Baby, its cold outside.

So what better way to procrastinate from practicing than to buy the warmest winter coat on the market? 

**Cue Music!!** My new North Face Arctic Parka. Ya'll know I'm gonna sport this around NYC on Monday, hood up, full fur, game face ON. I'm cold and I'm not kidding around anymore.

Okay - so back to the practicing matter. Last week I noticed, as well as for this week, the demand for an excellent 16-32 bar cut of a "Contemporary Pop Musical Theater" Uptempo piece. Here are my own personal requirements - 

- Something that has enough words to be "actable." Example - I've been singing "Suddenly Seymour" a lot, and it is easy to fall into "just singing" it, because there aren't many words other than "Suddenly Seymour....standing beside me...." etc. Auditions aren't about how well you can sing, they are more about how well you can act the song and sell yourself at the same time. 

- Something with range. I'd like to hit a D above middle C (an E or F would be awesome) 

- Something with the ability to show one nice belty note, but not the whole piece need to be belted. Its good to show all your colors if possible, but hard to squash it in 16 bars. 

And so you see the ongoing CPMTU (contemp pop musical thet up) 16 bar problem that I have. Plenty of ballads, not so many uptempos fall into this category. Any ideas? 

The term "Contemporary" can include any musical written after 1970, or also be any pop/rock and roll song that is very recognizable. 

It is so hard when the casting call says "sing any piece" and there is literally an infinite amount of music in the world that you can pick from, and yet, newer musicals/pop music are something that I am not very familiar with. 

Oh god. I'm a classically trained singer. I need to step up my game! Think, think, think.