CHAPTER 1 Introduction
Peak Performance Almost nothing compares to the high you get when you're singing a song onstage and you know you're killing it. Am I right? I'll bet you and I share a passion for making memorable work on the musical stage. Chances are you recognize the ecstasy on the face of the dude in the back, the one with no glasses and a bad haircut, playing Nathan Detroit in
Guys and Dolls in 1970. That's me, spreading my artistic wings back in eleventh grade! For nearly fifty years, the musical theater has been my life's work, and this is where the journey began. And what an amazing journey it's been! I quickly discovered I had more to contribute as a director, a composer and an educator than a performer. I wrote music and lyrics for a slew of shows, one of which caught Stephen Sondheim's attention and provided the idea for his musical
Assassins. I got to start the BFA musical theater program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and oversee it for nearly 20 years. I got to play Sweeney Todd in the movies years before Johnny Depp did (even if my total screen time in Kevin Smith's
Jersey Girl was under 20 seconds). I helped found an international organization for people like me who teach musical theater at colleges and universities, which gave me an insider's view of the state of the art in musical theater training worldwide. And I had the chance to work with hundreds of singing actors, young and old, beginners and pros, each one of them looking for ways to make perform better. Maybe you're a high school student or an adult amateur who's just been cast in a musical and you want to begin building a reliable performance technique. Maybe you're a student in a high school or college musical theater program, looking for a way to stand out in classes, auditions, and shows. Maybe you're an early-career professional who misses the discipline and the routines of your school days, or a working singer-actor always on the lookout for ways to keep your tools sharp, stretch your creative muscles, and stay on point in a competitive, challenging field. Or perhaps you're a teacher, a director, or a coach who works with any of the sort of people I named above. If any of these apply to you, we have a lot to talk about.
Common Ground There's really no such thing as a "typical" musical theater performer. There are as many types of performers as there are types of musicals: grand and intimate, silly and serious, mainstream and experimental, professional and amateur, bel canto and "can belto."
1 Many roads lead to the musical stage, including acting, dance, classical music, improv, stand-up comedy, pop and rock music, even sports. We musical theater performers are a remarkable, colorful and diverse tribe, one where all sorts of people feel at home, and we express ourselves in many different ways. Even so, there are some things we have in common as members of this tribe. We know that singing for an audience is a glorious experience, an opportunity to express powerful feelings and ideas in ways that deeply move the listener. Great singers have the ability to enchant us, casting a spell that lifts us up out of our everyday, ordinary experience and transports us to something more rare and exalted. Since the dawn of mankind, humans have gathered together to make music and to experience it, an act that is at once communal and also profoundly personal, a magic that strengthens the connection we feel to one another and to our purest private essence. Lyricist Yip Harburg said it perfectly when he wrote, "Words make you think thoughts. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought."
2 Because songs deliver information in such a powerful way, they can penetrate the mind and the heart, leaving an indelible impression. This accounts for the incredible power of song and its ability to change the world. The legendary American folk singer and social activist Woody Guthrie knew about the power of song. Woody painted the slogan "This machine kills fascists" on his well-worn guitar, and he used his music to rally his listeners in opposition not only to fascists but also to racists and oppressors of all sorts. "If the fight gets hot," Woody liked to say, "the songs get hotter. If the going gets tough, the songs get tougher."
3 Woody knew what we all know, down deep: that a crying baby can be soothed by a lullaby, a grieving congregation can find comfort in a hymn, and a crowd at a rally can be whipped into a frenzy by a fiery song. Musicals are stories told in song, and in musicals, songs make stuff happen. There are songs of wooing and songs of persuasion, songs that confront us with the truth, songs that make a joyful noise and lift every heart. Musicals make us believe that you can't stop the beat and that the sun will come out tomorrow, that no one is alone and that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. This is the great work of singing onstage, and if it's to be done well, it needs to be taken seriously. Doing great work is important, not just to succeed and stand out in a crowded, competitive field, but also because songs matter. Performing them well is a glorious experience that makes the world a better place. But chances are, if you're reading this book, there's something standing between you and the kind of work you yearn to create on the musical stage.
Is Something Stopping You? Do you feel lost when working on your own, without a director, teacher, or coach to guide you? Does your work feel "hit or miss," haphazard, and unreliable when it comes time to present? Do you have the nagging suspicion that your work is "phony," "fake," or, worst of all, "cheesy"? Do you feel like good singing and good acting technique are at odds with each another? Do you struggle to find the kind of details that will make your work convincing and memorable? Does the pressure of performance cause you to "go blank" and forget what you prepared? It's a gut-wrenching feeling when you blow an audition or a performance. Even if you've been lucky enough to experience success as a performer, nearly all artists also experience the "queer, divine dissatisfaction" that choreographer Martha Graham described to Agnes de Mille, the "blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
4 That's why it's crucial for you to be in top form every time you take the stage. Every time you're in an audition, in rehearsal, or performing onstage, you want to be able to deliver great work and feel the pleasure of having "nailed it." Excellence in singing-acting is elusive, and the pursuit of it is frustrating, often daunting. Other performers-your classmates, your colleagues, your competition-make it look easy. When you're alone in the practice room, you inevitably wonder,
Am I spending my time on the right things? What do the others know that I don't? Or even,
Why is my shit so lame? You may be hampered by fear, either consciously or unconsciously. You may be held back because you lack certain specific and learnable skills that will enable you to communicate more effectively when you sing. You may know those skills but be held back by ineffective self-management, so that there's always a gap between what you intend to do and what you're actually doing. Regardless of where you are in your journey as a developing singing actor, there's a good chance that you're missing crucial information.
The Guide You Need Don't despair! In the following pages, I'll be your guide on the journey from "meh" to "wow." Within these pages, you'll discover secrets understood by an elite group of what I call "savvy" singing actors. Would you like to be one, too? In the chapters ahead, I'll introduce you to the SAVI System, my signature approach to training the singing actor. Together, we'll define what "excellence" means in this challenging, competitive art form. Having defined your goals, you'll learn to train like an elite athlete: deliberately, thoughtfully, and with passion and persistence. We'll work on skills that are indispensable, regardless of song or genre. I'll show you new ways to look at a song, expanding and deepening your approach to roles and repertoire. You'll find new ways to get feedback and support while you work, as well as reliable tools for self-assessment, insight, and inspiration. The SAVI System was created to help you in any kind of performance-regardless of whether you're in a Broadway show, an opera, a rock show, a recital, or a concert of any sort: any occasion where you're presenting vocal music in a dramatic context. It will give you a greater ability to plan, organize, and execute what you're going to do while you're onstage. As you work on the exercises and activities presented in the SAVI System, you'll discover tools to manage the process of creating behavior, making optimal choices, and executing those choices with ease and expressiveness. The SAVI System will identify the four fundamental attributes of effective singing-acting contained in the acronym SAVI, and teach you to recognize whether your...
