High School Musical Life Lessons
A flyer providing audition guidance offers profound advice for making your mark in all endeavors.
Rob James
September 17, 2026
My last California home town is running a production this coming winter of The Music Man (1957), in the beautiful new high school arts building. An online town newspaper carried reports of the upcoming auditions, under the supervision of our family friend Amy Moorhead. The flyer for the auditions was of course intended to offer tips specific to aspiring actors, singers and dancers. I discovered that many of its lessons apply to presentations and performances for the students’ activities throughout life.
I have provided tips to computer-company suppliers on how to do well in responding to a corporate Request for Proposals (RFP). I think Amy’s tips are in many ways more fundamental and additionally useful! (I will crib from them before AI beats me to it.)
The flyer is here. Below, some choice audition tips are paraphrased in normal font and my running commentary is in bold italic.
A. MAKING YOUR PITCH
The audition starts with a 90-second video of yourself.
“Getting to put your best performance on video is an awesome opportunity! Introduce yourself. Make sure you can be heard. Wear clothes you can move in. Look at the camera.”
Before a presentation, make a video of yourself and get some feedback from friends. Watch your diction, clarity and volume—especially if the final presentation is on audio and video remotely. Make eye contact all the way around, not just with the middle of your computer monitor (makes you look shifty) or one person or your notes or your shoes or the heavens.
“Choose a song you feel comfortable singing,” and “sing with accompaniment.”
Make sure you know what you’re talking about, and enlist others to help where that makes the presentation more effective. Get comfortable being in the spotlight. Memorize key stretches but make it look effortless—the Italians call it sprezzatura.
2. The audition ends by your reciting a nursery rhyme or poem in the persona of an assigned character type.
“Your last name dictates the character you will play: A-E Villain (e.g., Bellatrix Lestrange or King Joffrey), F-J Genuinely Nice Person (e.g., Pam Beesly from The Office or Harry Potter), K-O Misunderstood Youth (e.g., Elphaba or Jess Mariano from The Gilmore Girls), P-T Tough Boss (e.g., Miranda Priestly or Logan Roy), or U-Z Charming Rogue (e.g., Katniss Everdeen or Han Solo).”
What fun to take on a distinctive role, especially playing against type! Better would be to recite the nursery rhyme as all five characters. I love the video clip of Jack Gleeson performing good-guy and bad-guy versions of the same line in auditioning for King Joffrey.
In preparing for a presentation, one of you can take on the “bad cop” role of a possible adverse voice questioning or opposing your pitch. How will your team respond?
B. PLAYING YOUR PART
These tips speak for themselves.
“You will work really hard, expand your comfort zone in multiple areas, discover hidden talents, and put on a big, fabulous show for the local community.”
“If you are not selected for your choice role or for a front-line role, try again next year. Perserverance is rewarded.”
“Be a positive member of the team and supportive of others.”
“Try new things and overcome prior challenges.”
“Look for anything you can help on, even just finding props.”
C. MAYBE A LITTLE OVER THE TOP
“A story focused on a small town and the ultimate power of music, The Music Man is also about American culture and the American economy.”
My father came from outside a small Iowa town around the era of the play and enjoyed it immensely. If someone tried using a fancy word, he would sometimes quote Mayor Shinn and say, “You watch your phraseology!” The musical is not as complex (and problematic) as Carousel or as musically inspired as West Side Story, but it is a blast and stands the test of time.