[all.thru.the.nite]

Hey, I'm an 18 y/o tenor (I can do some high baritone, but I'm usually a tenor) and I was wondering which part I should go for. Personally I feel like I could do justice to Cogsworth, but Lumiere might also work well for me. I usually get cast as the comedic characters (I played Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in "Anything Goes" this summer). Am I on the right track or should I look at other parts?

EDIT: Ohh, and which part is bigger?

[Savoyard]

If you are indeed a tenor and not a baritone, go for Lumiere over Cogsworth. Plenty of comic scope, but far more singing than Cogsworth (you're the center of attention in "Be Our Guest" among other things).

D'Arque is a tenor role but should've been written for bass, and LeFou could also probably be considered a tenor role. But I personally believe it sounds like you would make a great Lumiere if you're up for all of the singing.

Incidentally, I (bass-baritone) auditioned for Cogsworth (shortly after turning 19), and only Cogsworth. I knew I'd be very good with the role and actually better than either of the two people who did get cast as Cogsworth. And even though I did a comedic patter song, "My Name is John Wellington Wells", they wound up having me read for just about every male role except for Cogsworth and Lumiere, even though I think I would've been best as one of those and I wound up getting the part of Gaston. The singing for it was no problem but actually having to play a jerk was a bit trickier (and I had to do some serious working out in the months before the show to get into the great physical condition for the character). Anyway, my point to this long anecdote is just go for Lumiere and Cogsworth and focus on them, but see what you wind up with, which might pleasantly surprise you.

[all.thru.the.nite]

Ok, I'll probably go for Lumiere then (but obviously I would enjoy playing any character I got cast as). Thanks for the feedback

[Beagle On Stage]

I don't think being a tenor rather than a baritone makes a huge difference in the Cogsworth/Lumiere decision. Both are fun roles, but neither of them really has any full-flight tenor action (see the vocal range sticky at the top of the board - they're both upper-midrange, character-voicy roles with the occasional low note and a couple of throw-away top notes).

You sound like you could do either one. You sound a lot like me when I did "Beauty and the Beast" (also as an older teenaged tenor). I decided to go for either one, and ended up getting Cogsworth after all simply because I was better at that character than the other guy would have been if we had switched. Since the two roles require very similar stuff from the actors, I suspect it's pretty common that it usually does work that way with casting Lumiere and Cogsworth: one or the other just seems to lean a particular direction and it makes a tricky casting decision easier.

Savoyard, if it does come down to vocal requirements between the two roles, it's actually easier to cast a tenor as Cogsworth and a patter baritone as Lumiere. Cogsworth goes higher than Lumiere in the show and his parts are unusually melodic and flowery, while all of Lumiere's material can in fact be done by a speak-singer.