Musical Theatre (4) - "Seasons of Love"

In the past few lessons we have been working on the ensemble number "Seasons of Love". The first couple of lessons were spent working on the vocal side of it, whereas the next ones were spent blocking the number and polishing the vocals.

Vocals:

Movement:

• Begin off stage
• Walk into set positions during the second bar of the into and face different directions
• On second verse, walk into one straight line spanning SL to SR
• TM walks out of the line towards downstage whilst singing her solo, but returns to line once she has finished
• AA walks forwards during her solo and then walks back to the line once she has finished
• HA walks forwards on his solo and I join him on the line "in bridges he burned"
• HA walks back a little bit to join the line, whilst the rest of the line walk forwards to join him. This is done on the lines "it's time now, to sing out though the story never ends".
• I stay standing out of the line for my solo part. I stand on a 45 degree angle, singing my solo to the line, but turn out to face the audience for my line "measure your life in love".
• We sing the last few lines where we are.

The positions at the beginning are set to ensure that everyone can be seen. The loudest singers, Alice and I, have been placed at the front, and the quieter singers at the back. The purpose of this is to ensure that everyone can be heard when we walk into our line - Alice and I have to turn our backs to the audience to walk to the line, whilst the quieter singers just walk forwards. We didn't want the quieter singers to turn their backs as they wouldn't be heard (as we won't be using microphones).

To Improve:
To improve this song, we need to work on finishing the lines together to make the piece crisper and cleaner. We also need to work on our tuning in some places as it tends to get a little bit flat when we are singing all together. Moreover, we need to work on our volume (which will come with confidence) to ensure that the parts are balanced when singing harmonies, otherwise one section can over-power the others.