Welcome to Lyric Lens, a series of posts where I take a close look at some of my favorite lyrics, and the tiny details that I think make them so great. Since it was Adam Gwon’s Lyric Writing class that inspired this series, what better song to start with than one of Adam’s? I’ve chosen […]
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A ballad is a unique opportunity within musical theatre to really, truly connect to your audience, in a way that comedic songs are a unique opportunity to make your audience laugh and feel good. Both are important. And you usually need both in order to audition for any musical theatre program. This week, however, we’re […]
The post #NMTVotW: Singing a Ballad appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
I don’t know how or where exactly I first learned of songwriters Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk (also collectively known as Kerrigan-Lowdermilk) but whatever the source, it led me straight to their YouTube channel, which has garnered 3,182,254 views and launched 195 videos (and several careers in the process) since its inception in 2007. Their […]
The post Versions, Vol. 1: “Two Strangers” appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Many musicals nowadays don’t utilize overtures. I miss them. Originally used to alert an audience that the performance was starting and that they should go ahead and sit the hell down, the orchestra would breeze through some of the musical themes of the show, usually completely at the leisure of whomever the orchestrator was. (Note […]
The post Shut Up and Sit Down: The “Best Overtures” Playlist appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
In March 2010, the New York Philharmonic joined a plethora of Broadway stars to celebrate the 80th birthday of Stephen Sondheim. A memorable highlight from the event featured Michael Cerveris, Patti LuPone, and George Hearn performing “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd. Those familiar with the acclaimed musical thriller is well aware of the context for “A […]
The post A World Outside of its Libretto appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
I know we’ve talked about acting before, either via #NMTvotw or other posts on the Green Room. But I think it’s something that outside of the Green Room gets passed up a lot (we won’t even go into how infrequently dancing is talked about). In general, singing and acting should never be separate things. A […]
The post #NMTVotW: The Delicacy of Acting appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Once you’ve perfected that art of acting, singing, and dancing, you need to know the most important part of theatre, and that’s making it your own. We are all so unique that we all interpret the world differently, and it’s our job as actors and writers to make sure those unique things get out into […]
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Musical theatre writers, by and large, are musical theatre nerds first, whose natural proclivities have led them to their craft. They know their Alan Menken and their Cole Porter, and they may not remember all the words to the national anthem, but they could recite the lyrics to “Getting Married Today” in their sleep. But […]
The post I Wish I’d Written That appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
I’m sure all of you are great actors – you have to be to go into this business (yay triple threat!). But can you act while you’re singing? It’s a lot harder to do two things at once (multi-tasking is not actually a thing), so there are special rules involved when you’re acting and singing […]
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Pop quiz: name your top five new musical theatre composers. How many are women? If you’re me, maybe one half of a team. And it’s not that female writers aren’t out there, because they are. And it’s not even that they’re less talented, because give me five more seconds to think about it and I […]
The post Let’s Hear It For The Girls, Part One appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Congrats to this week’s #NMTvotw, with Alex Christ & Josh Kohane singing Funky Fried Piece of Man Meat by Drew Gasparini. This week’s #NMTvotw embraces all of the things a great performance should: it’s a duet full of passion with good video quality and well-dressed, great singers. And all of that is important. But none of […]
The post #NMTVotW: Theme appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
This is gonna be a short message this week. The #NMTvotw featured this week is absolutely amazing: Michelle Cosentino powerhouses Pasek and Paul‘s Ready to Be Loved. I’d like to address the final minute or so (starting at 3:12ish). This kind of singing is the kind that takes a lot of practice and is the […]
The post #NMTVotW: Riffs appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Without spending a shit ton of time explaining the rest of this post, I’ll just let it speak for itself. Here’s a list of little things from shows I just find unbelievably cool, with accompanying links to corresponding clips (save for #15). 1. The last “I wish…” Cinderella squeezes in at the very end of “Into the […]
The post Freaking Awesome Moments from Various Shows that Continually Blow My Mind to Pieces appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Art in all forms is really enjoying being meta these days. For those of you who don’t know, “being meta” means that you refer to the making of the art in the art itself, such as a book that says something like “Dear reader” (like Les Miserables does), or when the fourth wall is broken. […]
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I met a man without a dollar to his name, who had no traits of any value but his smile. I met a man who had no yearn or claim to fame, who was content to let life pass him for a while. He kissed me right here, and he said: He’s savin’ it for […]
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I love Google Alerts! I can find out who has been singing my songs online or what websites have published press releases. (I really need a “best friend” at one of them because then I might better press coverage, but that’s a blog for another time…) Anyhooters… I recently received an alert that someone had […]
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