20 Facts Of Life For Musical Theatre Performers

1. It was difficult not to think about the finale of The Full Monty when we first heard about Frozen’s “Let it Go”.

2. There’s no better time for belting out that inner Elphaba than when you’re stuck in 5pm standstill traffic. With the windows down, of course.

3. “Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of time, we’ll only be hearing 8 bars for your audition.” The. Worst.

4. There’s a Bermuda triangle for bobby pins. Seriously, where do they all go?

5. CVS should give us a members’ discount for all the face wipes we buy during tech and performance week. Not to mention the last-minute nylons we have to buy multiple times a week.

6. On that note, Chipotle / Panera / McDonalds / Starbucks / (insert fast food joint here) should also give us special membership for the pre- and post-rehearsal meals we purchase and subsequently inhale.

7. Waiting for the callback phone call makes for the longest day ever.

8. The holding room of an audition can be one of the best or worst places ever, depending upon the company. And everyone looks familiar.

9. We definitely had “a tiger in its cage can never see the sun, this diva needs her stage” in our AIM profiles, back when AIM was a thing.

10. Even the warm-up songs get stuck in our heads. (Eight! Eight seven eight!)

11. Movie-musicals are something to get extremely excited over and then critique harshly after they are released.

12. On Tony night, our entire newsfeed is made up of commentary, and there’s always at least five friends who post about Audra.

13. The green room is always full of food but none of it will help with that high belt.

14. It’s really, really emotionally difficult to throw away those beat-up character shoes, even though the t-strap is torn and holes are threatening to grow on the bottom.

15. Summerstock is more intense than boot camp. There’s always some 100-degree costume loft that needs cleaning or sets that need painting, on top of 11-hour rehearsal days — but this is also where some amazing memories are made.

16. Road trips were made for two-disc cast recordings.

17. When open call sign in sheets are separated by gender, there’s always at least 200 more females than males.

18. Non-equity NYC performers have had some serious bonding time in the McDonald’s bathroom across from the AEA building.

29. The best bittersweet breakup song is the title track to Bare. Sorry, Taylor Swift.

20. And finally, we all have a novel’s worth of memories from each show we’ve ever done, and fabulous friends that are unforgettable.