You are on page 1of 5

A Professors Recipe to Electric Musical Theatre Stage

Presence
By Matthew Teague Miller
Stage Presence. Star Quality. The X-factor. Whatever you call it, it is the
difference between an adequate actor and a good actor and often times,
between a good actor and a star. Many people say it is an indefinable quality
that someone is either born with or not. As a college professor who is
charged with teaching students how to be solid actors and musical theatre
performers that does not cut it. It is my responsibility to teach my students
everything in my power to make them stronger and youve either got it or
you dont is a mantra that does a disservice to my students and my
profession.
Last week after a rehearsal a student of mine stopped by my office and asked
me what she could work on to take her performance to the next level.
Id really like to see you go for it more, I told her, you are doing everything
the way youve been directed to but to really soar in the role, we need to
work on your stage presence.
My what? She responded.
Your stage presence, I reiterated, I want to see you own this role in order
to take it up a notch.
I dont know what that is, she said, How do I do that?
Now Ill admit it is a pretty bad note. It is not specific and pretty doggone
generic. But I was in a hurry and in the professional world it is a note that I
could have given and it would have made some sense to the actor. Her
question was totally legitimate, what is stage presence and how do I apply it
to my work?
I sat there for a moment bewildered and not knowing how to explain it.
Finally I just looked at her and said, Let me send you some videos.
In the age of the internet, research is easy. These young whippersnappers
have no idea what we old folk use to go through to do it we had to go to the
LIBRARY, walk 25 miles in the snow (even in California where I am from) and
somehow it was uphill in both directions blah-blah-blah.
I spent the next couple of hours assembling a list of videos that
demonstrated what I considered to be great musical theatre stage presence
for my student. I solicited suggestions from friends and compiled a small
Youtube library. This is in no way is a Top ten list but rather ten great
examples of star quality on the musical theatre stage. And a demonstration
of the crackle-n-pop that I believe makes musical theatre performers stars.
Lining these videos up next to one another I started to notice some qualities

that all of them possessed. The more that I studied them, the more it felt like
each one of the videos demonstrated one of these qualities clearly but all of
them had traces of all of these qualities. Could it be that while there is no
recipe for success there is in fact a recipe for stage presence? And that,
while each performers voice is unique and to what level these characteristics
are harnessed varies, it is the presence of all ten of these qualities that make
up a musical theatre actors star quality? This is in an untestable
hypothesis but the more I watched recordings of great performances the
more I felt like I was on to something with the identification of these ten
important attributes.
The ten characteristics of great stage presence that I have identified are
Commitment
Energy
Fearlessness
Intensity
Ownership of the Material
Danger
Hope (aka The Musical Theatre Twinkle)
Power
Focus
A Little Bit of Crazy
Let me use the following videos to illustrate.
1) COMMITMENT
One of the most memorable and electric performances that I have ever
seen (albeit on video) was Michael Jeter in TAKE A GLASS TOGETHER
from Grand Hotel. His commitment to the character, choreography
and storytelling is unmatched. This guy is in 1000% and you cannot
question that for one second. His body moves in an almost muppetlike fashion as he bobs, weaves and bounces everywhere. He leaves it
ALL on the stage (and he won a TONY for it).
https://youtu.be/9QUCt4t92Zs
2) ENERGY
When Ben Vereen played The Leading Player in Pippin, he energy was
so explosive that you expected there to be fireballs shooting out of his
finger when he pointed. The sweat spraying off his face when he turns
his head to look around the stage is the physical manifestation the kind
of energy the makes for incredible stage presence.
https://youtu.be/cr3QguVdzPw
3) FEARLESSNESS
When Donna Mckechnie performed Music in the Mirror from A Chorus
Line, she left her inhibitions at the door. Her reckless abandon makes
her performance thrilling and captivating. You simply cant be afraid of

how you look or what you sound like and have incredible stage
presence. She is electric. No artist can live in fear and thrive. Fear is
the enemy of creativity. Show us how it is done Miss Donna (Special
thanks to my good friend Jerry Jay Cranford, Professor at Augustana
College, for reminding me about this great video!)
https://youtu.be/u9ULWsqbCpA?list=RDu9ULWsqbCpA
4) INTENSITY
Mandy Patinkin has an intensity to everything he does but few
moments come close to his rendition of Finishing the Hat from
Sunday in the Park with George. His voice cuts through the
soundscape with an intensity that is only matched by his commitment,
energy, focus and. (the other ten qualities of incredible stage
presence). His acting is the quintessential example of theatrical
intensity. Just wait till 2:35. This video is a masterclass.
https://youtu.be/ducG55pfCMQ
5) OWNERSHIP OF THE MATERIAL
When a performer can live in and own the material that they are
presenting, magical things can happen. In this day and age of
masturbatory musical theatre performances with singers slipping their
same favorite unnecessary riffs and runs in because they like the way
it sounds, Bernadette Peters reminds us how to indulge in a freedom of
back-phrasing, front-phrasing and shifts in melody NOT because she
thinks is sounds good but because it helps her character express her
feelings! No one else could perform this song like this because
Bernadette owns it (Super special thanks to Anderson University
Professor David Coolidge for reminding me of this masterpiece).
https://youtu.be/jugnx9d9TzQ?t=1m37s
6) DANGER
In one of the greatest musical theatre performances in history, Jennifer
Holiday walks a tightrope across an alligator filled swap dangling on
the edge of certain disaster with every note. The vulnerability in her
acting and the exposure of her soul gives the audience a sense of
danger that makes us sit up and pay attention. In situations like this
we grab the arm of our seats, sit up straight and hold our breath for
the entire eight minutes of the performance. It wont be until
tomorrow that we realize that we gave ourselves bruises from the tight
grip. Try not to chip a tooth while you clench your jaw and watch the
following awe-inspiring performance.
https://youtu.be/RCDDx2JFnaQ
7) HOPE (The Musical Theatre Twinkle)
Great musical theatre performers get a hopeful optimism and a twinkle
in their eye that I theorize is a remnant of the classical rags-to-riches

musical comedies of the 1920s (like Sally, Sunny or No No Nenette). It


causes audiences to lean forward in their seats and root for the people
onstage, even when we KNOW things are not going to end the way that
the characters think it is. Check out Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra
McDonald perform Wheels of a Dream from Ragtime at the Kennedy
Center.
https://youtu.be/6wdSlIyhv1I
8) POWER
If stage presence is commanding an audiences attention, few things
command attention the way that a performers raw power does. The
power in which a performer presents material and the power in their
instrument. No one is a better example of musical theatre power than
Patti LuPone. I could have shown something from Evita or Anything
Goes but her power doesnt seem to have an expiration date so I
decided to share her Tony performance of Gypsy. When she is on
stage, she commands our attention and her power captivates and
controls us.
https://youtu.be/LXl10a9gJwA
9) FOCUS
While focus can be closely related to intensity they are certainly
different, as demonstrated in this great clip of Sutton Foster performing
Gimme Gimme from Thoroughly Modern Millie on the Rosie ODonnell
Show. As she sings this song the rest of the world fades away and she
creates a captivating performance that is difficult to take ones eyes off
of. Focus, unlike intensity, can have an ease and gentleness to it. In
fact, youll see that while this number starts with incredible focus from
the outset, her intensity is able to build really kicking it up at about
the 2:30 mark. Nobody owns her focus like Miss Sutton.
https://youtu.be/Z8Ml5UIBxDw
10)
A LITTLE BIT OF CRAZY
I wrestled with the title of this attribute because it sounds a wee-bit
negative but lets be real it takes a little bit of crazy to stand in
front of a group of strangers and pretend to be someone that your not.
In fact in some walks of life that is the very definition of insanity. Some
performers can harness that little bit of crazy energy and allow it to
propel them into having a great stage presence. I dont mean this as a
knock I basically have a BFA in crazy and an MFA in directing-crazy.
That wildness in ones eyes can be an actors best friend. It creates a
sense of unpredictability that is totally mesmerizing to watch in a
performer. A great example of A Little Bit of Crazy in performance is
the clip below of Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner from a performance
from Side Show that they did on the Rosie show. Harness the crazy
inside you performers! I may have chosen this clip to demonstrate it
but every single clip on this list has a little bit of crazy in it. Get your

crazy on!
https://youtu.be/W9IqsC5hc_Q
Perhaps your personal recipe deals in two parts POWER and an one part
HOPE or you like to sprinkle in a little extra DANGER and keep the LITTLE
BIT OF CRAZY to a minimum, that part is up to the performer. You can season
to your personal taste so to speak. The point is that all ten videos posses all
ten elements and, it is my contention, that it is the ownership of all that
makes for great theatrical stage presence.
Do not hesitate to share your thoughts or links to other great example videos
in the comment section below!

You might also like