Show: LIZZIE
Theater: StageWorks at Studio 237
Theater Website: https://www.stageworksnj.org/auditions
Theater Phone: (973) 513-9159
Start date of auditions: 07/26/2026
Auditions – Ages 18+
LIZZIE
Director: Gina Buongiorno
Music Director: Argine Safari
Choreographer: Noa Avital
Audition Date:
July 26, 2026
Audition Time:
6:00pm to 7:30pm
Callbacks by invitation only beginning at 7:30pm
ALL ROLES ARE OPEN FOR THIS PRODUCTION
Location:
StageWorks at Studio 237
237 Hamburg Turnpike
Pompton Lakes, NJ 07442
Show Dates:
September 24th – October 11th, 2026
Rehearsal Dates:
Wednesdays & Thursdays 6:30-9:30pm & Saturdays 10:30am-2:30pm; Rehearsals to start on or shortly after 7/30
What to Prepare:
Please prepare between 1 – 2 of the vocal cuts in the provided folder for your initial audition. Callback cuts have also been provided in the materials folder so that you may familiarize yourself with them in advance.
Show Information:
Rage! Sex! Betrayal! Bloody murder! In the heat of late summer 1892, Andrew Borden and his wife are found murdered in their house. The main suspect? Andrew’s youngest daughter from a previous marriage: Lizzie Borden. This all-woman musical sets American mythology to a searing rock score – complete with riffs on the historical record – to explore the heady and heated days leading up to the historical murder and Lizzie’s controversial acquittal of all charges.
Character Descriptions:
**This show will be double cast
Lizzie Borden: Damaged, twisted. She can turn on a dime from fragile, broken, meek and obedient to conniving, sinister, furious and terrifying. She is a wounded animal backed into a corner, terrified but enraged. We find her at the moment she realizes she has nothing to lose. She is transformed through an act of unspeakable transgression, turning her own historical infamy into an ascension to legend.
Range: High belt: F#3-F#5, belt to A5 if possible
Emma Borden: The older sister, eclipsed by the younger. She must content herself by playing a motherly Lady Macbeth to Lizzie, dripping her own hatreds into Lizzie’s ears over the years, stoking the fires of Lizzie’s rage, disappearing when the deeds must be done, and suffering with guilt afterwards. Emma is a woman who has come to see that every opportunity for happiness has passed her by. She’s furious, but she’s also desperately sad.
Range: Alto/mezzo belt: F#3-D5
Bridget Sullivan/Maggie: The Bordens’ Irish maid. She may be a Banshee, called to wail at the Bordens’ door. She always seems to know what is going to happen, does things one step before anyone else. She’s put upon, angry, and as resentful of the Borden sisters as she is of the parents. Bridget is the Sex Pistols rock and roll nihilist; ready to mess things up because she knows that’s the only way anything is ever going to get better.
Range: Contralto/low alto: F3 with E3 pick-up/ghost-notes in one number and to Eb5 with an E5 opt. in one ad lib.
Alice Russell: The Bordens’ next door neighbor. She is a luscious pear, the sensuous mother-sister-lover which is sorely lacking in Lizzie’s life. She appears to Lizzie in her greatest moments of need and attempts to lead her away from a path of destruction and toward one of love, truth, and affection. Lizzie may have true feelings of affection for her, or she may be using Alice’s feelings to build an alibi.
Range: High mezzo lyric/mix/belt: G3 with F#3 pick-up/ghost notes in one number to A5 legit soprano
