It does require a strong tenor with at least an F chested/mixed. It doesn’t require great comic timing, although that’s nice. This is potentially a very difficult role to cast. Mainly you need someone who can play haughty and put-upon well, and someone who doesn’t mind being spit upon repeatedly night after night. Underling does tap very briefly in Cold Feets, but it’s not complicated. It doesn’t have to be a terrific voice, but he does basically open the show-within-the-show, so it would be unfortunate if he couldn’t sing at all. Your typical stuffy butler/maitre d type, with a high baritone voice. If she doesn’t play, almost anyone can learn the uke in a hurry. It’s also helpful to have someone who can play the ukulele. It also helps to have someone who can spit in a mist, not a stream, but I’m not sure you can ask for that at an audition. You do need someone who can dance a little and who has excellent comic timing. In lieu of an actual old person, you can either make someone up to be old, or just play her as zany and forgetful. The joke is that she’s old and has no memory. It’s hard to play that well, and if you have somebody just playing it for laughs, the show has very little meaning. That record has replaced any kind of functional relationship in reality. An amusing remark, to be sure, but it really is a story about the Man In The Chair and his relationship with a record. When he came and spoke to our Villanova audience Bob Martin said that he considered the show a tragic monologue interspersed with some funny numbers. There is a tricky monologue at the end that pivots from tragicomedy to tragedy to comedy on a dime, and not everyone can pull it off. The important thing is that he can command the stage for the whole show he makes or breaks the evening. He has to be able to sing, but only enough to just carry a tune at the end. This is a tour-de-force role for a comic actor. The actors are also playing actors playing characters, so there is a layering of delivery that’s fun, but challenging. There is a kind of honesty in this very ‘fake’ acting, but it takes a while to find it. Stock Gestures, which are normally to be frowned upon in modern Theatre, are actually just right here, because they make the stereotypes very specific. These characters are big, comedic, and play for laughs. This kind of acting is the sort of arch performance style that plays the scene, but is really focused at selling the characterization to the audience. Normally you’re looking for the sort of honesty between characters that projects to an audience, but doesn’t particularly acknowledge them. This can actually be a tough thing for a trained actor. The characters in the show-within-the-show should ideally be able to act presentationally, as in the period. So if you did it at a High School, you’d have to beef up that chorus of servants and be very creative about where you put those extra actors. It does have an Into The Woods style casting problem, in that it’s a show with a large ensemble cast and virtually no chorus. The show is basically light, fairly clean with only a small number of potentially offensive moments (some of which could be ‘tweaked’ in a very conservative venue), and audiences love it. With the exception of Tottendale, who is supposed to be old, and perhaps Drowsy and Man In Chair, everyone else makes sense with younger performers. In many ways, this is a perfect show for young performers. Thank You, Ashley! Drowsy Chaperone Actor PacketĤ) Watch some Marx Brothers comedies (always good to have an excuse to do that) and/or listen to some of Tommy Krasker’s restorations of some actual Broadway comedies from the 20s and 30s. You’ll want to play Man in Chair.ģ) Our Dramaturg, Ashley Leamon put together some incredible notes for the cast, which I am including for you to use. They were incredibly nice people I’m really looking forward to their further projects.ġ) Listen to the Original Broadway Cast RecordingĢ) Read the script. We were very fortunate to have Bob Martin and Lisa Lambert join us for a talkback, which was really informative. If there are lousy ideas, I claim them as my own. If there are good ideas in this essay, they are most assuredly the result of collaborating with these incredible people. I’m assembling this rough guide having just finished a terrific run of this show at Villanova University, which was directed by Father Peter Donohue, PhD OSA, choreographed by Kevin Dietzler, with important assistance and insight by Dr.
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