Glee open call auditions: Commentary

March 30, 2010

tags: auditions, commentary, open casting call, season 2

Rachel sang "On My Own" for her New Directions audition – what song will you pick?

So by now I’m sure you’ve all seen the news about the open call auditions for the second season of Glee! Even though I have no intention of trying out (I’m a huge fan, but I’m no actor or singer!), I still think that this whole process is incredibly interesting and thought I’d share some of my thoughts, both good and bad, on how FOX is carrying this whole thing out:

First of all, doing it through MySpace is completely genius. I don’t even like MySpace and I still think it’s genius. For the most part, MySpace attracts the exact kind of fans that FOX would be looking for, and even though this casting call would be a big deal no matter how they execute it, running it through MySpace will make it an even bigger deal due to the already crazy large number of users on the site. PLUS, who do we know that updates her MySpace page regularly with videos of herself for her “adoring” fans? Yes, that’s right, Miss Rachel Berry. Genius, I’m telling you.
Secondly, let’s talk about the specific requirements for your audition: a video no longer than 5 minutes, with a 1-minute intro and a 4-minute song (and the song must be performed either a cappella or with a single instrument accompaniment). Now my biggest question here is why is the audition only focused on singing? What about acting? Dancing? I suppose dancing can, to enough of an extent, be taught, but I’m worried that this method will help FOX find some amazing singers…who might be terrible actors. I’m guessing that there will be an additional audition process after this which will include an acting portion, but I still think that having fans include a short monologue with their video would have been a good idea.
Third, what about the song options? To refresh, fans can choose from this list of 10 Glee songs for their audition: “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” (Dreamgirls), “Gold Digger” (Kanye West), “Rehab” (Amy Winehouse), “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (The Rolling Stones), “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (REO Speedwagon), “Don’t Rain on my Parade” (Barbra Streisand), “Hate on Me” (Jill Scott), “Keep Holding On” (Avril Lavigne), “Lean on Me” (Bill Withers), “True Colors” (Phil Collins). So what does everyone think of this list? I understand why they picked a specific list of songs from participants to choose from and the list is a pretty diverse mix of styles and genres which I appreciate. I’m not sure why they included the Barbra number though – anyone who chooses to sing that has some serious guts.
And finally, as a non-American, I must point out the sadness that this is a “nationwide” casting call, and thus if you’re not from the U.S., you’re outta luck. I thought that this would likely be the case, but I am a bit disappointed on behalf of all the talented Canadians, Brits, Italians, Australians, etc. etc. etc. that would love to audition.

So gleeks, what about you? How are you feeling about the open call auditions? Happy? Excited? Disappointed? Confused? Head on over to the comments to share your thoughts!