off stage singing- Page 2

[CJR]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 12:27pm

I did pit singing for some local shows for a while.... I'd love to do it professionally.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 12:30pm

Anyone that hooks me up with an audition for one of these jobs will get 10% of my salary if I get it!

[Amneris]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 12:35pm

Lol! I'll do it.. jk i wish i could help! Usually you can audition for these jobs by sending your HS/Resume with a cover letter saying that you'd like to be seen for a booth singer for any upcoming shows that might need them.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 12:38pm

Who do you send it to, though, Am? The orchestra contractor or the casting director?

[Amneris]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 1:02pm

casting director =D Bernard Telsey held auditions just for booth singers for SNF. Just do it and see if you hear!!

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 1:05pm

Thanks. Maybe after the holidays I'll get some new pics.

Updated On: 12/10/04 at 01:05 PM

[temms]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 1:05pm

I work in the castiing industry, and I have never known of auditions specifically for booth singers. Every show I've used them for, they've come from the ensemble or understudies and were cast along with the rest of the company.

If a show were looking to strictly cast offstage singers who don't appear onstage, I imagine that the musical supervisor or the orchestra contractor would simply cold-call singers he's already worked with, or would take recommendations from a colleague who knows people. 99.9% of the time this will be someone with extensive studio singing experience on jingles and soundtracks and so forth.

So, if you want to be a voice over artist or jingle singer, that's an entire career that people spend a lifetime developing. It's just as difficult (perhaps even moreso) to get those jobs, since there are so few of them and so many great people already in the market.

People I've enoucntered in the musical theatre industry sometimes seem to think that voice-over work makes a good "fall-back" career option; on the contrary, the people that do that work are dedicated to it, and in my experience are some of the fastest, most talented singers I've ever encountered and who can just look at a piece of paper and sing it perfectly in any style asked for on the first take. I have tremendous respect for people who can do that, and it's not as easy a job as it might look.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 1:13pm

I wouldn't try voice-overs. I know how hard that is to get into - I have friends who do it.

But thank you for your information, temms. It makes a lot of sense.

[Amneris]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 1:15pm

but also, the booth singers in some shows have to sit in a tiny room for 2 hours SILENT until they have to sing.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 1:16pm

That's okay, Am. That wouldn't bother me. Especially after having the outlet of working all day.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 2:38pm

oh, then it's definitely not a job for me, because I don't read music.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 2:39pm

You don't? Seriously??

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 3:24pm

HOLD THE PHONE!

redhot doesn't read music? Since when?

[lildogs]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 3:28pm

the show im currently in, the entire cast provides back-up vocals offstage, though most frequently, it's the ensemble members who do the majority of the offstage singing

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 3:31pm

ok - lemme clarify - I can follow a melody line, but time signatures elude me. I developed a mental block to reading music because my father (a VERY strict music teacher) tried to teach me when I was very young. I have (or had) a great ear and could always learn by listening and pick up music very quickly...but if asked to simply sight-sing something - I get flustered.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 3:34pm

Ah. Very interesting. Sight reading is not a problem for me, but it took years of hard work to get that way.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 3:55pm

I am in the middle of perfecting my sight-singing, but like redhot I can follow a melody line fine.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 3:56pm

I've never had a problem learning music for a show - give me a recording and put the music in front of me and I can learn it very quickly - hell - I've had to sing in the ensemble of two Sondheim shows and that stuff is tough even for great sight singers and I had no problem learning it at all - I just had to drill it into my head a few times.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 3:59pm

WOW! I have the same technique as redhot.

I AM HAPPY!

[lizheartsu]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 4:54pm

I did offstage singing ina recent show I was in. I was also a member of the cast. The way we did it is we would just stand offstage and sing.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 4:55pm

Absolutely, redhot, that's the best way for me to learn as well - but it's not always possible.

[nycdncr]

Posted: 12/10/04 at 5:02pm

When I did ACL the second time I played Roy and covered Mark, Larry, and was the second Bobby cover....all the cut dancers were used as pit singers. It was always very stressful standing offstage watching the company during the show...making sure everyone had two working knees, ankles, etc.

I just finished the JOSEPH tour, and our vocals were pre-recorded for the mega-mix. We spent an afternoon at a recording studio laying down the tracks. We all sang onstage anyway, but it helped to have the voices on track during that 10 minute aerobic class.

Here's a helpful hint....keep your eye on the conductor....anytime he puts a headset on while conducting...you can almost guarantee there's some trackage going on.

[dancinfan]

Posted: 12/12/04 at 7:48pm

In answer to eatlasgna's question about BATB's prologue: The conductor and the orchestra play live, and the sound department takes their cues for each section of the voiceover according to the conductor's signals, so they always sound the same.

There are lots of offstage vocals in Beauty, too. Not only are there a regular set of "booth" singers (who are no longer in a booth since the move to the Lunt) made up of the show's swings, but the entire ensemble sings offstage several times during Be Our Guest, Human Again, and the Transformation/Finale. All of the singing is live on body mic. No prerecorded singing voices in BATB.