So You Want to Be in Musicals? - Softcover

Ruthie Henshall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848421508 ISBN 13: 9781848421509

Publisher: Nick Hern Books, 2012

An insider's guide to achieving that dream career by one of the brightest stars in musical theatre.

Being in a West End or Broadway musical is the dream of thousands of talented performers. But competition is intense and reaching the spotlight can often require a leap into the dark. So You Want To Be In Musicals? is your comprehensive guide to building - and sustaining - a successful career in musical theatre, and introduces you to everything you need to know about:

• Training how to select a drama school, what to do to get in, and what to do once you're there
• Auditioning how to choose and prepare your pieces, and foster a positive attitude towards auditions
• Rehearsing how to construct your character, work with the director, and develop your own creative process
• Performing how to deal with nerves, what to do as an understudy, and how to sustain that eight-show-a-week routine
• Working how to get an agent, how to market yourself effectively, and how to maintain a healthy body and mind

Along with a wealth of honest, straightforward advice, the book is packed with instructive anecdotes from Ruthie's own glittering career.

Written with Daniel Bowling music supervisor and director on many of the West End's biggest shows - including The Phantom of the Opera, Joseph, Mary Poppins and Avenue Q - So You Want To Be In Musicals? provides an extraordinary wealth of inside information and advice, that would usually take years of hard work and determination to obtain, in one essential volume.

Review:

A comprehensive and cogent insight into the world [Ruthie Henshall] knows inside out... The book intersperses cautionary tales from her illustrious career with invaluable advice on training, auditioning and how to conduct yourself in rehearsals once you've landed the job. After more than 25 years' experience on both sides of the Atlantic, Henshall very evidently knows what she is talking about. --The Stage

Ruthie Henshall has the kind of brilliant, high-voltage stage personality that can light up whole cities. --Joyce McMillan. The Scotsman

Ms. Henshall, a perennial favorite of the West End in London, seems destined to conquer Manhattan as well. She definitely has what it takes: the voice, the dancer's flair and strength, the confidence and that elusive spark of eccentricity that separates the stars from the chorus. --Ben Brantley. The New York Times

About the Author:

RUTHIE HENSHALL's hugely successful theatre career includes playing both leads in Chicago, (Roxie Hart in London and Velma Kelly in New York), Nancy in Oliver! at the London Palladium, Marian Halcombe in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White and Grizabella in Cats. She created the role of Peggy Sue Kelcher in Peggy Sue Got Married and the title role in Boublil and Schoenberg's Marguerite. She played Fantine in Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre and for the 10th anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Ruthie has been nominated for the Olivier Award for several of these roles, winning for her part as Amalia Balash in She Loves Me at the Savoy Theatre.

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1848421508
• ISBN 13: 9781848421509
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 188