Auditioning for Les Miserables

Talking of Les Miserables, getting the job on the West End production was another of those odd occurances that have happened in my life.

One of my mezzos had asked me to play for her Les Mis audition. She was singing "I was a constant faithful wife" from Walton's The Bear, and was doing auditions for Les Mis and for Phantom of the Opera. The piece is more suitable for Phantom, really, but she decided to do it for both. If you don't know the piece, it's got an oom-chah accompaniment with a few twiddles in it and lots of pompous, over-the-top atmosphere. We did the Les Mis audition in the Palace Theatre and the MD called up from the stalls "Thank you very much. Nice playing."

I was really quite surprised, because the piano part isn't exactly spectacular, but I thought I'd make the most of the comment. So I stood at the stage door and wrote him a note... "I'm the pianist of whom you said "Nice Playing". I'm a superb sightreader, so if you ever need a rehearsal or audition pianist, just let me know. Here's my phone number".

Well, six weeks later I had a phonecall from the company manager - "Did you mean it when you said you were a superb sightreader?" "Yes". "OK, we'd like you to play for a rehearsal of the show on Thursday."

So I presented myself on Thursday (having picked up a score and read it through beforehand) and delighted the director by knowing where the Cart Scene was before he even told me.

There are two morals here for budding professionals. Do your research (read the score and learn the story), and take advantage of anything that offers itself (and keep a pen and paper handy for on-the-spot letters of introduction).


Jeremy is the co-author of Successful Singing Auditions

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