Hey, I am going to be in a community theater production of "chicago" this summer, and was wondering if anyone could list the names and vocal ranges of the characters. As for myself, I'm a romantic-lead Tenor.

There really isn't anything for you.

Roxie - Alto

Velma - Alto

Billy Flynn - Baritone

Mama Morton - Alto

Amos - Baritone (?) He only has 1 song, and I wouldn't consider it a tenor song.

Mary Sunshine - if it's being played by a female it calls for a soprano. By a male I would say a counter- tenor, or a male with an amazing falsetto.

I'd say "Mr Cellophane" is a tenor song - at any rate, it appears in one of the tenor volumes of The Singer's Musical Theatre Anthology. And while Billy works best as a baritone, I'd most certainly consider Amos a tenor role.

Later days
David

Most tenors can usually do high baritone, which is what "Mr. Cellophane" and several of Billy's songs are. Since you consider yourself a "romantic tenor" go for Amos.
There is, of course, the chorus also, but you need to be an amazing dancer.

Yes, I would say Amos is a high baritone role.

But It's not the type of "romantic" role the poster is talking about. Amos is foolishly in love with Roxie, but she just steals and lies from him, and most of all cheats on him. It's the "heartbreaking" role of the show - because he sincerly loves Roxie - but she just uses him to further her success in the press, etc.

Billy is best sung by baritones. Like it was sung by Jerry Orbach and James Naughton - two great baritones. It calls for a guy with a nice "deep" sound. No one wants to hear Billy sung by a squeaky tenor (which I'm not saying is you - Fiyero34.)

The revival calls for Billy to sustain a high G above middle C - sustained for quite some time. But I doubt a community theatre production would do that. Orbach and Gere sure didn't.

Thanx for all the replies! I actually do have a high-baritone range (For some reason I was first taught to sing as a baritone, but that never worked out, so I tried tenor and its worked perfectly ever since). I was also considering Amos myself, but I wasn't sure what his vocal range was. I do usually play the steriotypical romantic lead type (like Tony in "West Side Story", for example), but I think playing Amos would be a fun challenge. We'll see if the casting director aggrees! (I'm not auditioning for a while, so I do have time to prepare)

Oh, that's what you meant by "romantic". Go for Billy Flynn. He is a baritone, but has to sustain some higher baritone notes.

Hey, I'm curious too about the vocal ranges of the characters, but I was wondering what the actual notes are for the characters. For example how low does Amos have to sign? A? B? C?

Had a quick look at my sheet music for 'Mr Cellophane' and it's from C-High G, so a tenor or baritone could handle it easy. This might be wrong since it's not from the score, but I'm confident it is.

That is correct, the version in the "Singer's Musical Theatre Anthology," which is supposed to be in the original key, has it top out at a G. For the record, it's in the tenor volume, but that's the only real high note.

I know it states that Velma is an alto/belter and that Roxie is a mezzo/alto, but what is their highest and lowest notes?