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Are you looking for a song from a Musical? One that will connect directly with an audience? What you need is a “House Number”!
A house number is a song that crosses the invisible fourth wall between actor and audience, the wall that exists in the character’s mind (after all, in most plays and musicals the characters don’t know they’re there). being watched by a group of people).
There are only a few real house numbers in musical theater, but you can actually make other songs cross the fourth wall pretty easily. Here are 60 songs for men that can be sung directly to the audience. I have listed the songs in three categories: the true house number
the song to the audience
the soliloquy
The first category is the true house number: the singer is fully aware that the audience is there and “walks out” of the show.
If You Want To Die In Bed, Miss Saigon’s American Dream and Evita’s Oh What A Circus are good examples of the true House act. Sondheim writes excellent house numbers, like Comedy Tonight and Everybody Should Have a Maid from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, or Invocation of the Gods and Instructions for the Audience from The Frogs (not often performed). , since it is set in a real swimming pool).
The second category contains songs in which the character sings to a stage audience as part of the plot. The most obvious song for men is Master of the House from Les Miserables. The Cabaret MC usually expands the Berlin nightclub audience to include the actual theater audience with songs like Willkommen and If You Could See Her. At Barnum, The Museum Song is sung for a general group of people, as is Bigger Isn’t Better. Springtime for Hitler is sung to the audience in The Producers, as is Beautiful Girls (from the Follies).
Consider the songs Use What You Got by The Life, Pinball Wizard by Tommy, and I Am What I Am by La Cage Aux Folles. Stand Up And Fight (Carmen Jones) and Get Me To The Church On Time (My Fair Lady) can be sung as house numbers. You might as well get away with All I Care About Is Love, and Chicago’s Mr Cellophane. An unusual one is Parade’s Come Up To My Office, where the protagonist “reconstructs” a scene in court, according to the imaginary version of his young co-workers.
Tribute Musicals is a handy source for house numbers like Buddy’s That’ll Be The Day and Johnny Be Good, or We Will Rock You’s I Want To Break Free. Pretty much any song from Hedwig And The Angry Inch would work, including Sugar Daddy and the Angry Inch. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has an implied audience for the spelling bee, with “kids” singing songs like My Unfortunate Erection directly for them. I Can Do That (from A Chorus Line) is sung to Zach, who is actually sitting in the back of the actual audience.
Then there is the third type: the unifocus song (the soliloquy) that has an external feel, asks questions, or contains rhetoric. Funny from the City of Angels. Wild Party’s What Is It About Her and The Life’s Don’t Take Much work well. All I Need Is The Girl by Gypsy will work, as will Tonight At Eight and Ella She Loves Me by Ella She Loves Me. Check out Camelot’s How To Handle A Woman, Company’s Being Alive, and two from Parade (Pretty Music and Big News).
Oddly enough, Anthem from Chess could work as a fourth wall number, as the Russian could share his story with the audience. You can also experiment with songs like Make Them Hear You by Ragtime, If I Were A Rich Man by Fiddler on the Roof, or Thank Heaven For Little Girls by Gigi. And two to include on this list are A New Brain’s And They’re Off and Kiss of the Spider Woman’s Dressing Them Up.
Into The Woods’ Giants In The Sky, My Favorite Year’s Larger Than Life, Pippin’s Corner Of The Sky, and Guys and Dolls (the title track) will translate well on the fourth wall. And from Les Miserables, you can explore Dog Eat Dog, Thenadier’s great solo scene from Act 2, or King Of The World (Songs for a New World). Then there is the dentist! by Little Shop of Horrors, Leaning On A Lamppost by Me and My Girl, and Reviewing the Situation by Oliver!
You can raid just about any magazine-style show for material: Sondheim’s shows are a great place to start: Assassins’ The Ballad of Booth, Everyone Can Whistle’s Everybody Says Don’t, or Sweeney Todd’s These Are My Friends. , sung when Todd is reunited with his razors.
By the way, The Soliloquy from Carousel won’t work, because the singer is arguing with himself and definitely doesn’t include anyone else, except maybe God. However, This Is The Moment can work because you can share your success with the audience.
Slower songs don’t usually work, but there are exceptions: What More Can I Say by Falsettos or Higher Than A Hawk by Calamity Jane. A Little Bit of Happiness from Personals is a more thoughtful story that is designed to be shared with the audience.
The point of a house number is to communicate directly with your audience, so remember to use plenty of eye contact when performing. Enjoy!