Summary of vocal participation ranked in order of the approximate number of complete passages sung alone:-
Note: A "+" denotes minor involvement in an additional song. This generally means that the character in question either only has one or two lines in the additional song or that they are singing in chorus with other cast members. The more +'s a given character has the more additional songs they are involved with.
Cast Characteristics follow:-
SUSAN: 3 verses +
Susan is 60 some years old and a retired therapist and social worker in the field of mental health. She is the typical salt of the earth type, steady as a rock, full of fun, loyal to a fault, and deeply committed to Melissa. She has one adopted son (Steven - aged 30+ who is confined to a wheelchair) and her husband is a minister in the church which the cast visit. She is quiet and reserved in public and went into therapy as a vocation rather than a profession. She is Mel's only means of emotional support and has been for quite some time. Susan does not do a lot of singing, but her skill as a narrator [both from offstage (during actual scenes) and from a position in front of the main curtain during set changes] plays quite an important part in the telling of Melissa's story.
MELISSA: 7 verses ++
Melissa is aged 40+ and a survivor of childhood abuse who has a curable mental health problem which causes her to act in unpredictable ways. She was sexually abused and exploited by her father and uncle (a lay preacher) from a very early age and entered adulthood with extremely low self-esteem and social values as well as alcohol and drug dependencies. She may well have been arrested for prostitution and/or the possession of drugs several times and it might well have been as a result of such an event that she met Susan and began to work through her problems.
When Susan retired she carried on seeing Melissa informally and they developed a close and permanent relationship with Susan in the unspoken role of a mother. Melissa has met Susan's husband (John) who is a minister at the local church and that fact alone instinctively scares her half to death. She has also met her son, Steven, and feels a genuine attraction towards him. It was originally the safety aspect of Stephen being physically disabled which created the conditions under which she allowed herself to feel close to him and other than with him she has always avoided emotional contact with men at all costs and still regards his father with a great deal of suspicion.
The remainder of the cast are all different aspects of Melissa's character.
PRINCESS: 2 verses plus 2 duet verses ++
Princess is 10-12 years old and as innocent a child as you could hope to meet. Her father, who she adored, started abusing her aged around 6 or 7, and always made out that in her mother's absence it was her duty to do her best to please him; and since she loved him so much that's precisely what she set out to do content in the knowledge that she was being the very best daughter that she could be. Over time, however, her father's attitude changed, and by the time she was 12 he was openly hiring her out to other people (including his own brother - the preacher of whom CPI were so afraid) and it became apparent even to Princess that her father did not actually love her. Devastated by the realisation of that fact Princess took the only course of action that was open to her, she went away inside to mourn and another alter was formed to take over the onerous task of being her fathers source of income.
TWELVISH: 7 verses including 1 complete solo +++
Twelvish endured her fathers abuse for several more years until (unexplained) Melissa was finally able to get out of his clutches. Out of necessity her outlook was far removed from Princess's and she regarded sex as a mere occupation for which her father got lots of money. Twelvish is of the opinion that emotional relationships are an avoidable consequence of a lack of self control control and since she was beaten at every attempt she ever made to talk to boys her own age it seemed only natural to her that males in general (and male family members in particular) had some sort of god given right to use her as they would. Twelvish is internally very sad but would never dream of showing it. In spite of her bitter exterior she is the part of Melissa that falls so very much in love with Steven and discovers a deep longing to feel safe and loved. Twelvish's manner of dress (and also her attitude) calm down considerably in the course of the musical due to two principal factors - falling in love with Stephen, and deciding to look after Princess.
TAPES: 8 verses including 1 complete solo ++
Tapes is aged 20-30 and a bitch. She is the one who ran their lives throughout the period immediately following their escape from their father. She was already hardened to all kinds of abuse and got money in any way she could to buy alcohol and drugs which she used to numb the pain and dissent caused by the others. She has few scruples and set out quite deliberately many years ago to learn how best to get her own back on men. Her weapons are the tools of her trade; sexual favours and/or intimidation, and, if needs must and all else fails, she wouldn't hesitate for one moment to resort to violence in order to maintain a semblance of control. Tapes is a fighter and a dirty one at that and is not about to give in to wimps. She regards all emotion other than a sense of power as a distinct liability. In the course of the musical Tape's character changes markedly as she gradually abandons her confrontational attitude in favour of becoming a formidable defender of Feelings in particular and children in general. In spite of her prolonged absence from the stage in act 2 Tapes is still one of the 2 main vocalists and should be cast with particular reference to performing the duet 'Melting Ice' with Feelings which is an important turning point in the musical.
FEELINGS: 9 verses and 2 choruses including 1 complete solo +
Feelings aka 'The Feelings Monster' is a child of perhaps 10 years who has long since been banished entirely from Melissa's life lest she wreck it completely. Feelings is what Melissa might have been had she not been abused, she is Melissa's deepest heart-felt un-spoken thoughts about parental love and loyalty and the way things ought to be. She is the child that knows her dad was wrong to abuse her but who loved him anyway and knows she was by no means wrong to crave his attention in return. She is Melissa's heart, the one who bears the brunt of having such high hopes continually dashed and suppressed. She is an extraordinarily well adjusted but lonely child and holds the answers to a good many of Melissa's problems if only the others could find the courage to listen to her once in a while and develop the relationships in life that they so badly need. Feelings is an absolutely pivotal member of the cast and the only one to perform more then one solo and should therefore be a particularly outstanding vocalist. The phrase 'angelic' springs instantly to mind.
HARMONY: 4 solo verses 5 choruses
Harmony is age 20 - 30 and Melissa's spiritual side. She has no specific religious affiliation but often talks to plants and animals and believes that even some buildings have spirits which she claims to be able to feel and understand. Basically she is the part of Melissa who is still searching for an answer to it all, a way of reconciling the things that happen with the fact that she doesn't really want life to be that way at all. Harmony is all if favour of gentleness and co-operation and would no doubt have organized votes on every subject under the sun had the others taken her seriously enough to allow it. The Bold Trio of Princess Twelvish and Tapes, (princess simply because she feels the need to belong with Twelvish and Tapes since, like them, she also had to deal with sexual matters) regard Harmony's tendency towards spiritual things as eccentric at best and downright dangerous at worst. They see Harmony's way of life as a means by which emotion might manage to sneak in - and in their experience emotions inevitably lead to trouble.
HOPTY: (2 verses ++)
Hopty is an adorable young woman who likes to be hugged, and who, in spite of having no sexual boundaries, has no real thoughts about sexual matters whatsoever. Sexual matters simply 'are' to Hopty and are almost always someone else's problem. Hopty is also one of a pair of twins who reflect Melissa's alternating optimistic and pessimistic nature. She adores her miserable twin no end and is continually striving to do things to make her happy but without a lot of success. Hopty is cheerful and bright and can barely contain her natural enthusiasm for just about anything.
PISSY (3 verses ++)
Pissy is Hopty's direct opposite. She continually worries about her twin's innocent acceptance of things and never misses an opportunity to point out the dangers of short skirts and 'looking pretty' etc. They got their names from Princess originally. When they were first introduced to her she mistakenly assumed that 'Mystic' was their surname, and, since Hopy and Pissy described Optimistic and Pessimistic so perfectly it stuck. Whatever the subject - Pissy always worried that they are going to be hurt yet again, and Hopty does not even realise they have been hurt once.
BADBITS: 5 verses and 2 choruses including 1 complete solo +++
Badbits is a little younger than Twelvish and is a typical abandonment poster child. She lives in a cardboard box under the kitchen sink and initially wears Orphan Annie style clothing as a self imposed way of declaring her un-worthiness but also because it happens to be all she owns. I have always imagined that immediately she became friends with Princess the latter would automatically invite her to share her wardrobe and that (so far as Badbits was concerned) would seal their friendship for life. Badbits is the deeply ingrained sense of sadness and guilt which pervades almost everything that Melissa does, and she exists simply to be kicked, to be killed, or otherwise got rid of and forgotten. She is a whole bundle of sorry feelings and has come to be regarded by most of the others as the legitimate target for any acts of spite or malice or thoughts of disappointment or revenge. Whenever Melissa cuts or takes drugs or drinks herself into a stupor (all fairly frequent events) she invariably blames it on Badbits, "if bad bits hadn't existed in the first place we would need to cut them out..." Badbits carries the weight of the entire world on her shoulders and is determined to apologize for every single sin before she goes. She has quite a complicated and emotional duet to perform with Melissa (It's Me) as well as the first solo in the musical (Were You There) and should therefore be one of the more confident vocalists.