Roles that actors auditioned for- Page 2

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 12:41pm

Michael Shurtleff writes about one memorable audition for Tom O'Horgan's production of Jesus Christ Superstar in his wonderful book on the audition/casting process, which I recommend to anyone.

Reproduced here:

The girl who gave the most exciting auditions (she did three of them) for the role of Mary Magdalene in Superstar was Bette Midler, already a celebrity at this time. Bette had taken my class on how to audition when she was in Fiddler on the Roof, playing a small role. She was extraordinary even then, and memorable, but she was disheartened at that time by her long tenure hidden among the supporting players of Fiddler. She felt she deserved leads. She was right.

Bette Midler sang "I Don't Know How to Love Him" like no one else: disillusioned, hurt, vulnerable, with the pain of a Mary Magdalene who had been made to believe again after she was determined not to because of the hurts she had experienced. Tom O'Horgan adored her and was strongly tempted (even though [Robert] Stigwood and the writers were always in favor of the woman who had done the record, Yvonne Elliman), but eventually, I think, he realized this mature, voluptuous, womanly interpretation of the role would not fit in with his cast of hippies and flower children. He couldn't quite let her go, though. I was asked to bring her into the theater to wait for Mr. Stigwood to arrive. "Miss Midler," I said, "if you would be so kind..." And without acknowledging our previous association with each other, I led her to her seat. En route she whispered to me, "Don't give me away," and I didn't, for I realized a superlative performance of a celebrity star was being given to surround the audition itself. She was regal and mysterious, this Mary Magdalene, and she revealed not an ounce of the marvelous honky-tonk performer she was to be in her one-woman shows.

I tell this tale to show that actors must not worry about why they don't get a role; they should only concern themselves with doing the best damn audition they know how to do. Midler did brilliant auditions for Superstar, but she was not cast because it would have disrupted the casting of the rest of the show. Many times I have heard directors say about an actor: "That is the best audition we'll ever see of that role. Too bad we can't cast him." Their regret is genuine. But there has to be a balance in casting -- the parts must fit like a jigsaw puzzle -- and there are times when the best auditioners don't "fit."

An actor cannot concern himself with that; there lies madness. Just go ahead and audition well, cry a little when you don't get the role you want, but never ask why. The why is usually a series of imponderables over which the actor has no control.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 12:50pm

Gvendo, thanks! I really needed to hear that!

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 1:23pm

I second that!!! Thank you!!!