What do I have to do to be on Broadway?

Answer 1

The single most important factor for a career on Broadway (or any other professional career in the Arts) is developing a consistent practice routine. Start with a simple 5-minute daily practice routine including some basic physical stretches, some simple vocal warmups (sighs and sirens are great!), a short monologue for acting practice (or practicing facial expressions in a mirror!), and a short dance. This doesn't need to be intense, it can just be 1-2 minutes each for stretching, vocals, acting, and dance, but that will get you in the habit of developing your skills daily.

Once you have a practice routine established, work on increasing the time spent practicing to 30/45/60 minutes daily. Eventually you may need to move beyond an hour of practice a day but at the start that is enough to grow substantially.

Consider private coaching in singing and/or acting and/or dancing. Classes can also be very helpful for learning in a group setting.

The next stage will be developing your audition skills and auditioning for as many shows as possible. Auditioning is not the same as practicing or performing, and it needs to be practices as a skill. You'll need a high quality headshot, a good 'book' of songs and monologues to audition with (all memorized, and available in 30, 60, and 90 second 'cut' versions, any good coach can help you with this), and you'll need to practice handling auditions in a professional and confident manner.

Beyond building a practice routine and developing your audition skills, there are hundreds of other things you could work on to improve your chances but honestly, much of the higher level success in the Arts is luck and persistence. You can't count on luck, but the harder you work and the longer you stay in the game and keep trying, the more likely you are to get lucky.

Good luck with your journey! Feel free to reach out if you'd like to discuss singing/acting coaching to help bring your skills to the next level!

Answer 2

To be as succinct as possible, the steps to make it to Broadway are:

1. Consistent and intensive training in dance, singing, and acting.
2. PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!
3. Experience performing in musicals ranging from high school productions, regional productions, to national tours.
4. You can find auditions on Backstage.com, Playbill.com and more
5. Have tools and resources to take care of your health.
6. This includes physical AND mental.

There are many more layers to this, but here is your basic checklist!