Trends in musical theatre voice: an analysis of audition requirements for singers

Objectives: The American musical theatre industry is a multibillion dollar business in which the requirements for singers are varied and complex. This study identifies the musical genres and voice requirements that are currently most requested at professional auditions to help voice teachers, pedagogues, and physicians who work with musical theatre singers understand the demands of their clients' business.

Study design: Frequency count.

Methods: One thousand two thirty-eight professional musical theatre audition listings were gathered over a 6-month period, and information from each listing was categorized and entered into a spreadsheet for analysis.

Results: The results indicate that four main genres of music were requested over a wide variety of styles, with more than half of auditions requesting genre categories that may not be served by traditional or classical voice technique alone.

Conclusions: To adequately prepare young musical theatre performers for the current job market and keep the performers healthily making the sounds required by the industry, new singing styles may need to be studied and integrated into voice training that only teaches classical styles.