As big breaks go, actor John Riddle鈥檚 was pretty epic. He made his Broadway debut starring alongside Chita Rivera in John Kander and Fred Ebb鈥檚 The Visit, playing the younger version of Roger Rees鈥� Anton. Now Riddle has followed that up with Disney鈥檚 Frozen, where he plays Prince Hans of the Southern Isles鈥攁nd sings the beloved score by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The singing actor stepped in to 半岛体育鈥檚 studio to sing through his audition book and share his secrets behind finding the tunes that helped him book the job.
Listen to Riddle sing 鈥淕o Slow Johnny/I鈥檓 Shooting High,鈥� 鈥淟onely House,鈥� and 鈥淚 Gotta Go鈥� in the video above, accompanied by Jesse Kissel.
How do you find your audition songs?
John Riddle: I always believe in just singing stuff that you love to sing. Some of those I found way back in college. I鈥檝e just held on to them because I like singing them and I like to stay away from things people know and hear all the time. I think it helps to come in with a fresh ear. We were singing all the time and we had an audition class so I had a lot of opportunities to figure out things that worked and didn鈥檛 work.
Which maybe helped you find something by N枚el Coward that maybe not everybody was listening to on their iPod.
I was more of a musical theatre nerd than I am now. I think one of my friends from school gave me the album of the musical Sail Away, which Elaine Stritch did.
What song did you sing to book your first professional gig?
I sang 鈥淥n The Street Where You Live鈥� to get my Equity card. I used to sing 鈥淚f I Loved You,鈥� but I never got any jobs from that so that鈥檚 retired. I have a John Legend song in my book, 鈥淪tay With You,鈥� Sam Smith 鈥淟ay Me Down.鈥� I鈥檝e sung 鈥淎ll the Things You Are.鈥� In the last few years, I鈥檝e been mainly going in for new [musicals] and they give you stuff from the show, which is why it鈥檚 my worst nightmare when they say sing something from your book. [Laughs] For Frozen there was 鈥淟ove Is an Open Door鈥� but [the Hans part is] two seconds long. They needed something else to hear because they鈥檙e not going to give out the new material for the lab to have a bunch of people go learn it and share it, so you have to sing something from your book.
What kinds of songs speak to you overall?
I cater to the character. If you鈥檙e playing the villain, you鈥檙e not going to come in and sing 鈥淥n the Street Where You Live鈥濃攐r you could, but you鈥檇 have to do it as the sheisty ass, which might be kind of interesting... But I try to pick things that are congruous with the character. But sometimes you don鈥檛 even know what you're auditioning for and in that case I go for something that tells a story and shows off my voice.
What is your best audition advice?
The thing that I learned, because my first year or so [auditioning] I was just failing horribly at auditions. I remember sitting on the train thinking, 鈥淚鈥檓 doing something wrong.鈥� I learned that you have to be the most prepared person that comes into the room and you have to give a final performance when it gets to this level. You have to come in and be off-book; it鈥檚 helpful to know your material inside and outside and actually give a performance and not just, 鈥淗ey I learned this music yesterday and here鈥檚 a whack at it.鈥� The person that鈥檚 going to get the job is the most prepared and spent a lot of time on it. That being said, sometimes you do get an audition the night before. That happened for me with Frozen and I had never seen the movie. I was at a bar with my friends and had to run home and learn 鈥淟ove Is an Open Door鈥� and watch the movie real quick.
