60 Male House Numbers From Musicals

Here's the second of two articles I wrote in response to a Your Questions Answered submission on the Vocal Process website (see the previous blog entry 50 Female House Numbers From Musicals). Since the YQA answer discussed in the last entry, I've upgraded the list from 19 to 60 songs for men:

You’re a Musicals singer looking for a song that can reach out to an audience, one that you can play to them directly. You’re looking for a “House number”.

A House number is a song that crosses the invisible fourth wall between the actor and the audience, the wall that exists in the character’s mind (after all, in most plays and musicals the characters don’t know they’re being watched by a group of people). In Musical theater there are only a few true House numbers, but you can actually make other songs cross the fourth wall fairly easily.
Here are 60 songs for men that can be sung to the audience directly. I’ve listed the songs in three categories:
the true House number
the audience number
the soliloquy.

The first category is the true House number: The singer is fully aware that the audience is there and "comes out" of the show.
If You Want To Die In Bed, and American Dream from Miss Saigon, and Oh What A Circus from Evita are good examples of the true House number. Sondheim writes great House numbers, including Comedy Tonight and Everybody Ought To Have A Maid from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Invocation to the Gods And Instructions to the Audience from the rarely performed The Frogs (it takes place in a swimming pool).

In the second category, the character plays to an audience on stage as part of the show. The most obvious song for the men is Master of the House from Les Miserables. The MC from Cabaret usually expands the Berlin nightclub audience to include the actual theatre audience with songs such as Willkommen and If You Could See Her. In Barnum, The Museum Song is sung to a general group of people, as is Bigger Isn’t Better. Springtime for Hitler is sung to the audience in The Producers, as is Beautiful Girls (from Follies).

Consider the songs Use What You Got from The Life, Pinball Wizard from Tommy, and I Am What I Am from La Cage Aux Folles. Stand Up And Fight from Carmen Jones, and Get Me To The Church On Time from My Fair Lady can be a house numbers. You could also get away with All I Care About Is Love, and Mr Cellophane, from Chicago. An unusual one is Come Up To My Office from Parade, where the leading man “re-enacts” a scene in a courtroom, according to the imaginary version of his young female co-workers.

Tribute Musicals are a useful source of House numbers such as That’ll Be The Day and Johnny Be Good from Buddy, or I Want To Break Free from We Will Rock You. Virtually any song from Hedwig And The Angry Inch would work, including Sugar Daddy and Angry Inch. 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has an implied audience for the spelling contest, and the “children” sing songs such as My Unfortunate Erection straight to them. I Can Do That (from A Chorus Line) is sung to Zach who is actually seated at the back of the real audience.

Then there's the third type - the unifocus song (the soliloquy) that has an outward feel, or asks questions, or contains rhetoric. Funny from City of Angels. What Is It About Her from Wild Party, and Don’t Take Much from The Life work well. All I Need Is The Girl from Gypsy will work, as will Tonight At Eight and She Loves Me from She Loves Me. Check out How To Handle A Woman from Camelot, Being Alive from Company, and two from Parade (Pretty Music, and Big News).

Oddly enough, Anthem from Chess could work as a fourth wall number as the Russian could be sharing his story with the audience. You might also experiment with songs like Make Them Hear You from Ragtime, If I Were A Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof, or Thank Heaven For Little Girls from Gigi. And two to include in this list are And They’re Off from A New Brain, and Dressing Them Up from Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Giants In The Sky from Into The Woods, Larger Than Life from My Favorite Year, Corner Of The Sky from Pippin and Guys and Dolls (the title song) will translate well across the fourth wall. And from Les Miserables, you might explore Dog Eat Dog – Thenadier’s great solo scene from Act 2, or King Of The World (Songs for a New World). Then there’s Dentist! from Little Shop of Horrors, Leaning On A Lampost from Me and My Girl, and Reviewing the Situation from Oliver!

You can raid pretty much any revue-style show for material – Sondheim’s shows are a very good place to start - The Ballad of Booth from Assassins, Everybody Says Don’t from Anyone Can Whistle, or These Are My Friends from Sweeney Todd, sung as Todd is reunited with his razors.

Incidentally, The Soliloquy from Carousel won't work, because the singer is arguing with himself and is definitely not including anyone else except perhaps God. However, This Is The Moment can work because you can share your success with the audience.

Slower songs don’t tend to work but there are exceptions: What More Can I Say from Falsettos, or Higher Than A Hawk from Calamity Jane. A Little Happiness from Personals is a more reflective story that is designed to be shared with the audience.

Remember that House numbers are designed to communicate directly with the audience, so make sure you include plenty of eye contact in your performances.
Enjoy!

Jeremy Fisher trains singers and performers to find and maintain their best. He's the author of Successful Singing Auditions, and creator of the Voicebox Videos - featured on the BBC and broadcast to 44,000,000 people. He was commissioned by the DANA Centre at London's Science Museum to create a video on singing with a camera down his throat. Jeremy is fascinated by bringing technology and innate skill together. http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk

[you are welcome to publish this article on your own website or blog provided the author's biog and Vocal Process weblink above is included]

Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk/ for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
The Voicebox Videos DVD website tells you all about the Looking At A Voice endoscopy video series
The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on vocal technique and style, memorising and different musical genres.

60 Female House Numbers From Musicals

Here's one of two articles I wrote in response to a Your Questions Answered submission on the Vocal Process website. My original response to the YQA had 19 songs for men in it, but it got me thinking about repertoire and how you can alter the format, style or delivery of a song to suit the situation. Here's the one for women:

You’re looking for songs for women that you can use to communicate directly with an audience.
A House number is a song that crosses the invisible fourth wall between the actor and the audience, the wall that exists in the character’s mind (after all, in most plays and musicals the characters don’t know they’re being watched by a group of people).

In Musical theater there are only a few true House numbers, but you can actually make other songs cross the fourth wall fairly easily. Here are 60 songs for women that can be sung to the audience directly. I’ve listed the songs in three categories:
the true House number
the audience number
the soliloquy

The first category is the true house number: the singer is fully aware that the audience is there and "comes out" of the show.

Diva’s Lament from Spamalot of course, You Can Always Count On Me from City of Angels, and When You’re Good To Mama from Chicago spring to mind immediately. Other true house numbers include Big Spender from Sweet Charity (originally a chorus number but can be sung by one person), I’m Still Here from Follies, Broadway Baby from Follies, I Just Wanna Dance from Jerry Springer, Jonny One Note from Babes in Arms, and Nobody Does It Like Me – the Cy Coleman song from the musical SeeSaw. And Miss Byrd from Closer Than Ever shares her secret across the fourth wall.

Many of the songs from the Victorian Music Hall era work as house numbers including Waiting At the Church, If It Wasn’t For the ‘Ouses In Between, and even ballads such as The Boy I Love Is Up In The Gallery. Then there are the songs written in a Musical style such as Girl in 14G, and The Alto’s Lament.

In the second category, the character plays to an audience on stage. Good and Evil from Jekyll and Hyde is a great example as Lucy sings to the “audience” in the pub. Then there’s Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Evita), I Speak Six Languages from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Beat Out Dat Rhythm from Carmen Jones, Man Wanted from Copacabana, and Blow Gabriel Blow from Anything Goes. The Saga Of Jenny from Lady in the Dark is sung in a courtroom, and you might just get away with Life of the Party from Wild Party.

Then there's the third type - the unifocus song (the soliloquy) that has an outward feel, or asks questions, or contains rhetoric.
Probably the most famous song is I Cain’t Say No from Oklahoma. Then there’s I’m Shy from Once Upon A Mattress, Everybody Says Don’t, and There Won’t Be Trumpets, from Anyone Can Whistle, and I’m A Stranger Here Myself from One Touch of Venus.
Check out Holding To The Ground from Falsettos, My Brother Lived In San Francisco from Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens, I Hate Men from Kiss Me Kate, and My Strongest Suit from Aida.

For the more old-fashioned amongst you, there’s I Think I May Want To Remember Today from Starting Here, Starting Now, Tale of the Oyster (Fifty Million Frenchmen), and The Physician (Nymph Errant). You might get away with a strong story song such as Waiting For The Music To Begin (Witches of Eastwick) if you set out to tell the audience members the story. And of course, there’s Nothing (A Chorus Line) where the entire song is sung to Zach, who sits in the audience during the show. It’s therefore very easy to turn it into a house number and address the audience directly and individually.

Other songs include Gimme Gimme from Thoroughly Modern Millie, I Know Things Now from Into the Woods, Defying Gravity from Wicked, and Always The Bridesmaid from I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Back to Sondheim again for The Ladies Who Lunch from Company, The Story of Lucy and Jessie (from certain productions of Follies), and Can That Boy Foxtrot (a duet that can be sung as a solo) from Marry Me A Little, or cut from Follies, depending on who you read.

Then there’s Everybody’s Girl from Steel Pier, Old Fashioned Love Story from Wild Party, When You Got It, Flaunt It from The Producers, and How Did I End Up Here from Romance Romance. You might consider One Hundred Easy Ways from Wonderful Town, or My New Philosophy from You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, and experiment with a song like Cockeyed Optimist from South Pacific.

You can raid the revue-style musicals such as Closer Than Ever for songs like Back On Base, or The Bear, The Tiger, The Hamster and The Mole, and Songs for a New World for I’m Not Afraid Of Anything. You can also do what the musicals are doing currently and raid the pop/disco/rock scene for suitable songs - Holding Out For A Hero started as a Bonnie Tyler song but is now in both Footloose and Shrek II.

It is unusual for a slower song to work as a house number, but here are a few exceptions: Maybe I Like It This Way from Wild Party, That’s Him from One Touch Of Venus, Why Him from Carmelina, Bill (from Oh Lady! Lady! and versions of Showboat) and of course, Funny Girl from Funny Girl.

Remember that a House number is sung directly to the audience, so make sure you have plenty of eye contact!
Enjoy.

Jeremy Fisher trains singers and performers to find and maintain their best. He's the author of Successful Singing Auditions, and creator of the Voicebox Videos - featured on the BBC and broadcast to 44,000,000 people. He was commissioned by the DANA Centre at London's Science Museum to create a video on singing with a camera down his throat. Jeremy is fascinated by bringing technology and innate skill together. http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk


[you are welcome to publish this article on your own website or blog provided the author's biog and Vocal Process weblink above is included]

Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk/ for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
The Voicebox Videos DVD website tells you all about the Looking At A Voice endoscopy video series
The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on vocal technique and style, memorising and different musical genres.