If you’re looking for the best songs, ask everyone.
As I’m working through the song selections for our annual Cabaret, sometimes I think that I should put tighter rules around the songs – even going so far as to making a limited song list students should select from.
The thing is, though, that it invariably happens that there are two or three songs I never would have picked – because I’ve never heard them! – that delight me in the show.
Each student has a different frame of reference…a different life experience with different art consumed. They bring all of this to the table, so for every cringeworthy song that comes into auditions, there’s a song that I’ll always be glad I learned about from a student.
We, as a group, have better and more refined taste than any one of us.