Gillyanne Kayes

Singing the text: voice, timbre and interpretation in musical theatre

An actor in musical theatre must make choices in his approach to text in singing. These choices affect both timbre and vocal production, and further depend on the dramatic purpose and the genre of the piece. Physical and dramatic type is considered more important in casting for musical theatre than traditional voice categories or vocal ‘fach’. This needs to be recognised and understood by the artist, agent and vocal coach in order to ensure a long and vocally healthy career. Musical theatre performers also come from quite different backgrounds — theatre, dance, music or — more currently - ‘celebrity world’. Many do not read music or have minimal music reading skills. Stylistically, musical theatre has absorbed many different musical influences and, due to commercial pressures, these are apt to change every decade. This means that, in order to be successful, musical theatre singers need a training that prepares them to be ‘genre-eclectic’ so that they are capable of performing ‘Rent’ during the evening and rehearsing ‘My Fair Lady’ during the day.