There is a number of (usually British) classically trained actors who eventually made their way from Shakespeare to musical theater. Without necessarily having the conventional musical theater training of acting, singing, and dancing, they tackle musical theater with a slightly different toolset.
In regards to singing, it sometimes feels like they approach songs with the skills their voice and speech class taught them, and not a singing class.
Can a voice and speech class teach you how to sing?
To an extent, yes. To an extent... it even should. At the end of the day, a voice and speech teacher and a singing teacher are working on the same instrument. To pretend that their work is completely independent is silly. When I'm working with a student who is at the same time taking a voice and speech class as part of a program, I always want to know what is happening in that class. That's because I sometimes find that advice they received there is hindering my work as a singing teacher. That is because me and the voice and speech teacher are working on the same voice, the same body.
In fact, there is a great area of interaction between stage speech and singing. Both need range, different textures, the ability to be heard in a theater, sustaining capacity, and comfort of production.
The differences are: singing often requires a more wide range, and by extension more extensive work on registration. Singing sometimes has more firm aesthetic requirements that the voice needs to be able to follow. Singing requires vocalizing on specific pitches, while in stage speech there is more flexibility in that.
It is therefore my firm belief that the effectiveness of a voice and speech class can be judged by the extent to which it enables an actor to sing basic songs better.
Let's take a look at Imelda Staunton, an actor who trained in straight acting and really had to work on her stage speech technique at the beginning. She stated that she is not a good singing student, and that she does not treat her singing voice as a separate part from her speaking voice. Take a look at this video, particularly after 02:40.
She can get through the song. But if you take the music away and give it some more liberty it could as well be a very emotional monologue. That means that the song is in a range the speaking voice can cover, and it's built around the speaking voice in terms of texture. Moreover, the emotional context is allowing her to use some acting devices like a little head voice scream followed by raspiness on "sunshine and Santa Claus" to give her voice a little moment of 'shift and rest' by jumping into a different configuration for a second.
Is it a refined performance vocally? Not really. And you can very easily hear when her stage speech tool kit is exhausting the help it can offer her. That is clear on consecutively repeating patterns in the song, higher notes, and notes that need to be sustained a little longer. It works, but not 100%, and there are probably technical adjustments that could make the singing more sustainable.
Her technical thoughts are probably 'this feels like a high note, but I know how to safely scream and when I scream it sometimes is higher, so how about I put that intention behind the note and try to 'scream' it?'
Or when the repeated higher notes get her throat a little tight she approaches it like 'well I don't have a lot of technical tools to keep my larynx moving, but I know how to cry and go raspy. And those are different configurations. So how about I change the acting intention for those repeating patterns to keep me moving by just doing different stuff each time?' Could that get her through Defying Gravity or an aria? No.
The point is, however, her stage speech tool kit does gives her access to some songs.
This trend of Shakesperean actors crossing over to musical theater forms a specific style of musical theater interpretation. And there are many positive performance attributes associated with this style. It feels more raw, it can be thrilling for the audience. Stephen Sondheim even stated that he prefers actors who sing rather than singers who act in his shows.
Another example of this approach is Douglas Hodge in "A Little More Mascara":
So I guess my point is this. We talk a lot on how singing should not loose its speech-like urgency to communicate, and how it should remain text driven (which is even a stylistic marker for musical theater singing). But... you should also keep your speaking sang too. It goes both ways.
A good voice and speech teacher/class should discuss:
Range, texture, an open throat, some registration, sustaining.
I even think it's worth bringing a simple song to the class. The slightly more extended demands of singing will expose weaknesses in your stage speech technique as well as the options you have (like described with Imelda Staunton), or even the extent of a voice and speech teacher's competence.
Singing simple songs using what you learn in a stage speech class should result in your singing sounding somehow trained.
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