[Laura]

im not really familiar with the show. what's mary's age range. is it like annie and dependent on looks or could a 13 year old who looks her age play mary. Im not auditioning or anything, just interested...

and how challenging is the role? a comparison would be good?

thanks guys, sorry im being such a pain

[Melindaisy]

Mary is supposed to be about 10 or 12, I think. In our production she was played by a small 13 year old.
She has a good number of songs, and needs to be a decent actress.

[The Very Angry Woman]

Northwestern University's production was entirely NU students, so Mary was a young-looking freshman (and Colin was a freshman girl). More often than not the actress playing her is between 9 and 14, though. But she has to look around 10.

[LittleGavroche]

I'm almost positive that Mary is eleven in the musical. I think she's nine in the book. And Daisy Eagan was eleven when she originated the role.

[ConverseSneaker]

There is no description of what Mary looks like, except she has brown eyes, although, the audience probably won't notice her eye color.

Mary is a very complex role for a little girl. Her age range is 9-14, but the character is 11. Mary needs to be a good actress, and be strong vocally, for this is a vocally demanding show. She has one solo song, but she has many parts in other songs.

[LittleGavroche]

Clarification: Mary's eyes are hazel

She's a mezzo-soprano, though could be played by a soprano.

Really, Mary can be older, up to sixteen I would say, as long as she looks pretty young, and if I were a director, I would cast the other characters around my Mary.

Mary is described in the books as being a dirty blonde who's rather sickly looking and skinny. In the musical, nothing is specified but the eye color.

[Sweeney Hyde]

Mary's eyes don't HAVE to be hazel...the audience probably won't notice if they aren't...

[The Very Angry Woman]

[metaphor17]

I played Mary when I was exactly 11 years old. I have red hair and eyes that are nearly black. I am a first soprano, 5 feet tall.

I don't have hazel eyes or dirty blonde hair. I was 11 and I suppose I am a bit sickly looking


Really, the most important things in casting a Mary are:

1.) Vocal talent... you need a young actress who has a pretty, melodic voice, a fairly broad range, and the ability to harmonize. Some of the singing can be difficult, especially for a young actress (I had trouble with the harmony part in "Wick". I wouldn't, now, but I was only 11.)

2.) Acting talent and MATURITY. Some of the scenes are DEMANDING (i.e. Mary's tantrum when the headmistress of the boarding school visits, Mrs. Medlock and Neville discovering Mary and Colin together, the Final Storm at the end of Act I, etc). The actress in question must be able to realistically convey fear, stubbornness, tenderness, love, excitement and many other raw, strong emotions to the audience.

3.) Youthful looks. The actress playing Mary should look positively NO older than 12. I don't like casting that is appearance-based, but the role of Mary MUST be played by a very young-looking (and sounding) actress.

[LittleGavroche]

Perhaps I should have quoted;

[ConverseSneaker]

Oh, yeah, they are hazel, not brown. Oh, well.

[Glissando]

I'm auditioning for Mary in about two weeks, and I'm really hoping I look young enough. I'm on the upper end of the age limit that people mentioned, but I look waaaay younger (I'm 4'11'' and have a total baby face). Luckily, the director loves me and I have lots of people with influence putting in a good word for me. But I'm still really worried...

[momsterv]

My daughter was in a professional production of TSG when she was 11, she played Colin. The girl playing Mary was 12, both were about 4' 10" tall.

Mary is a very demanding role. There are a lot of lines, she is in so many scenes. The music for most of the roles is very complex, a lot of harmonies, lots of interweaving melodies.

I think it would be important to base Mary's size and age on who they wanted for Archie and Lily, they would all have to look right together.

Although the book is about Mary, and Mary does have the most lines in the show, the musical is really more about Archibald and how he is dealing with his life after Lily dies. Lily has no lines, but does have many songs, so is almost as much the lead as Mary.

[elphclaudia]

She's 10-13. In my production she was played by a very short 17 year old (HS Senior).

[kozafluitmusique]

*sigh* the one sideback about being tall.

I love SG...from what I heard (and I'm getting the OBC soon) and I'd love to play Mary! Except i'm not that strong vocally compared to other people, and i'm 5'7-ish"!!

[born to perform]

[ConverseSneaker]

[theatreisme]

I am doing the secret garden right know and a 13 year (who is pretty small) is mary. But she has got to be good at a british accent, a good actress, and can sing like there is no tomorrow

[malpal08]

We did this last year at my school. It was awesome...

But the girl who played Mary was 17. She's very tiny, only about 4'11", with a great set of vocal chords =] It is a very hard role to play...especially for a very young girl.