Are you looking for a song from a Musical? One that will directly connect with an audience? What you need is a “House Number”!
A House number is a song that crosses the invisible fourth wall between the actor and the 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).
In musical theater there are only a few actual House numbers, but you can actually make other songs cross the fourth wall quite easily. Here are 60 songs for men that can be sung directly to the audience. I have listed the songs in three categories: the real house number
the song to the audience
the soliloquy
The first category is the real House number: the singer is fully aware that the audience is there and “gets 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 real House number. Sondheim writes excellent House numbers, like Comedy Tonight and Everybody Should Have a Maid in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, or Invocation to the Gods and Instructions for the Audience in 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 an audience on stage 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 at The Producers, as is Beautiful Girls (from 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 Mr Cellophane, from Chicago. An unusual one is Come Up To My Office by Parade, where the protagonist “reconstructs” a scene in a court, according to the imaginary version of his young co-workers.
Tribute Musicals is a useful source of 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 Hedwig And The Angry Inch song would work, including Sugar Daddy and Angry Inch. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has an implicit audience for the spelling bee, with the “kids” singing songs like My Unfortunate Erection directly to 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 outward feel, asks questions, or contains rhetoric. Fun from the City of Angels. What Is It About Her from Wild Party and Don’t Take Much from The Life work well. Gypsy’s All I Need Is The Girl will work, as will Tonight At Eight and she She Loves Me from her She Loves Me. Check out How To Handle A Woman by Camelot, Being Alive by Company, and two by 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 And They’re Off by A New Brain and Dressing Them Up by Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Giants In The Sky by Into The Woods, Larger Than Life by My Favorite Year, Corner Of The Sky by Pippin, and Guys and Dolls (the title track) will all translate well to 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’s 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 revue-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 it 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: Falsettos’ What More Can I Say or Calamity Jane’s Higher Than A Hawk. A Little Personals Happiness 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!