Musical Theatre, please help me find a suitable monologue and song for DS 12.

[klh99]

DS who will be 13 in June needs to prepare for an audition to join a musical theatre group. For this he will need to sing a song and also perform a monologue. No other instructions.

He's never done anything like this before and I am clueless so if anyone can think of anything suitable, I would be really grateful. I have searched online but struggling to find anything to suit a 12 year old boy.

DS has drama lessons at school and I'm sure he will enjoy doing the monologue but will be very nervous about the singing. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you in advance

Broken or unbroken voice or starting to change?

Thanks for your reply. His voice hasn't broken yet!

Monologue from a play or a musical?

And what has he suggested? (Presumably he's interested enough to have some preferences of his own.)

Song Ideas

Almost Nearly Perfect - Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
Little People - Les Miserables
Consider Yourself - Oliver
The Bare Necessities - Jungle Book
I Wanna Be Like You - Jungle Book
I Just Can’t Wait to be King - Lion King
A Whole New World - Aladdin
If I Only Had A Brain - Wizard of Oz
Expressing Yourself - Billy Elliot

For monologues anything from Roald Dahl, Narnia books, Railway children etc

Thank you very much for the song suggestions Comefromaway. We will try them out this weekend.

As for whether the monologue is to come from a play or a musical? I haven't a clue QuaterMiss. They've not really given us any information. He was thinking maybe something from Sherlock Holmes, as he's a big fan of the books but I read that it would be better if the monologue was age appropriate. That's why we are stuck really.

Any other advice will be thankfully received.

Is the group just children or mixed? He’s best choosing something that he could be cast as but in a children only company kids may play adult roles.

You could look through The National Youth Music Theatre site to see which productions they have put on recently.

And perhaps Youth Theatre Monologues: 75 Speeches for Auditions [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1848426763/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_onfECbD7DM7AQ?tag=mumsnetforum-21 The National Youth Theatre Monologues]] might be useful for the monologue.

Thanks. The age range of the group is 11 up to 19. They've performed productions such as Les Miserables, Phantom, Footloose and I think their next production is Shrek.

Apologies - no edit function!

Youth Theatre Monologues: 75 Speeches for Auditions [[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1848426763/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_onfECbD7DM7A?tag=mumsnetforum-21Q]]

Nope - won't copy. It's on Amazon anyway. And other sources available, I'm sure.

Songs:
Electricity - billy Elliott
If I only had a brain - wizard of oz
Edelweiss - sound of music
If I was a rich man - fiddler on roof

I'm quite liking 'If I Only Had A Brain' suggestion so thank you for that both.

Think some of the other songs may be a bit too young but will try them out.

What does anyone think about 'If Only You Would Listen' from School of Rock? Just been listening to that on Spotify.

It's maybe for a slightly older character but that guy from blood brothers could work quite well, it's a teenage lad comparing himself to another, I love the line "and then she attacked me with permanent acne".

Oh and the monologue by Mickey from blood brothers, but I'm not, I'm nearly eight is great.

Oops sorry, is I wish I was our Sammy

If Only You Would Listen is a great song!

Does he have any singing experience? I often help kids with audition prep and it's really helpful for them to have some guidance, I think it's asking a lot for him to do it alone.

If I only had a brain would be perfect to show the type of characterisation needed in a show like Shrek. A lot of Shrek is parody.

Also google Rebecca Young monologues. They are available on Amazon & some are on free preview. She does a lot of Fairytale gone wrong comedy ones. I’m more familiar with the girl ones but they are really good v

I'd say go for something from Oliver. Dodger/Consider Yourself if he's got a fairly normal accent, Oliver/Where is Love if he is a bit more 'Home Counties'/has sung in a choir before, as the Dodger songs aren't so technically demanding and give a lot of scope for a monologue and acting/performing whilst singing.

If he were very confident about the acting, I'd suggest Reviewing the Situation or Pick a Pocket or Two as his song as Fagin has the best songs for performing, and whilst they are not enormously technically demanding, they need an ability to sing in a less common scale, make the words absolutely clear - and I would say it's almost impossible to perform them without acting, so would give a better idea of whether he can, irrespective of his level of singing experience.

As an aside, if he really enjoys it, does he have singing lessons? They would be a very good idea, as a professional tutor would be able to guide him through his voice breaking in a way that doesn't damage him or push him too hard when it's still changing.

Good luck to him, whatever he chooses!

This is all great. Thanks so much for all your advice.

Will he have to sing the whole song or just part of it, do you think? Also, I’m guessing the monologue should be a minute or so?

I’m going to try and get him a couple of lessons with a singing teacher I think. It will hopefully make him feel more confident. He loves singing in the school choir but has never sung alone so will find it hard.

My eldest daughter has just been through the exact same thing, although it involved dancing too. School of Rock is very "in" at the moment and can only be sung by boys with unbroken voices so would probably be ideal. Monologue can be anything really. My daughter did a poem which she dramatised with actions. She's only been there a few weeks and has already landed herself a west end audition. Best of luck to your son!

There are some good songs in 13 by Jason Robert Brown, if you want a more contemporary sound

The premise is that Evan is 12, he's just moved city, his parents are divorcing and he's got his bar mitzvah to prepare for

I think you have to be a pretty confident singer for 13 though.