I had an audition this morning for a professional musical stageshow in LA.

I was the first morning appointment of the day and had to fight with heavy commuter traffic to get there on time. It was touch and go there for awhile but I made it with 10 minutes to spare. I don't like to call it that close but 10 minutes early was certainly better than 10 minutes late. It turned out that I had actually arrived before many of the people running the audition. I wonder if any of them saw me driving down the highway's center divider? If they did, they didn't recognize me….whew!

In any case, after filling out the proper paperwork, I went in and met everyone and talked briefly with the accompanist about the two songs I was going to sing. Working with an accompanist that you don't know is always a bit scary. You never know quite what you're going to get and, for their part, they've often never seen or played your music before. Fortunately for me, the accompanist was really quite good and worked to follow me and make me look good.

Honestly, it had been awhile since I'd done much singing. I've been focusing much more on tv and film the past several months. I used to sing at least an hour a day and got to the point where I felt really good about my voice. I still had lots of room for growth but I was at least competitive for musical roles. So, when I got this audition, I was a bit nervous because I was out of practice. As I began getting back into the singing routine, I could tell that my voice had "lost ground" during my sabbatical. My range and stamina had certainly seen better days.

For this audition, I was asked to sing 16 bars from both a ballad song and an uptempo song. The role I'm going for is a baritone, which is a good thing in this situation. I'm a tenor but I chose two songs that don't go very high. No need to show my current weakness in the upper notes.

I chatted briefly with the auditioners and then sang the two songs. The room was great! It was a large meeting/training room and the acoustics were incredible. My voice rang out like a bell. I was happy and the auditioners were happy too. They gave me an immediate callback for Wednesday, as well as sides and music to practice. Since I don't play piano, I called on a friend to help me get up to speed (thanks Jeff!) on the song.

I don't know all the details of the gig so I don't know if it's something that I'll want to or can commit to do but you never know unless you try. At the very least, the quick callback was certainly nice for my ego! I'll keep you posted.

Fingers crossed!

And why haven't I heard about this audition? I want to sing, too!!! :)

And I'm probably just as much out of whack you were.

Knock em dead!