Susan Boyle Auditioning

Susan Boyle
Auditioning is something we all do at some time or other in our lives.  If it’s not for a part in a musical or movie, it’s for a job, or a position on a team. The auditioning craze has captured the world’s fantasy with the likes of Simon Cowell of American Idol, and its various impersonations.

Vicariously we fail or triumph while pinning our hopes on other’s efforts. The world laughs at the pitiful efforts of some while thrilling to the inspired moments of the few.

Because of my work as a composer and stage director in the theater, I have had to opportunity (or task) of watching nearly 20,000 auditions in my lifetime. I sometimes think, “Poor Simon Cowell, he has to sit through all the wannabes day after day, night after night.”

The worst are always, at least, interesting, the best, inspirational. It’s all the in-betweeners that can bore you to distraction – the people with some talent, but, alas, not enough.

For over twenty years I’ve also taught the Auditioning course at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, arguably America’s finest professional acting school, here in NYC.  So you might say I’m a bit of an expert at this odd thing we humans do – to get up in front of others and try out our talents and then receive their judgment, to put our lives on the line.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned and then in turn taught, it’s that first impressions are to be paid attention to. It’s a quick process, this auditioning,  usually lasting no more than 5 minutes. I’ve learned the hard way that the audition experience is a microcosm for the entire experience that you will have with the performer if you hire them.

If they sing a little flat here and there in the audition, after a week in rehearsal, I’ll fire them because they sing flat all the time. If they’re late, they’ll drive me crazy with their lateness throughout the rehearsals and the performances. So I’ve learned to watch closely, pay attention to every little nuance and go with my first impressions.

So just two days ago along comes Ms Susan Boyle, auditioning phenomenon.

Headline: “47 Year old Susan Boyle wows the judges with her performance in the auditions for Britain’s Got Talent, singing I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miz.”

At 2:00 in the afternoon last Wednesday Susan’s YouTube video already had over 5 million views.  By 5:00 the same day just three hours later it was over 8 million and last night, Thursday, by the time I went to bed it was over 18 million views! The power of the internet…

Why this phenomenon? It’s not because she has so much talent. Oh, she is talented, but many people are equal to Ms Boyle if not more. It’s that our first impressions have deceived us into thinking that this odd, dumpy little quaint lady is going to fall on her proverbial hind end.

And so we get ready, because of so many previous like encounters, to laugh and scoff at her aspirations. The minute she toddles out on to that stage in front of the scary Sir Simon and fellow judges, we humans peg her as a sure fire loser and start getting ready for a good laugh at her expense. Unfortunately, it’s the human way these days. It’s the whole philosophy behind reality TV – let’s laugh and scoff at the stupidity of our fellow man.

Ms Boyle even supports the eye-rolling first impression of herself in the opening interview when she nervously stutters her way through one of her first answers and proves herself all too human.  By the time the intro to her song starts, the audience is braced and ready to see her fall on her British butt.

But then she opens her mouth and begins to sing. And drama works its magic. In literally an instant she takes us from sure fire doom to world class sensation. A star is born before our very eyes! Man rises out of the pit of destruction and soars among the gods!

Susan Boyle fulfills all of our fantasies within the first line of the song. On top of it, she’s singing “If I Had A Dream”! If Hollywood wrote this cornball ending into a movie, we would roll our eyes, groan and change the channel. But this is real. This is really happening and we are there to actually experience the drama of this perfect setup, this perfect ending.

Again, it’s not that she’s so much more talented than everyone else, mind you; it’s that she travels so far in so little time. By the time she finishes the first line of the song, the audience is beginning to roar and applaud in surprise. By the time she finishes her second line people begin popping to their feet. By the time she finishes the third line, one of the judges stands clapping and by the end of the first verse, the world has a new unlikely idol.

Susan Boyle is a deeply committed performer with a natural fine instrument. This little lady can sing! She sustains the surprise with her natural talent in the course of the song and fulfills her prediction and her dream and rocks the house. We weep at the joy of human triumph because this little lady is one of us, one of the boring in-betweeners making good.

She comes out and says that she’s always wanted to do this, to sing in front of a big audience and then exceeds all expectations and wows the world. Susan Boyle becomes an over-night sensation and we all get to experience her triumph. The life of Susan Boyle dramatically becomes the inspirational story of the week. We all sit in awe and wonder and weep.

If this ain’t inspirational, then what is?