Auditioning For Broadway
How can I audition for Broadway?
For Broadway theatres - for Broadway shows, if you are going to have an audition for it, generally you want to go into an agent submission. There is also what they call the cattle call, an open call, and I'll talk about both of them. The agent submission for an audition is your agent going through the breakdown and saying, "Ok, here's this part, I got a guy who is perfect for that, and I'm going to send him over there". So he'll call you up and say, ‘We've got this audition for you, it's next week”, and you go. The other type of audition that you'll have is what they call an open call. These are generally listed in trade newspapers. In the acting trade here we have 'Backstage'. There are other different trade papers that list open call auditions for Broadway shows. These usually take place in Midtown, at the Actors Equity Building, and what happens is, is they'll say, "We're having an open call for the revival of, say , ‘The King and I‘, and we're looking for all of these different type of actors. Somebody to play the King, somebody to play Anna, somebody to play Louis, all the different actors And so, people will show up from the appointed time, say it starts at nine and goes till five. Well, you show up and you get a number, and you have your opportunity to go in there and audition for the artistic staff. The difference between an open call and an agent submission is that, probably ninety-nine times out of one hundred, the people that show up in the play opening night were sent through an agent submission. But, there is that often time chance that somebody comes into an open call, and they are just so together, so confident, so really wonderful for the particular part, that the artistic staff will say, "Hey look, this guy showed up, and was amazing”. “He's been amazing at every audition that we've had him for, let's put him in the show. That does happen, but not quite as often as you would like. Most the time it's an agent submission that is going to get you in to a Broadway play.
What is an open call?
An Open call auditions, for a Broadway play for example, generally are advertised in trade papers like in New York here we have 'Backstage.' There's several other ones that deal with the acting community. And those say, "Hey, listen. We're doing this revival of 'Oliver' the musical and we're going to have an open call audition for it from 10:00 till 6:00 on whatever day." So on that day, people will show up and sign a list and then you have to wait. That's the thing about an open call, it's not quite as scheduled as an agent submission. Open calls generally are not the best way to book a show because generally agent submissions are where most of the roles fall out. But when somebody shows up at an open call with, as I said before, that triple threat, I can sing, I can dance, I can act and I'm incredible and they've got the confidence, then people will see it and say, "Look, this guy is for us. We've got to have him."
What is an agent submission for a Broadway audition?
Agent submissions for a Broadway audition are generally where the casting directors will call different agents and say, "Listen. We have this part" and "Who have you got who can fill the part?" The casting agent then will call an actor and say, "We've got this show. Here is the part. The audition is going to be -- whatever day-- at such and such a time." So you will have a specific time that you can go for your appointment. Say it is at 3:30 in the afternoon. You definitely want to get there a little early so you can be prepared and feel confident about what you are about to do. You will go at your time and when they call you in you will have a specific slotted time to do your work. Generally, what makes agent submissions more desirable is that the people who are in the decision-making position generally are going to be at the agent submissions; versus at the open calls, they might have people who are definitely involved in the artistic process but maybe not as powerful in terms of making final casting decisions. So the agent submission is definitely the more desirable one because then you have a chance to be with the people who are going to make the decisions in the end anyway.
What will I need for a Broadway audition?
You've definitely got to have a bucketload of talent. The Broadway theatre tradition in this country is a great and honorable and a highly sought out thing, so when you show up for a Broadway play, you've got a lot of history in back of you that says, "We're expecting something really fantastic." So you want to be there with your best. You have an audition for a Broadway play, read the play. Read the whole play. Understand it, so that when the guy says, if the director should say to you, "You know earlier this happens," and you say, "Oh, I didn't know that that was supposed to happen." Well, yeah, that's why you're saying this now. So you can cut a lot of that off by just reading the play. It is one of the simplest things you can do and one of the things that a lot of people forget about. You should be ready with what you've been asked to prepare, whether it be a song, whether it be a monologue, whether it be sections of the particular play that you want to, that you're auditioning for, and you want to be relaxed. Part of the reason you want to get there a little early is so that you can be relaxed, and be confident; feel like you're not at your wit's ends in the middle of the audition. And when the audition is going on once you start it, keep it rolling, if you can. You don't want to stop if you can possibly avoid it. Unless a chandelier falls down or something like that, keep singing, keep talking, keep doing your thing. In fact, if it falls, keep doing it.
What is a monologue?
A monologue is something that is usually cut from a play. Actors are often requested to bring a monologue. Young actors should find something that they can communicate with.
How do I prepare for a Broadway audition?
I think the first thing to do is to know what you are auditioning for. If you are auditioning for a musical, you're going to want to know what the request is of you to bring to that audition. Generally, they will ask you for a piece of a song and a piece from the play, or a monologue. If you're going to have an audition next week for “Hello Dolly” or whatever it is, you want to have your song down. You want to have it cold, you want to have it memorized, you want to have sung it with an accompanist. Most of the time, you're going to be asked to sing with accompaniment. Or you are going to want to know what key you sing in. If you have music that goes with that song, you want to bring that music in and have the accompanist play it. They'll generally follow whatever tempo you're on, but you're going to need to have a piece of music with you. They may ask for a monologue, in which case you would bring something that you've got in your hip pocket that you do really, really well; that shows you off in the absolute best light. And then, also, they may ask you to read from a particular play. So, you'll want to read the play. You'll want to read it from the start to the finish and certainly, you'll want to focus on the scene that you're going to be reading. You'll want to have an understanding of where the scene starts, what happens in it and where it ends up and you'll want to try to communicate that arc throughout the course of your audition.
What is a 'casting couch'?
The casting couch is a term that we have used, that has been used in the acting industry for sexual favors for work. The idea is that a producer, a director, a talent buyer, somebody who is in a position to give someone a job is somebody who is in a position of power. One of the misuses of that power is to try to use it for sexual exploitation. A lovely young woman may encounter some producer, director somewhere along the line who is promising them work in exchange for the opportunity to get closer to them in a sexual way. It may happen for a young man as well, the exact same way.
What is a 'triple-threat'?
We call somebody who's got incredible chops, singing, dancing and acting a triple threat. Somebody like Hugh Jackman, this Jennifer Hudson who just won the Oscar for Dream Girls. These people have the ability to come in, sing you up and down the avenue, make you cry when it is all over and then spin around on their heels like their tinkle bell dancing. That's a triple threat.
How can I stand out in a Broadway audition?
I think the best way to stand out in a Broadway audition is through your own artistic excellence. Certainly you'll always want to dress and present yourself as well as you can, but one of the ways that makes you stand out in an audition is, first of all, your initial take on whatever the material is. If you have a real understanding, and a depth, and you're able to communicate that through your song or through your acting work in an audition, that will stand out. But often what happens is, a particular director, casting director, producer, might want to go a little bit deeper with you, might want to say, "Yeah, that was really great when you did this and that, but now I want you to do it again, and when you do it again, could you add this other layer, or this other dimension, to it?" Now, this poses quite a trick for most actors in an audition situation, because you say to yourself, "Well, I've worked it out the way I've worked it out, and I'm very happy with that," but that may not be enough to get you the job. If you really want to stand out, you've got to develop the ability to be able to hear what the director is saying to you, and then be able to give it back to them in some demonstrable fashion that they can say, "Hey, this guy really listens to what I'm saying, and he's able to turn around what I'm communicating to him in a way that demonstrates visually that he can take it to that next level." That makes you stand out in an audition, if you can take a director's direction and then spit it back at them in a way that they can say, "Yeah, I see that," that makes you stand out.
What lessons should I take to prepare for Broadway?
You should take singing lessons. You should take dancing lessons. You should take acting lessons and you should take observant life lessons because you know the acting, the singing, the dancing everybody's going to have that. Everybody who shows up for a Broadway play is going to have that. What you have to have is some understanding as well that says hey look you know I can understand this guy even though he's a truck driver from Salt Lake Xity divorced and with cancer and I'm this guy from New York or whatever I'm going to try to find some way to layer myself into that and that comes with understanding through life.
