The 'The Trickiest Roles in Musical Theatre' Thread- Page 3

[gypsy101]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 6:19pm

ComingUpRoses2 said: "Assassins is a good example, because every part in that show is literally 'walk in, do a quick scene, have a song, and then disappear until the finales of each act.' You don't really get to know any of these people at all. You have to make up backstories and subtext out of nothing. "

Well you don't have to make up the backstories technically because all the characters are real people.

[bananas4gibbons]

Posted: 9/8/17 at 12:58pm

As someone who actually played Squeaky in Assassins, I can attest to it being one of the hardest and trickiest roles I've ever played. In our version, we had all of the assassins remain onstage the entire time, watching and listening to the other assassins, while still in character. And there was a very delicate balance of coming off well-liked enough to make the role somewhat comedic in nature (in other words, to get the audience to laugh with such a dark subject matter), but also play it crazily enough to highlight that she is really off her freaking rocker (as were most of the assassins).

[johannabarker]

Posted: 9/8/17 at 1:19pm

Christine Daaé is one of the most demanding roles for sopranos and she doesn't even get the last bow, despite being the protagonist, onstage for the majority of the show, singing to a high C (the title song is prerecorded) and singing low notes as well, having to be a believable ballerina and opera star, going through an emotional journey throughout the show (unlike the Phantom who only really develops in the last scene), and having chemistry with two men. All this and she loses the last bow to a man with 30 minutes of stage time. There's a reason she has an alternate and the Phantom does not (and any Phantom actor who needs one is lazy). 

I think Raoul is underratedly hard, as the character is kind of a blank slate as written, and can easily be played as a complete jerk (Hadley Fraser, Rodney Ingram) or boring (Kyle Barisich) or simpering. He does a few unsympathetic things, and the actor has to make you believe he truly has Christine's best interests in mind and really loves her. Steve Barton did a great job of bringing him to life, and I feel like a lot of actors cast as him are just bitter that they're not playing the Phantom. There are far more great Phantoms and Christines than Raoul.

The Man in Chair is also incredibly difficult as he has no one to play off of the entire time except for the brief scene with the superintendent. 

 

 

[Itonlytakesajourney]

Posted: 9/8/17 at 2:13pm

I'm going to mention some recent tricky roles. 

So first things first, Evan Hansen. Not only do you have to act awkwardly and learn all of the little ticks and fidgets he does, you have to literally sob on stage while you're singing. You need the right amount of emotion to make the audience feel bad for him. You need to study up on mental illness pretty extensively to get this role right, have incredible range, and basically transform into another person. Evan is as close to real as a character can get that even Ben has sort of adapted Evan's characteristics. All the praise for Ben is well deserved; this role is by far one of the trickiest to get right. 

Now these two aren't the hardest out there, but are pretty hard to perfect (from what I've heard by others and seen myself): Donny Novitski and Julia Trojan. Hear me out. Donny has to have stage presence. Not an incredible amount, but it needs to be nuanced yet desperate. Donny has PTSD, and the actor portraying him has to portray that rawly. Not a very easy role to cakewalk. Julia, while she doesn't have a mental illness, she does suffer from grief surrounding her husband. She needs to slowly open up to the band, and have that warm, loving personality. Plus, both leads needs to have silky smooth voices that have the vibrato to slay the h*** out of that score. The dancing and choreography is also a prominent part of the show, so there's that. Donny also has to play piano.

A tricky one that doesn't get discussed much is Dolly Levi. Not vocally, because measured by only that it's a piece of cake. But the personality has to be there. The explosive chutzpah, the creativeness; you don't want to phone in the character. I've seen some Dolly's that just can't get into the role because they either overplay it, or are way too subdued. You also need to be feeling emotion in her monologues. Dolly has to be reminiscing in those moments, and hamming it in with excessive tears isn't the way to go. 

The D'Ysquith family. I don't think I really need to say why.

 

[Itonlytakesajourney]

Posted: 9/8/17 at 2:14pm

^^ Sorry for the novel, clearly I have a lot of thoughts about this