Singing in Musical Theatre by Joan Melton

Author:Joan Melton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781581158090
Publisher: Allworth

So that when they start to sing, they aren’t suddenly a different person.

Absolutely. It’s got to be believable as the same person. And also the whole business of how you articulate the consonants when you are dealing with pitch, because the pitching mechanism and its needs can interfere with consonant articulation. So things that an actor would never do in spoken text, like scooping on a voiced fricative, will suddenly appear when they’re singing because the whole consonant thing needs to be managed slightly differently in singing. I teach that consonants interrupt the vocal line— that they stop it—because that’s what they do. And again, how to manage that and then how to give the impression of the vocal line when it’s required, by using commitment. It’s the commitment that carries the line and not the “smooth, uninterrupted flow” of breath, which is what we were all taught when we were training as classical singers.

I would say that connection comes mostly from the text: really exploring the text, finding those nuances within the text, working out the journey that you’re going through in the song. The function of the song, what is the song actually doing at that point in the musical? Or if you’re doing a song in cabaret, then obviously the function is different. You’re going to be crossing the fourth wall and so on. If you’re doing a pop song, you might want to convey some kind of feel or you want to make a particular sound. So when you’re working with a classical singer (this is a bit of a generalization), the sense of emotional connection is in broad, grand sweeps—it’s more generalized. Whereas when you’re working with musical theatre text, it’s more specific and detailed. There need to be more changes, and more dramatic changes. When I’m teaching connection, I use musicianship—for example, different ways of working a phrase, where the peaks are in the phrase—and I know that actors who can’t read a note find this approach enormously helpful. And then finally, in terms of connection, looking at how you play the song in the physical space, who’s in that space with you, and so on.

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