Funny Broadway Audition Songs for Higher Female Voices

3 Hilarious Broadway Stand-Alone Pieces

Most people think of funny Broadway musical roles as sung by belters in lower ranges, but plenty of funny material is out there for sopranos as well. This is by no means an all-inclusive list but just a sampling of what kind of works you can find with a little research.

“Morning Person” from Shrek the Musical

The show opened on Broadway December 2008 and West End in London June 2011 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards including best musical, eleven Drama Desk Awards including outstanding music, one Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, and later four Laurence Olivier Awards including best new musical. The musical’s plot follows the popular Dreamworks animated movie Shrek; an ogre, Shrek, and a donkey deliver a cursed princess Fiona to her short and evil prince. She rejects her prince and chooses to be an ogre so she can marry Shrek. This particular song is a spoof on Cinderella’s “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” and several other Disney scenes particularly Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where chipper princesses sing to and with animals. Fiona shares that the sun is so big it hurts her eyes, but that is o.k. Of course she is happy; she's had six cups of coffee. The range is A3 to E6, but the highest notes can be cut out or sung in a shrill out of tune way as they end up making a bird pop to death.

“TMI” from Island Song

The talented and not yet well-known lyricist Sam Carner and songwriter Derek Gregor work together to compose musicals in New York City. Their musical Island Song is about five New Yorkers, their struggles, and their passions. This particular song is about a woman on her first date with a man named Dave. Unfortunately, the date is not going well. First, she tells him he has a slight overbite, and then it goes downhill from there. She can’t stop herself from sharing too much, including her sexual promiscuity in college and her friend’s advice to do Kegels when she blathers. The musical had several workshops and concert presentations in New York, Tokyo, London, and Paris. The highest note is a B5 and is sung on the “up” of “shut-up,” so it can be sung in an exaggerated full voice style.

“Just Around the Corner,” from The Addam’s Family

The show opened on Broadway in 2010 and was nominated for two Tony Awards: best original score and best performance by a featured actor in a musical for Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester. The story deals with several love stories focusing on Wednesday who has fallen in love with a “normal” boy, Lucas. The other relationships are Lucas’s and Wednesday’s parents, as well as Uncle Fester who is in love with the moon. In this piece, Morticia has just found out her daughter Wednesday is engaged to Lucas, who is not up to her standards. In addition, her husband knew and did not tell her. As a way of coping with her problems, she reminds herself death is just around the corner and contemplates all the possible ways she could die. The piece’s range is from F#3 to G#5, requiring a soprano to sing four notes below middle C. That may not seem too hard a challenge, but the song hits the high G frequently. The approach is also step-wise, making it even more difficult to sing.