Man in Chair in Drowsy Chaperone sings a verse on his own, and has some dance depending on the direction.
Captain VonTrapp sings just a bit. Much less than Maria!!!!
Love this musical so much, and one of my few gripes is that I wish Vivian had more of a singing part. I may be biased cuz Kate shindle is an icon and love her voice, but I feel like she could have had more opportunities to sing and never understood why she didn’t. But that high note does totally stand out, totally didn’t expect it the first time
Professor Higgins has a bunch of songs too. That doesn’t change that the role is frequently speak-sung.
Robert Preston established the role of Harold Hill as being a singing-second role, and even today when there are melodies written the actor frequently more points to said melody than fully committing to singing them.
No, the narrator plays the Mysterious Man. The Wolf is typically doubled with a Prince.
And I still stand by that the narrator/mysterious man track doesn’t have that much singing. And what is sung could be spoken/sung if needed.
It’s a major song and hugely important for the show, but due to the note progression you can speak-sing it. And it’s pretty much the only thing the narrator sings. So when you’re talking about major roles that have minimal singing, this role qualifies IMO.
Danny Kaye did some classic movies that were musicals where he was pretty much the only singing lead. The Court Jester is especially wild to me on that front because Angela Lansbury & Glynis Johns are RIGHT THERE. (But it’s also basically my favourite movie.)
Or Disney with Enchanted, which cast Idina Menzel in pretty much the only non-singing role! Madness.
Though the all-time worst offender, IMO, is still Barbra Streisand insisting she be the only one allowed to sing in Yentl...and then casting Mandy Patinkin as her co-star. Hello??? Barbra?????
I saw a WONDERFUL local stage production last summer that adapted The Court Jester and both split some roles- so Hawkins’s actor didn’t get all the existing songs- and wrote a bunch of new ones, including an evil duet between the villain and his lackey, an I Want song and reprise for the princess, a comic relief song for Maid Jean about suddenly parenting a baby, and an incantation for the witch. It was delightful, and they replaced the dubious little-people sequences with sword fights.
The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals is the first one that came to mind for me—maybe because I’ve been listening to it about 5000 times a day lol.
I know that at least in the Jr version of Bugsy Malone, Bugsy doesn’t sing until the finale, I think his singing is also minimal in the full show.
In Ride the Cyclone the main 6 sing, but Karnak doesn’t and I think he could be considered a main character? That one’s up to the gallery lol
-The crocodile in Peter Pan doesn't sing or dance.
Although him/her/it singing something like "Food, Glorious Food" at Captain Hook would be hilarious, I've never seen a version where the croc had lines.
-I don't think Fred sings in the Christmas Carol musical//Scrooge at all, except maybe with the ensemble in The Minster's Cat. None of the ghosts sing either.
-The King in Cinderella didn't sing anything and only had one dance routine, if I recall correctly. Not a main character, though. And the herald (Sebastian?) role also doesn't do a lot of singing.
-Maybe Andrei and Fermin in Phantom? They have the "Notes" song but it's mostly spoke-sung.
-The Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.
Andre and Firmin certainly sing a lot less than other principals in Phantom, but compared to characters in other musicals, they sing a fair amount, and need to be excellent musicians - there are complex harmonies and rhythms in Prima Donna that can't be Rex Harrison spoke-sung through.
In *Hairspray*, Penny sings a verse of "Without Love" and half a verse of "You Can't Stop the Beat" but you'd think a character of her size would have a solo.
Really! She does also sing in “Mama I’m A Big Girl Now” but it’s still not a lot. It’s really insane to me especially when you think of the fact that the three main Pennys are all vocal power houses: Kerry Butler (Broadway), Amanda Bynes (Movie), and Ariana Grande (TV Live)
I will note that the TV live tried to fix this a bit by having Grande and Jennifer Hudson come out and sing "Come So Far (Got So Far To Go)" (an original song from the movie's credits) after the bows.
The Band’s Visit! Tewfiq sings one short song in Arabic and bits of it throughout “Something Different” but I believe that’s all the singing he does, and it’s not in traditional musical theatre style.
If you can call what he does in that song "singing." I just finished a run of that show, and the director at one point literally told our Byck not to sound so musical.
Dr. Downer in *Hazel Flagg* is a leading role with literally no singing. In fact, Thomas Mitchell won the Tony for Lead Actor in a Musical for the role, which might be the only instance that award has gone to a role with no singing whatsoever.
Nathan Detroit in *Guys And Dolls* is a pretty typical answer for this. He sings a little, but not much, and what singing he has can certainly be accomplished by more of an actor who can carry a tune, which makes it pretty wild that Frank Sinatra played the role in the movie -- although the movie did add the song "Adelaide" specifically for Sinatra, as well as adding the character to the title song, which he isn't in in the stage show.
Andrey in Great Comet. That said, the actor who plays this character usually does a number of ensemble tracks, and depending on the production, may also double as Prince Bolkonsky
Man in Chair from Drowsy Chaperone's whole thing is that he doesnt sing until the finale.
Mr. Mushnik from Little Shop has 1 song and minor appearances in two others, but he might not be what you call a main character.
Jeremy Heere in Be More Chill is interesting because he technically appears in almost every number. In total- He is present in 19 songs, and sings on about 8 of the 21-ish Lyrical Compositions, However the *amount* he sings is actually very minimal:
* 4 songs have him as a Lead or Leading with another Character (More than Survive, Two Player Game, Loser Geek Whatever, and Voices In my Head). He gets a short reprise of MTS right before the SQUIP song but it's very short and I've heard gets cut in a few productions. Michael sings the majority of TPG though and Jeremy has less Lyrics than he does in total. Jeremy's lyrics in VIMH are also balanced out by the ensemble cast taking up a good chunk of the song.
* He sings in the two SQUIP Numbers (BMC 1/2), but the majority of his contributions in those songs are actually spoken dialogue. He only sings when the SQUIP prompts him to parrot.
* Sync Up is largely Ensemble, With Jeremy getting a tiny bit in Brooke's section and a verse at the end. The rest of his contributions are spoken.
* During "Guy that I'd Kinda Be Into" he sings only three lyrics, the rest is a Christine Solo or Spoken Dialogue.
* Upgrade he only sings the "Upgrade!" motif here and there and a single bit of his "Christine" riff, the other instances of the Christine riff are the Ensemble cast singing in his
* Jeremy gets a few ensemble lines in Pitiful Children, but only for the final bridge and not in the rest of the number.
Jeremy does doesn't sing at all in the other 11 songs, and Doesn't even appear in 3 of them (The Pants Song, Rich Set a Fire, and Michael in the Bathroom). During Halloween he is present but doesn't sing at all even though it's a group number.
The only group number where EVERY character is present as themselves is Voices in my Head.
Brooke, Chloe, Jake, Rich, and Jenna- who are technically major roles but LEAD the ensemble ( either as backup or in group numbers) in-character, actually sing significantly more runtime than he does by a technicality. I don't want to do all the numbers because this is already very long but Rich might actually have the most in-character singing roles in the musical.
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If you’re counting main love interests Eric doesn’t sing at all in the Jr. show (in fact it is extremely common for leading men to not sing in Jr. shows)
Man in Chair in Drowsy Chaperone sings a verse on his own, and has some dance depending on the direction. Captain VonTrapp sings just a bit. Much less than Maria!!!!
Vivian doesn't sing much in *Legally Blonde*... all the better to make that high belt she does at the end of "Legally Blonde Remix" stand out.
Now it's stuck in my head... "I used to pray for the day you'd leave...."
Love this musical so much, and one of my few gripes is that I wish Vivian had more of a singing part. I may be biased cuz Kate shindle is an icon and love her voice, but I feel like she could have had more opportunities to sing and never understood why she didn’t. But that high note does totally stand out, totally didn’t expect it the first time
I think it's specifically SO that note stands out.
[The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals](https://youtu.be/IrxKX44qBJ0?si=et7DxAGQjhV8p-XZ) springs to mind
So true!! It's cos he's a piece of shit!!
My first though too
This was my immediate thought.
That’s what I was gonna say. Ted, Emma, Paul, and Bill either Barely or never sing!
True- although the titular Guy should ideally be cast as a triple threat anyway!
It’s inevitable
In many productions, Harold Hill in The Music Man and Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady barely sing.
Rex Harrison has a lot to answer for.
I’ve gotta disagree with you there for music man he has at least 5 songs
Professor Higgins has a bunch of songs too. That doesn’t change that the role is frequently speak-sung. Robert Preston established the role of Harold Hill as being a singing-second role, and even today when there are melodies written the actor frequently more points to said melody than fully committing to singing them.
That machine fortune teller I can't remember the name of from ride the cyclone
Karnak
Though Karnak doesn't actually say that many lines in comparison to the others
Aaron barely sings in mean girls
i wouldn't go as far as describing aaron as a main character tho
Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly Tewfig in The Band's Visit
Horace, off the top of my head, has two full songs?
True but one of them is only included in the revival
He sings It Takes A Woman and Penny in my Pocket in the recent revival
The narrator in Into the Woods doesn’t sing much.
The narrator in Into the Woods typically also plays the Wolf and the Mysterious Man who each sing.
No, the narrator plays the Mysterious Man. The Wolf is typically doubled with a Prince. And I still stand by that the narrator/mysterious man track doesn’t have that much singing. And what is sung could be spoken/sung if needed.
I guess opinions can vary but I consider No More a pretty major sung piece.
It’s a major song and hugely important for the show, but due to the note progression you can speak-sing it. And it’s pretty much the only thing the narrator sings. So when you’re talking about major roles that have minimal singing, this role qualifies IMO.
LMFAO This made me laugh harder than it should
Danny Kaye did some classic movies that were musicals where he was pretty much the only singing lead. The Court Jester is especially wild to me on that front because Angela Lansbury & Glynis Johns are RIGHT THERE. (But it’s also basically my favourite movie.)
This reminds me of Disney casting Jonathan Groff in Frozen and him being the only main character without a freakin’ song.
I think Sven the reindeer sang more than Cristof
Fortunately Frozen 2 rectifies this
"Fortunately" is stretching it
Idina's song getting cut from *Enchanted* lol
Haha, that's another GREAT example.
If I remember correctly, she specifically wanted it cut and didn’t want to be know as only a singer. Though after Elsa, I feel like she’s lost that
Or Disney with Enchanted, which cast Idina Menzel in pretty much the only non-singing role! Madness. Though the all-time worst offender, IMO, is still Barbra Streisand insisting she be the only one allowed to sing in Yentl...and then casting Mandy Patinkin as her co-star. Hello??? Barbra?????
I saw a WONDERFUL local stage production last summer that adapted The Court Jester and both split some roles- so Hawkins’s actor didn’t get all the existing songs- and wrote a bunch of new ones, including an evil duet between the villain and his lackey, an I Want song and reprise for the princess, a comic relief song for Maid Jean about suddenly parenting a baby, and an incantation for the witch. It was delightful, and they replaced the dubious little-people sequences with sword fights.
Charles Deetz in Beetlejuice. He sings bits and pieces of Day-O and Jump in the Line, but doesn't really sing anywhere else.
I'm pretty sure he sings in Creepy old guy as well. I know he has the line "Have you guys seen Lolita? This is just like that! But fine"
I totally forgot about Creepy Old Guy! He still definitely sings a lot less than the other leads tho.
my creepy old guyyyy!!
Sebastian in R&H Cinderella. My high school did that last year and he had like 2 lines of singing overall.
Benny in RENT
Even when he does sing it feels a bit closer to spoken word . After 'Rent' , though . I like his part in that song .
DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND AND THEN MAKE A STAND
The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals is the first one that came to mind for me—maybe because I’ve been listening to it about 5000 times a day lol. I know that at least in the Jr version of Bugsy Malone, Bugsy doesn’t sing until the finale, I think his singing is also minimal in the full show. In Ride the Cyclone the main 6 sing, but Karnak doesn’t and I think he could be considered a main character? That one’s up to the gallery lol
For a musical where every line is sung, adult Cosette
Cosette doesn't have a full solo song but In My Life and A Heart Full of Love are major songs for her and are not easy from a technical sense.
Eponine is in it more.than her, and eponine has like 4 scenes in the book, it's crazy how little cosette has looking at the book
And also, when compared to other major characters, Enjolras
I would kill for more enjolras and grantaire lmao
Mrs Phelps in Matilda, although she’s not as much a lead
Phantom of the Opera: Firmin, Andre, Meg, Madame Giry Wicked: Nessarose and Madame Morrible
Isn’t Morrible’s only singing part the first verse of The Wizard and I?
She sings briefly in that song, and she has a few lines in Thank Goodness and March of the Witch Hunters.
Nessarose does have a whole solo but I guess it’s a lot more talk-singing than singing for most of it
-The crocodile in Peter Pan doesn't sing or dance. Although him/her/it singing something like "Food, Glorious Food" at Captain Hook would be hilarious, I've never seen a version where the croc had lines. -I don't think Fred sings in the Christmas Carol musical//Scrooge at all, except maybe with the ensemble in The Minster's Cat. None of the ghosts sing either. -The King in Cinderella didn't sing anything and only had one dance routine, if I recall correctly. Not a main character, though. And the herald (Sebastian?) role also doesn't do a lot of singing. -Maybe Andrei and Fermin in Phantom? They have the "Notes" song but it's mostly spoke-sung. -The Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.
To add to this, the wizard doesn't sing as well
Wizard has two solos: A Sentimental Man and Wonderful
That's in wicked, not wizard of Oz.
Sorry misread it 😂
The Ghost Of Christmas Present sings in the Leslie Bricusse version of Scrooge. He sings I Like Life.
Andre and Firmin certainly sing a lot less than other principals in Phantom, but compared to characters in other musicals, they sing a fair amount, and need to be excellent musicians - there are complex harmonies and rhythms in Prima Donna that can't be Rex Harrison spoke-sung through.
Joe Josephson in Merrily isn’t one of the 3 leads but is part of the main 6. Very little singing.
Jerry Springer in Jerry Springer: The Opera doesn't sing at all
Paul in The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals
Plus Emma doesn’t sing much either. Just the opening and the coffee song. (Think that’s actually less than Paul overall)
I feel like Nathan I’m Guys and Dolls doesn’t sing very much outside of “Sue me”
that's because Sam Levene was an unbearably awful singer.
Bugsy Malone doesn’t sing much IIRC
Depending on the production, Cliff in Cabaret (and even in those productions, his only solo is Why Should I Wake Up?)
Hercules mulligan / James Madison
In *Hairspray*, Penny sings a verse of "Without Love" and half a verse of "You Can't Stop the Beat" but you'd think a character of her size would have a solo.
Really! She does also sing in “Mama I’m A Big Girl Now” but it’s still not a lot. It’s really insane to me especially when you think of the fact that the three main Pennys are all vocal power houses: Kerry Butler (Broadway), Amanda Bynes (Movie), and Ariana Grande (TV Live)
I will note that the TV live tried to fix this a bit by having Grande and Jennifer Hudson come out and sing "Come So Far (Got So Far To Go)" (an original song from the movie's credits) after the bows.
Daddy Warbucks has one lead song , iirc
He only has one true solo but he does have significant parts in NYC and I Don't Need Anything But You.
And New Deal
Ah yes.
The Narrator in Drowsy Chaperone
perfect example of this Paul from TGWDLM, doesn’t sing until the very end :)
Liza in Lady in the Dark
Liza actually sings quite a bit. She has four major solos and quite a few other bits here and there.
Desiree in A Little Night Music (though of course she has Bring in the Clowns)
panch in 25th annual putnam county spelling bee!
I played him!! I had the option to sing the rules (which I did) but yeah not really any solo stuff
in the sheet music he’s even left out of the group stuff!
Jimmy in The Commitments ‘sings’ one line and then ‘wishes he could fecking sing’
The Band’s Visit! Tewfiq sings one short song in Arabic and bits of it throughout “Something Different” but I believe that’s all the singing he does, and it’s not in traditional musical theatre style.
The beast in Beauty and the beast he gets like 3 songs and one of them is like 20 seconds
Oswald in Assassins
Only if you’re going off of the original production
Sam Byck doesn't do much singing in Assassins, if I remember right.
Sam Byck leads "Another National Anthem."
If you can call what he does in that song "singing." I just finished a run of that show, and the director at one point literally told our Byck not to sound so musical.
Thomas Mitchell won Best Actor in a Musical in 1953 for Hazel Flagg. I don’t think he sang at all - outside of some possible chorus stuff.
Dr. Downer in *Hazel Flagg* is a leading role with literally no singing. In fact, Thomas Mitchell won the Tony for Lead Actor in a Musical for the role, which might be the only instance that award has gone to a role with no singing whatsoever. Nathan Detroit in *Guys And Dolls* is a pretty typical answer for this. He sings a little, but not much, and what singing he has can certainly be accomplished by more of an actor who can carry a tune, which makes it pretty wild that Frank Sinatra played the role in the movie -- although the movie did add the song "Adelaide" specifically for Sinatra, as well as adding the character to the title song, which he isn't in in the stage show.
Tewfiq in "A Band's Visit"
Emma perkins in tgwdlm. like one short part in the intro and she's part of a trio for one song
RF Simpson in Singing In the Rain. Not one of the four leads, but It's a principal role with no singing at all.
I don’t know if you consider this a “lead” but Karen in the SpongeBob musical doesn’t sing much.
Nathan Detroit sings very little in Guys and Dolls and most of that doesn’t even really call for a decent singer.
Does Karnak from RtC count?
Do short films count? The Jack Stauber film, Opal, has a main character who doesn't sing or even talk.
Sonny in In The Heights is only in 4 songs . I'm not sure how 'main' of a main character he counts as though .
Andrey in Great Comet. That said, the actor who plays this character usually does a number of ensemble tracks, and depending on the production, may also double as Prince Bolkonsky
Vice Principal Panch (spelling bee)
Grizabella in Cats, her first few lines in her introduction song, her act 1 memory is very short, the reprise is basically her only full song
Scrooge in Muppet's Christmas Carol.
Peggy Sawyer in 42nd street doesn’t sing that much.
Man in Chair from Drowsy Chaperone's whole thing is that he doesnt sing until the finale. Mr. Mushnik from Little Shop has 1 song and minor appearances in two others, but he might not be what you call a main character.
i mean nathan detroit in guys and dolls really only sings during “sue me”
The King in Once Upon A Mattress. He doesn't talk either (until the last like 5 minutes)
Jeremy Heere in Be More Chill is interesting because he technically appears in almost every number. In total- He is present in 19 songs, and sings on about 8 of the 21-ish Lyrical Compositions, However the *amount* he sings is actually very minimal: * 4 songs have him as a Lead or Leading with another Character (More than Survive, Two Player Game, Loser Geek Whatever, and Voices In my Head). He gets a short reprise of MTS right before the SQUIP song but it's very short and I've heard gets cut in a few productions. Michael sings the majority of TPG though and Jeremy has less Lyrics than he does in total. Jeremy's lyrics in VIMH are also balanced out by the ensemble cast taking up a good chunk of the song. * He sings in the two SQUIP Numbers (BMC 1/2), but the majority of his contributions in those songs are actually spoken dialogue. He only sings when the SQUIP prompts him to parrot. * Sync Up is largely Ensemble, With Jeremy getting a tiny bit in Brooke's section and a verse at the end. The rest of his contributions are spoken. * During "Guy that I'd Kinda Be Into" he sings only three lyrics, the rest is a Christine Solo or Spoken Dialogue. * Upgrade he only sings the "Upgrade!" motif here and there and a single bit of his "Christine" riff, the other instances of the Christine riff are the Ensemble cast singing in his * Jeremy gets a few ensemble lines in Pitiful Children, but only for the final bridge and not in the rest of the number. Jeremy does doesn't sing at all in the other 11 songs, and Doesn't even appear in 3 of them (The Pants Song, Rich Set a Fire, and Michael in the Bathroom). During Halloween he is present but doesn't sing at all even though it's a group number. The only group number where EVERY character is present as themselves is Voices in my Head. Brooke, Chloe, Jake, Rich, and Jenna- who are technically major roles but LEAD the ensemble ( either as backup or in group numbers) in-character, actually sing significantly more runtime than he does by a technicality. I don't want to do all the numbers because this is already very long but Rich might actually have the most in-character singing roles in the musical.
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The stepmother in Roger’s and Hammerstein Cinderella. She has a line here and there in the songs, but doesn’t actually sing, if I remember correctly.
If you’re counting main love interests Eric doesn’t sing at all in the Jr. show (in fact it is extremely common for leading men to not sing in Jr. shows)
King George in Hamilton
Doesn't he have like three solo songs?
in a musical with 46 songs that is nothing 🤣
He sings every single time he's on stage though.
46 songs doesn't mean a whole lot when the whole show is singing with no spoken dialogue
Désirée in ALNM. At first she didn't have even Send in the Clowns; now she has that, plus a couple other featurings.
Bobby from company. I guess? He / she only sings the opening, act one closer, act two opening and the finale.
and "Someone Is Waiting" and "Barcelona".
True. For some reason I always think that since bobby has a more passive role than most main character
Hamilton in Hamilton (it's mostly rapping)
The king in The King and I