Worst Audition

[Kathleen2]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 1:25pm

I was just curious what each of your worst auditions were.
Mine probably would be when I was auditioning for Once Upon a Mattress and I chose to sing On My Own. I was concentrating so hard on not messing up any of the notes, that I completly blanked out on all the words. So the piano was playing, and there I was standing up on stand humming to the song. It was a disaster..one of the Directors ended up singing the song to me so I could get the words correct.

blah

[JasonM12480]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 2:30pm

The worst audition I ever was witness to was a white girl who sang "Your Daddy's Son" from Ragtime...but it wasn't the fact she sang that song...it was the 16 bars she chose...she sang the beginning "Oooooohs", all off pitch, and ended there. It was all I could do not to wet myself. So horrible - yet so funny.

[Kathleen2]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 2:32pm

::cringes::

[IMsooHyprToday]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 2:33pm

The worst audition ever can be found in the deleted scenes on the DVD of "Waiting for Guffman".

Parker Posey does a wonderful job at being brilliantly bad.

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 2:37pm

I was auditioning for the Broadway Theater Project and I was singing "A Christmas Lullaby" from SFANW

DO NOT SING A SONG THE ACCOMPANIEST DOES NOT KNOW!

I gave him the tempo... well... he didn't get it. He played it as if that was cut time and played it twice as fast as it's supposed to go. I got so flustered that I tried to keep up but ended up singing the wrong note and then spoke part of it. I got back to singing it by the end... but I definitely cried after I finished my monologue and had walked out.
Updated On: 5/21/05 at 02:37 PM

[Broadway_freak]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 2:49pm

Well, for my summer auditions a couple weeks ago I totally biffed it. It was an open audition and everyone could see if you had talent of if you sucked. I was so pumped and excited I left my monologue at school the day before, and couldn't go get it. So there I was the only person there who didn't do a monologue, and when it came to the song I completly forgot the lyrics when it was time for the money notes, so I jsut stood there like a deer in the headlights. To top it all off, I was the ONLY guy who messed up the dance, and it wasn't even that hard. I was so pissed, but luckily the director knew me and I got a decent part. Never go to an audition unprepared.

[otis33]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 3:04pm

I was called in to an invite-only audition for a tour of "A Chorus Line" in the early '90's. There were only 12 of us there. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE, had done the show either on Broadway or on tour...everyone except for me. I'd never done the show anywhere. The choreographer asked if anyone needed to review the opening number choreography. No one raised their hand, and being 19 and green and not wanting to out myself as a novice, neither did I. Word of advice: Always raise your hand if you don't know or have never learned the choreography. About half way thru the audition, it became painfully obvious that I was pretty darn lost. I was asked to leave. Still to this day haven't done the show. Don't know if my body could dance it anymore anyway.

[timote316]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 3:14pm

My college musical a couple of semesters ago was the North American premiere of 'Drakula: the Rock Opera' (it was horrible). It was open auditions, I went when it said, and they told me they made a mistake, and it was callbacks right then. Because they made the mistake, they told me to stay, as if I were called back. They taught us a dance, which was rediculously hard (they said it didn't really matter, though, as there was little dancing in the show). The music director then told us there wasn't actually music for the show, and that he would sing a song from the show. He sang it once, and then expected us to sing it. Like the dance, it was rediculously hard, ending in a rock and roll-type scream (I actually didn't do too bad with the song). They then had me stay to read lines (in a rock opera in which there were no spoken lines... so, yeah). They then told me specifically to check the cast list in the morning, rehearsals start the next night. I didn't get a part.

That's fine, because the show was horrible lol

[green_duck]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 3:15pm

Auditioning for Jekyll and Hyde with 'Everything's Coming up Roses' WHILE Gypsy was still on Broadway. Not to mention I can't sing well.... that was a bad audition. The director caught me off five words in, he just new there was no hope, lol.

Updated On: 5/21/05 at 03:15 PM

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 7:13pm

mine dates back to high school (sadly not that long ago)- the director at the time used to insist that all males audition with the same song, same for the females, whichever she felt was hardest in the score for that sex to sing. So grease came around and regardless of the part you were auditioning for you HAD to sing "those magic changes", well at the time being a baritone (i've since opened my range up to include almost a full tenor too) it was not all too pleasant

[DEFYxxGRAVITY]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 7:20pm

My friend was trying out for a part and she was so nervous, she was shaking and she fell into a wall.

[Kathleen2]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 8:15pm

eek! ouuuch!

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 8:43pm

I auditioned for "Seussical" singing "Unexpected Song" from "Song and Dance"... the whole thing was a disaster. For some reason I was really jittery and just messed the whole thing up, losing my voice halfway through, etc... then I forgot half the dance they taught us. Fortunately however I didn't fall into any walls... ouch.

[Dreamcatcher]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 9:07pm

Actually the actual audition itself wasnt horrible but what lead up to it was. They decided to move the auditions up a couple weeks and I found this out about 2 days before they did. So not only was my song not prepared but to top it all off I was sick with a sore throat. I felt miserable and my throat was so dry but thankfully I could still get a decent voice out. But yeah that was the most stressful day and a half of my life. Just trying to kick that sore throat in the ass plus knowing my song wasn't anywhere near ready, urgh it was just awful.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 10:53pm

another- this is actually a general problem in the theater by me, the pit of the theater's acoustics are horrifically offset so that if someone or something is making noise in the pit not only can the audience not hear the actors onstage (mics help alot) but when you're up there you cannot physically hear yourself either, so particularly rhythmical audition songs (a puzzlement comes to mind blaringly) were impossible

[gertiecummings]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 11:11pm

Trying to learn a song in 2 days is not fun

And Don't Tell Mama is not a good audition song (Of course that's because auditions were announced 5 days beforehand, so I had to pick something I already knew.)

Worst though was when I was TRYING to learn On the Steps of the Palace for an Asassins audition. (I now that that was a horrible choice for many reasons.) I'm so glad I got the flu two days before that audition because I know I would've bombed it horribly.

[alphieboy]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 11:14pm

I was auditioning for the role of the Beast, and we were doing a cold read, it was the scene after the Beast gets attacked by wolves. Well we were reading and I acidentally said Belle's line which was something along the lines of " thank you for saving my life", and I said it all like beastly, and me and the girl both just started laughing. It was very embarissing.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 11:38pm

I have good auditions....I jsut get small parts. :)

[Mamie]

Posted: 5/21/05 at 11:45pm

IMsooHyprToday - just watch Parker set up that scene and you know you're in for a treat. I think Chris Guest said it was her first shot at improv. It's hard to believe.

[Bwaybaby109]

Posted: 5/22/05 at 12:38am

Mine was for Merrily We Roll Along. I have perfect pitch and I sang The Spark of Creation and this was my first college audition so I got really nervous and for some reason, I didn't pay attention to my starting note and I wasn't paying attention to my pitch that I usally hear inside. I was so off key at first which is totally unlike me. But I still got cast anyway surprisingly even though I didn't deserve it. My voice teacher even said my vocal audition was awful but he knew that wasn't like me so..anyways that was a freaky experience.

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 5/22/05 at 1:05am

1. We had to learn "Gotta Have Heart" from DAMN YANKEES for DAMN YANKEES. This was a few years ago and I wasnt as serious about theatre as I am now, so I didnt have a voice teacher. I went up there t sing it, and I could NOT hit the high notes! It was SOO imbarresing! I did get cast though...cus of my dancing.

2. I think this is one of those "you had to be there moments", but oh well. So we were doing "It's a Wonderful Life" at my local theatre. I was handing out the forms to fill out and stuff. I wasnt suppose to aud., but I did. So I get up on stage to do a cold reading with a LONG line of ppl. One of my friends that I hadnt seen in FOREVER was next to me, and when we were done reading and just standing there, we started talking. SO then the director ,who I am friends with, called my name and sayed something. I thought she was cracking on for for aud. when I wasnt supposed to. So I walked across the stage to put my script down. Then she says, "What are you doing? I told you to say your nme and number." I felt SOOOO stupid! But I just walked very fast, back to my place and said my name and number. What made it so bad was that this all happened in front of someone I had a crush on! The person even asked me about it! But, we were friends so I just made a joke about it, we laughed, and moved on. I'm sure they've forgotten about it by now.

[Audryna]

Posted: 5/22/05 at 4:40am

I suffer from the dreaded "cringe disease". Whenever I need to really pull it out in an audition I tend to mess it up to such a degree that not only do I ruin my chances, but I have everyone cringing over the sheer embaressment of my performance.

During an audition to join a music troupe in my university I forgot the entire last line of the song and just stood there like a muppet looking at everyone and THEN I actually turned to the audience of auditionees and asked if any of them knew the last line. My sister was in the crowd of auditionees and she laughed in a way that made it look like I had planned it all, so she saved my bacon there.

Then I was singing in a charity concert in front of thousands of people and I was so flat and high pitched I sounded like a chipmunk on crack. I actually froze in shock as even I couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth. And then, yet again, my sister was performing in the same concert and saw how I was floundering so miserably like a whale trying desperately to hurl itself back into the ocean. She came out on stage and helped me finish the song. I suppose I don't audition for stuff like this anymore as I need her in the background in case I pull a "Kalani" and need her to rescue me.

[filmgirl325]

Posted: 5/22/05 at 11:27am

Mine was when I auditioned for a high school production of "Noise is Off" For the audition our director wanted to see that we could multi task while speaking our lines (because the show has so much physical comedy and intricate physical and comedic timing) So he gave each person a task to act out while we spoke our lines. So he handed me a card that said alphabatize. Then he took a bunch of cards that had last names of the people auditioning and threw them on the stage. Instead of alphabatizing them...like I was supposed to...I thought I had to pick one card and pretend to be like one of those people on the cards (I knew most of the people). So I picked one that had my friend Dan's last name, and started pretending to be like him. Fifteen seconds into it, my director stopped me, gave me an evil glare, and said "What the hell are you doing....ALPHABATIZE!" He usually isn't that mean, and I still managed to get an understudy role in the show, but that will be in my book...the worst most embarrasing moment of my life.

Updated On: 5/22/05 at 11:27 AM

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 5/22/05 at 11:43am

When I auditioned for Syracuse's undergraduate theatre program, I went into the audition with "Poor Wand'ring One" and "Shy." Well, I was a little tinny on PWO since I hadn't warmed up, so it wasn't too good, but when I got to "Shy," I basically shrieked the first big belty note and everyone behind the desk shrank back and their eyes widened. I guessed then that I wasn't getting into Syracuse.

[bdwybelle]

Posted: 5/22/05 at 11:47am

My worst audience was for Guys and Dolls at my school, which has now been canceled because the director didn't know that it was playing in London.
Anyway... I had been sick for the past two weeks and still am sick now, and the day of the audition I was losing my voice and I could barely speak. By the time my audition came, my throat was completely shot. I sang 'Bewitched' from 'Pal Joey' and I didn't crack or anything, it just wasn't the best sound - besides being feverish and shakey. I'm sure it was a disaster to watch. lol.