Final Callbacks for Anything Goes

I went in to the final callback of Anything Goes, my 4th audition of that week, a complete mix of emotions.  On one hand I had a great audition for them the week before.  On the other hand, I had blown my Chaplin singing callback the previous day, which had completely shaken my singing confidence.  At the final callback there were twenty-three girls left, only 4 of them tall, and I was the only one of color.  Couldn't get much better odds since there are only 2 tall dancer girl tracks in the show.

We were all led into the room and led through a review of the two combinations we had learned previously.  Plus, we learned a short graboff tap break that we would need to do one at a time for Kathleen and the rest of the creatives.  We had to wait a bit after the review for the creative team to get here, but once they arrived we started right away.  I was in the first group to dance because I had another audition to get to.

I danced the first combination which went well and eventually also danced the 2nd tap combination.  I nailed all the sounds on my graboff break and once all the girls danced it was time to sing.  Because I had to leave so quickly I was the first girl to sing too!  No time to get myself together, but on the other hand no time to start getting in my head either.  I sang my song, "Oh Diogenes", for them and Kathleen Marshall told me it was an "awesome audition song".  Thats some good feedback!  I was expecting to have to sing my second soprano song, but Kathleen looked over at the music director who shook his head no and she said that was all they needed to see.  I was a little thrown off by this, but he had been in the room the week before so maybe he didn't need to hear me sing it again?  There wasn't much time to dwell on it anyways, because I was running off to audition for Into The Woods!

After waiting almost two weeks, I just found out today that I booked it!

Anything Goes National Tour pt. 2

In January I went to the open call for the national tour of Anything Goes.  If you'd like to read about it please go here.   Four months later, I had the opportunity to go back in for another round of auditions for the tour.  Which is just an example of how unpredictable the casting of shows can be.  You never know if you've been cut or they are just waiting until later to call you in.

The audition started out with the jazz combination we learned in January from the song "Blow Gabriel Blow" and then a cut was made.  I was kept and then we put our tap shoes on to learn a tap combination!  Yay!  Of course the combination was from the shows title number "Anything Goes".  It was a classic style tap number, only 64 counts long and the difficulty was not too bad.  The combination consisted primarily of back essences, grab offs, buck triple time steps and cramp rolls. I'm apologize if you don't know the tap vocabulary.  After learning it as a large group we began to do it three at a time.  I nailed the combination and the grab offs they made each person do alone.  After everyone danced they made another cut and those of us that were left now had to sing.

I actually debuted a new song at this audition called "Oh Diogenes".  It is a classic Rodgers and Hart song and perfectly suited to audition for this type of show.  It is a little longer of a song, at 32 bars, than the usual 16-bar cut I sing most of the time.  The song went pretty well and I was asked to sing a second contrasting song.  I chose to sing "Simple Little Things" which is starting to become my go to second/soprano song.  After I got done singing everyone behind the table looked happy and generally entertained which was nice.  A few days later I received an appointment for final callbacks the following week!

*Unrelated Thought*

Thus far in my auditioning I've noticed three different faces people generally have behind the table.

1. The person who smiles no matter what.  They will keep smiling even if you sing off key, crash and burn with the accompanist, etc.  Of course that can lead them to look a little like a crazy person sometimes. LOL

2.  The person who gives you the dead stare no matter what.  You could be Idina Menzel in the audition room and they will just stare at you like they have heard it all before.  No smiling ever.

3.  The person who actually seems to be reacting to what you are singing.  They are along for the ride with you.  They might not actually be smiling but they are into it.

Obviously, my personal preference is to sing for person #3, followed by #1, and lastly #2.  Person #2 has a tendency to unsettle me when I'm singing, which can make me nervous and thus mess up my audition.

*Unrelated Thought End*

Nice Work If You Can Get It

About 2.5 weeks ago, I was called in to audition for Nice Work If You Can Get It.  It was a emergency replacement call and they were specifically looking for a sexy black dancer girl.  I was super excited to be going in and very hopeful about the opportunity.  The call was late in the afternoon on Friday and rehearsal for the show was expected to start a week later!  So I knew that this would be the only audition and they were going to cast someone today!  Pressure!

Anyways, I get to the audition, change, and check in.  Then its time to head into the room.   There are nineteen other girls there and I recognize most of them from other auditions.  We learn a short cutesy combination from Kathleen Marshall herself and then its time to go three at a time.  I was front and center in my group and danced the combination well.  After everyone went, they asked us to all go outside and prepare to sing.  I went in and sang my first song, "Always True to You in My Fashion" from Kiss Me Kate and it was pretty good.  They then asked me to sing a second song!  Hooray for an in the room callback!  They wanted a ballad and I decided to sing "Simple Little Things" from 110 In the Shade.  The second song also went well.  Kathleen told me I did a very good job, made sure she had my name right, and that was it!

I was hopeful to get a call that evening saying I booked it, but as you can guess I did not.  I later found out from my agent that I at least did get put on hold for it, so they definitely liked me!  I'm definitely wondering if my second song choice could have been better, but its too easy to monday morning quarterback yourself.   Anyways, the girl who got the job had a couple of Broadway credits under her belt already and was a great dancer too, so Yay for her! 

I'm getting closer, I'm claiming it.

Anything Goes!

After the Flashdance failure, I headed uptown to the chorus call for Anything Goes.  The musical, currently on Broadway starring Sutton Foster, is going on tour in the fall of 2012.  Now, I'm not sure if I'm even remotely interested in going on tour again, but there is always a voice in my head saying "beggars can't be choosers" so I went anyways.  I made it to the call in time to hear my name called from the list and was given number twenty-five.  Which just so happens to be my lucky number!  Once again there were 80+ equity women there and they refused to see any non-equity dancers.  Since we were in a smaller studio than earlier that day, I was in the second group and had to sit and wait.  The wait wasn't bad though and I was soon headed into the audition room.

Once inside the room, there are a couple of things I always try to do.  First, obviously, is to stand in the front or at least somewhere I can see whoever is teaching the combination.  Second, I always try to determine who all the non-auditioning people are in the room.  A lot of times you can figure out how serious they are about hiring people just by seeing who's in the room.  If you have the casting director, music director, and choreographer all in the room, then they are probably trying to cast a show quickly.  However, if you walk in and its the assistant dance captain and a random assistant from casting you know they are either: a) in the very beginning of looking and there are many rounds of auditions left or b) they are not looking for anyone at all.  The later usually happens at required calls.

Anyways,  I get into the room and go stand in the front.  The dance captain (d.c) and someone from casting are there but no one else.  Oh well.  We begin to learn a combination the "angels" in the show do during "Blow, Gabriel, Blow".  It was a sultry combination complete with hip thrusts and fan kicks.  While not difficult, we were told multiple times by the d.c. not to make the hip thrusts "vulgar" and that the combination was all about focus.  I love stuff like that, so I had a good time.  We performed it four at a time and I was in the very first group of dancers to go.  After I finished I noticed they were separating headshots into separate piles to make a cut, but after everyone had danced they just thanked us and told us we were done! Booo!  No cuts, only one dance combo, and no singing!  Who knows when they are planning to get serious about casting.  I feel good about my performance though so we will just have to see what happens next.


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