, Billy feels the pressure of providing financially for his future child. He is talked into robbing a store owner, and when the robbery goes wrong and he is cornered by the police. Billy stabs himself with a knife and dies. Julie, unaware of Billy's activities, arrives in time for Billy to say his final words.

As the townsfolk leave the scene, the weight of being a pregnant single mother in the late 1800's begins to press down on Julie. Nettie, her cousin, has heard the news and comes to her side. Billy and Julie have been living with Nettie and Nettie is more of a mother-type figure to Julie. As Julie begins to crumble Nettie reminds her of a gift with an inscription. She coaxes Julie to say the words, but as Julie says them they become painful. The song is taken over by Nettie and the words become a comfort, a reminder that you must keep your head up, and believe in yourself. Storms will toss, the world will turn, but you must stay upright, keep hope and people will stay with you.

[Nettie]
When you walk through a storm
Keep your chin up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At he end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone.

The incomparable Shirley Jones and Claramae Turner in the 1956 movie...


I wasn't kidding about the Football Club Anthem...here's Liverpool:

Ave Maria

I will be departing from my tradition of discussing musical theater and attempt to stay off my soap box as I take a look at "Ave Maria". Which "Ave Maria" you ask? All of them. My reasons for focusing on "Ave Maria" are due to two comments. The first was after being told someone learned the Schubert "Ave Maria" because they thought it was pretty but had no idea what they were singing about. The second reason happened as someone told me the Gounod/Bach "Ave Maria" sounded like the Bach Prelude I was playing and how weird it was that it was a piano solo after it was a song. For those of you who don't know, Gounod wrote the "Ave Maria" in 1859 to fit the pre-existing J. S. Bach Prelude in C major, although most people sing it in E flat these days. Bach died in 1750. He was not around when Gounod created the melody.

Ave Maria is a prayer, a very Catholic prayer, although it is considered part of the Universal Church. The history of the prayer begins around 1050, often said in some version of The Office. It began as an introduction with a genuflection and sometimes a penitential exercise. St. Elizabeth added to it, and it grew after it was criticized for not having a petition and swirled and changed until its current form, found in a breviary of Camaldolese Monks in 1514.

Ave Maria [Hail Mary]
gratia plena: [full of Grace:]
Dominus tecum [the Lord is with thee]
benedicta tu in mulieribus [blessed art thou among women]
Sancta Maria mater Dei [Holy Mary mother of God]
ora pronobis peccatoribus, nun [pray for us sinners, now]
et in mortis nostrae. [and at the hour of our death]

The first three lines are the words of the Angel Gabriel (Luke 1:28) when he addresses Mary. The words of the fourth line belong to St. Elizabeth greeting Mary. The fifth line is praise of Mary, and the final lines are a petition for help. While these were added after criticism that a prayer is not a prayer until there is a petition folded in, I find this to be a solemn and sincere petition.

People are correct, it is very beautiful. Prayer is very beautiful, and paraphrasing St. Augustine, when we sing, our prayer is twice as strong. Schubert wrote the following to his father after his work was performed: "They also wondered greatly at my piety, which I expressed in a hymn to the Holy Virgin and which, it appears, grips every soul and turns it to devotion."


Schubert's Version:


I think this is the Caccini version:

A different perspective can change anything - "Maybe"

It is interesting how a director can make a few small changes and change your perspective into a character. Small, small changes. Annie's Broadway opening was April 21, 1977 and ran for 2,377 performances. The revival opened March 26, 1997 and ran for 237 performances. Andrea McArdle, the original Annie, began cast as a chorus orphan but replaced Kristin Vigard in rehearsals before it opened on Broadway. Kristin became Andrea's standby. Kristin did the first week of performances at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT before McArdle took over.


Annie, 1999


Annie, 1982


And while its not "Maybe"...here's the famous Andrea McArdle singing "Tomorrow"

"Children Will Listen" - thoughts on Sondheim

Anyone who has sung a Sondheim musical knows he packs a ton of words into a small amount of space. I think so many words are thrown at you, the audience member, that you never really have time to take in the lesson. It moves the plot forward, you feel like you learned the lesson, but really it takes quite a few passes through the song to really get what was going on. I can't help but think his training under Leonard Bernstein lead him in that direction.

"Children Will Listen" closes the musical Into the Woods. It opened in the Martin Beck Theater, November 5, 1987 and ran for 764 performances after its run of 50 performances in San Diego. It has toured, been revived, and it keeps coming back. I loved working on Into the Woods any time I ran into it, but often wondered if it was just someone's way of deconstructing another beautiful memory - fairy tales. Perhaps not. Act One throws a bunch of fairy tale characters together, all on separate quests - quests about what THEY want. The Baker and his Wife want a child, Jack wants to buy his cow back, Cinderella wants her Prince, and Little Red Riding Hood needs to kill off a Wolf. Act Two takes those actions a step further and illustrates the consequences of the choices each character has made. After all, for every action there is a reaction and in life when we want something we often take something away from someone else in order to get it.

So...we get to the end of the musical, after Act II has shown us what happens after "Happily Ever After" is achieved, and we see lives very different from their intended ending. The Baker, with a baby in his arms, is terrified of his life before him as his wife has been taken away by the giant that Jack has unleashed. He is scared and afraid and unsure of how he will ever raise the child alone. The Baker's wife returns once more, as a spirit, encouraging the Baker to teach his child the lesson they missed through retelling their story: every action has a consequence. Be careful what you do, what you say, and be careful of what you wish for. You may just get it, but maybe not the way you intended to receive it.

Just a snippet of the lyrics:

[BAKER'S WIFE]

Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen
Children will look to you for which way to turn
Co learn what to be
Careful before you say "Listen to me"
Children will listen

...and below a clip of Bernadette Peters, from the Broadway Cast, singing this song. However, she played the WITCH and not THE BAKER'S WIFE, so this wasn't actually her song!

Do not self analyze!

Perhaps I am about to state the obvious here, but then again, it happens so often that I just might not be. As musicians or performers in the practice room we are constantly left up to our own devices deciding and debating whether what we just worked on was adequate or if it needed a few more repetitions. Eventually we all remember we love performing, we let go of our analytical self, and we sing or perform sinking deep into the song, remembering why we loved doing this in the first place, and give a stellar performance...in a practice room.

How many of you can attest to that? Or how many of you forget to let go and go to that place? Careful. That is how you burn out.

Now, because we are an instant-feedback culture, too many of us bring our analytical selves into our lessons, our coaching session, or even worse...auditions. Stop. Do not go there. Here's why:
First- if it is a lesson or a coaching session you need to remember why you are there. You have entrusted your craft to another gifted individual who will take what you do and shape and mold it into something even better. If you are in your head, analyzing everything that comes out of your mouth, all that person is hearing is your now crippled self analytical performance. That over analyzed performance is what you have given them to shape. Really? Not your best. So stop and let them do the work. They are NOT judging you. They are guiding you. And do not DO NOT do that in an audition. Go in, be in the moment, sing your heart out, be your character, and whatever happens happens. The directors do not need the self analytical garbage either. Two things will happen when you leave the room: You will remember none of it, which can be a great sign or your body will have an emotional reaction when you get out of the room all on its own. If it was a bad audition you will know it; if it was a good audition...you will know it. So let it just be a performance and not about your analytical self.

Get out of your own way and perform!

"Ten Minutes Ago"/Julie Andrews

"Ten minutes ago I saw you. You looked up when I came through the door. My head started reeling you gave me the feeling the room had no ceiling or floor..."

Cinderella, the Rodgers and Hammerstein version, began as a made - for TV musical. It was originally broadcast in black and white the 31st of March, 1957. They cast Julie Andrews as Cinderella after seeing her as the original Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. There were two more remakes of the movie, including the 1997 version with Brandy playing the title role. Yes, Julie Andrews was the original Cinderella and the original Eliza Doolittle before she ever became Mary Poppins or Maria von Trapp.

"Ten Minutes Ago" happens at the top of the second of three acts. The song is a waltz written in three quarter time. It is sung first by the Prince and second by Cinderella as they instantly fall in love with each other and dance at the ball. The words are identical and while the line whirls around it is easy to get caught up in the whirl of a new love. The biggest question when performing it as a solo, and not in the arms of someone, is how do you recreate the swirl and whirl of romance when it is you, singularly, on a stage? Better read the lyrics carefully!

One note on the recording - the quality of the sound isn't quite right. It doesn't capture Julie's fullness of sound that was most definitely present in the recordings made of My Fair Lady around the same time.

An over done one, but it should be looked at - "Castle On A Cloud"

Les Miserables began a novel by Victor Hugo and turned into a musical sensation that opened on Broadway March 12, 1987 after only 11 previews and closed May 18, 2003 for a total of 6680 performances in two venues: The Broadway Theater and Imperial Theater. Set in France between the years of 1815 and 1832, it shows the struggling French people, neglected, mistreated, and abused by the ruling class.

The issue with "Castle On A Cloud" as well as a few other songs from the show that are often over done are the way in which the songs are treated. The performances are merely a showcase of vocal talent. The words, well written, move people without the aid of the actors singing them. Too many times "Castle On A Cloud" is done by a child singing the notes and reciting the words. Let's go through the background and the text.

We meet Cosette, the character singing the song, as a young child. Her mother, Fantine, is single and works day in and day out to support Cosette. Cosette, however, does not live with her mother; she lives with inkeepers. In good faith Fantine had sent Cosette away for a better life, and believes these inkeepers use the money she has sent along on Cosette. When we meet Cosette we see a very different child. She is covered in rags, very thin, cleaning the bar floor, beaten, screamed at, left alone, and treated no better than a dog. Any money that has been sent for her goes to the Inkeeper's daughter, Eponine, who is spoiled rotten and treats Cosette with contempt. Cosette knows no love, no safety, no security. In order to sing "Castle On A Cloud", one must begin there. Cosette has just a moment to herself; a moment to escape to the dreamworld where she can find hope. When someone sings this song, they need to put themselves where Cosette is - destitute and without love. Her instincts and wishes dream up an imaginary mother, the lady all in white, but perhaps not knowing what a mother is she does not make the connection. There is so much weight in so few words and so much lost in performance. There is much more to the song than is performed as a solo, but for today, I will merely post the solo.

[YOUNG COSETTE]
There is a castle on a cloud,
I like to go there in my sleep,
Aren't any floors for me to sweep,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

There is a room that's full of toys,
There are a hundred boys and girls,
Nobody shouts or talks too loud,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

There is a lady all in white,
Holds me and sings a lullaby,
She's nice to see and she's soft to touch,
She says "Cosette, I love you very much."

I know a place where no one's lost,
I know a place where no one cries,
Crying at all is not allowed,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

The Soliloquy

"In every job, when its complete
There is a sense of bittersweet
That moment when you know the task is done.
Though in your heart you'd like to stay
To help things on their way
You've always known
They must do it alone".

Wise wise words. That is the song in its entirety. Anyone know where it is from? (I do, of course)

"Love Who You Love"

"Love Who You Love" is a ballad that comes from Flaherty & Aherns' A Man of No Importance. The show ran across four months, September through December 2009 at the Newhouse Theater in Lincoln Center. The plot centers around the main character, Alfie, reflecting back on his life as the director of an amateur theater troupe housed in a church in Dublin, Ireland. It is a complicated story, riddled with opposition of the Church from Alfie's choices of producing Salome and Alfie's final realization that he is gay.

"Love Who You Love" takes place in the first act after Alfie has spent time with the new girl in town, Adele. She breaks down crying and tells Alfie she has a boyfriend in another town. As a way of advising her as well as sympathizing with her over, he sings this beautiful song. At this point in the plot we are unaware that Alfie is not in search of a wife.

Not knowing the back story of the musical, and not ever hearing it in context or in an Irish accent, I took this song a different way. I looked at it through the lens of family, or the lens of difficult friends who put you through hell but you love them anyway. Because, in the end, whether they are friends, family, or something more, love can be a complicated emotion you shouldn't be ashamed of and words, their words, can matter greatly.

"People can be hard sometimes and their words can cut so deep.
Choose the ones you choose love and don't lose a moments sleep.
Who can tell you who you want?
Who can tell you what you were destined to be?
Take it from me...
There's no fault in loving, no call for shame.
Everyone's heart does exactly the same.
And once you believe that, you'll learn how to say
I love who I love who I love.
Then just go and love who you love".

"Hold On"

"Hold On" belongs to The Secret Garden by Marsha Norman & Lucy Simon based on the 1910 novel penned by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It went into previews in the St. James Theater on the fifth of April, 1991, opened the twenty fifth, and went for 709 performances until the third of January in 1993. "Hold On" is a belters' holiday from the angry "I'm going to take whatever is beating me down!" songs we hear so often. This song is tricky because you need to be able to extend up to your head voice with a fair amount of power. If you have a great accompanist and you spend the time really thinking about the meaning behind song you can bring anyone to tears.

Mary Lennox, both spoiled rotten and completely neglected as a child is orphaned when her parents die of the fever and is moved to the care of her recluse uncle, hidden from the world since the death of his wife. Also in the house is her equally spoiled but crippled cousin, kept in hiding in another wing. Over time Mary finds her cousin Colin as well as her deceased Aunt's garden. With the help of Dickon and her housemaid Martha, Mary starts to turn the manor and Colin around, spreading life everywhere. Mary's eyes remind her uncle too much of his wife, Lily, and he escapes to Paris, leaving the house in the care of his doctor-friend Neville. Fearing Mary will be the end of everything, jealous of how she has helped Colin, Neville attempts to send Mary to boarding school. Mary, finally growing out of her contrary nature fears losing everything she has gained. She is depressed and scared. In the pivotal moment, to fight or to go, she asks Martha, who comes out with this beautiful ballad.

The point of "Hold On" can be boiled down to the first few lines. Storms will brew around you, fights will happen, life will be difficult, but you have to hold on to who you are and remember you are the lasting power, not the storm. Martha sings this to Mary and it can be heart wrenching! I haven't yet found a YouTube version that does it justice, so good luck!

Here's a small quote from the song:

"When you see the storm is coming,
See the lightning part the skies,
It's too late to run-
There's terror in your eyes!
What you do then is remember
This old thing you heard me say:
"It's the storm, not you,
That's bound to blow away."

"I'm Not Afraid of Anything"

Jason Robert Brown is not a name plastered across Broadway musicals but I feel is well known in the musical theater community. His musical review Songs for A New World produced in New York City in 1995 calls for a cast of 4-6. I do not know much about the show or the back story but I do know "I'm Not Afraid of Anything" is a great song for showing emotional depth. Not having a story around it makes a person guess at the context. The character Andrea sings about how people around her are afraid of the silliest things like water or the dark. She sings about how she cannot understand people's fears and how she sees nothing but challenge and adventure in front of her...and then we see the crack in her armor. She is not as strong as she leads us or herself to be; she is running from getting to close to a person, for the potential of being hurt. Of being rejected. So she chooses to stay behind those walls and keep everyone out:

"And I'm not afraid of anyone!
I am sure to win with anyone at all
I'm not afraid of anyone
Not a soul alive who can get behind this wall
So let them call
And watch them fall
'Cause after all...
I'm not
Afraid."

Interestingly enough, JRB did a Karaoke contest of the song, so there are a million renditions, not so great, on You Tube... This song is deceivingly difficult to sing.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

When Mary Poppins first took the the silver screen in 1964 it was saccharine and magical. There was something beautiful about the film and the story that warmed everyone's heart in only the way Disney was able. P.L. Travers, the author of the book, was not happy about the way in which Mary was "Disnified". Travers' vision was darker, more stern, and full of more lessons. Perhaps even the Sherman brothers, who wrote the original music that we all know, realized the songs were meant more to be lessons. Fast forward to 2004 in London and you find a very different Mary Poppins and a much more defined story.

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is not just a song about a nonsense word. If you listen to the reworked lyrics and music by Stiles & Drew you will see Mary's urgent message that it isn't always how the message is packaged that is important but the meaning behind the words within it. It is sung directly after they meet the Bird Woman. Mary sees a beautiful, wise friend while Jane and Michael are immediately repulsed by what they have seen. It causes Mary to scold Michael, saying one of my favorite lines from the show, "When will you children look beyond what you see?".

If you didn't get the chance to see Scarlett Strallen in the title roll, here is your chance:

"Where In the World Is My Prince"

This is another Cindy/Omri find from my days in upstate New York, though the YouTube clip below is not from our production. Most people do not know Miss Spectacular except maybe for some production merger money issue. It never came to the great white way, but it definitely was lit up in lights. It played in Las Vegas. It as a very typical plot line, sort of 42nd street in flavor: a girl from the Midwest heads to Las Vegas to become a chorus girl.

"Where in the World Is My Prince" is a hilariously whiny but funny song making fun of a woman's misery over finding "the one". It takes every day events and characters and pokes a little fun at those who have money. Just because you have money doesn't mean you have everything. The tune is repetitive...strike that. The tune is very repetitive. A good performer with confidence and skill can make it interesting, almost to the point you don't realize how repetitive it is. Check it out!

"New Words"

You won't find "New Words" easily as it was written by Maury Yeston for his Broadway piece In The Beginning in 1987. After looking through the database I was unable to find an opening date for this work, so I am lead to believe it did not make it to the great white way. Never mind, it is still a great piece. An amazing actor, Omri, found this piece among others and a wonderful soprano, Cindy, sang it when I first heard this piece in upstate New York.

But, enough about how I found it, here is why I like it. It tells the story of a parent sitting with their child as the child begins to put together sounds to create words. It outlines how the world is just beginning for this child, how so much is left for them to learn, and how beautiful the world potentially is. The parent carefully guides the child through these new experiences. The melody line soars and the piano part is beautiful all on its own. It almost doesn't need the vocal line!

It is hard to find performances of this song, so here is one of the better ones I've heard, though I admit to only listening and not watching.

"Back to Before" - Christiane Noll

Christiane Noll is considered one of the most versatile Broadway singers out there. I was sitting at home Christmas break debating making the trip down to NYC to see Ragtime. I saw one clip of her "Back to Before" and had my ticket bought before she finished.

I'd heard this song done by several different people. What I like about Christiane's interpretation is you see the character Mother reflecting on her safe past that was only less than a year ago - where she was no more than a doting wife with no worries in the world and comparing it to where she now stood. She was a woman whose husband went traveling for a year and in that time she had to run the family business, make decisions about the house, had to choose between sending a negro woman who was in trouble away or standing at her side. It was 1906 in lofty New Rochelle, NY and she took the woman and baby in and welcomed the man who was courting her to the door every Sunday. Christiane shows you the weight of the decisions and the change within Mother...how she literally cannot go back to being an ignorant woman of the times.

Audition Advice...the Do's.

1. Warm up, stretch, and breathe.

2. Be aware of the show you are auditioning for and pick an appropriate piece.

3. Research the piece you audition with; know the story beyond just those words.

4. Spend time memorizing the words and knowing what everything truly means.

5. Bring a spare copy for the accompanist with your stop and start marked.

6. Walk confidently in the room, look confident when you stand, even if you don't feel confident.

7. Speak slowly, listen carefully, and take your time. Keep yourself together.

8. Say hello to everyone in the room, especially the accompanist. You want him or her on your side.

9. Take a breath and nod at the accompanist when you are ready to begin. You start your audition.

10. Say thank you on your way out, even if you know the people very well. Never forget manners.

Audition Advice...the Do Nots...

I'm compiling a list of things I've run across that you should just NOT do in an audition. Chances are, if it is listed here, I've seen it.

1. Do not pick music that is extremely complicated timing wise between pianist and vocalist. It doesn't matter how talented the both of you are, if it requires some work to put it together, it will not represent you well. Pick a different piece.

2. Do not make excuses for your voice. First off, who ever is in the audition room will be able to hear if there is an issue and will most likely ask. Really. I promise. Secondly, it makes you seem weak or cowardly. Just suck it up!

3. Do not talk incessantly and stall before you begin to sing. It just raises your anxiety level and it tells everyone in the room you are not confident. Not the ideal impression to be giving.

4. If you know someone in the audition room, remember they are doing their job. If they want to bring it to a familiar level, let them do it. Not you.

5. Do not pick music that is not similar to the show. We don't need to hear you belt if we are doing Rodgers & Hammerstein nor do we want to hear a pretty ballad if we're doing Chicago. Sorry.

6. Make sure your papers are in order. This includes any music you are handing to anyone. No accompanist wants to turn to page two and find page three upside down in front of them.

7. Do not read over the accompanist's shoulder if it is your audition piece. You should have it memorized, or at the very least, have your own copy.

8. (From Peg) Don't bring the vocal line from a chorus book (or worse, a lyric sheet for your song) and give it to the accompanist as though she'll be able to magically pull the piano part out of thin air.

"Some Things Are Meant To Be"

Little Women has been a book, a few movies, an opera, and a musical. The musical itself didn't last very long; it began previews December 7, 2004; opened officially January 25, 2005 and closed May 22, 2005 for a total of 137 performances and 55 previews. Still...it made it to Broadway. Period pieces are hard to last (the time setting was 1836-1867). There is a hidden gem of a song in this musical, a duet between Beth and Jo is simple and beautiful. Beth, the youngest of the pair, is dying of Scarlett Fever and realizing her sister Jo loved her as her own, asks Jo during this song to let her go and go forward in her life.

"Some things will never die, the promise of who you are, the memories when I am far from you. All my life I've lived for loving you; let me go now."