But this being real life and not Hollywood lore, Haines didn't do it. He didn't ask.
The story might have ended on that unhappy note if Morel had not independently seen a notice of the tryout pinned to the coffeehouse bulletin board.
"I saw an ad, 'Attention, singers!' " she recalls. "I said, 'That's me.' "
Morel, a University of the Arts graduate, showed up for the audition and made it.
Now she is among 12 singers - six men and six women - who from time to time will sing with the Pops, founded and led by Grammy-winning pianist Peter Nero. The group will also take to the road on its own as ambassadors for the Pops in music halls and on stages around the region and state.
Though the Pops often performs with solo artists, it has never had a chorus of its own, Haines said.
"Our audiences love to hear vocalists," he said. "We think it just adds to the orchestra."
The ensemble's first concert will be Sunday, when it joins the orchestra in songs from the great MGM movie musicals.
The program, titled "That's Entertainment," will include songs from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Singin' in the Rain and Three Coins in the Fountain, as well as Henry Mancini's "Moon River" and a medley of Irving Berlin tunes.
"For me," Nero said in a statement, "presenting the new member of our musical family, Voices of the Pops, will be the highlight of our 22d season."
Voices of the Pops will be directed by Paul Spencer Adkins, a veteran singer who has worked with Nero and the Pops in the past.
The singers, selected from more than 100 who tried out in June, are a diverse group, most of whom have performed professionally at area theaters and cabarets.
Morel, one of the younger members, studied musical theater and was in the Wilma Theater production of Threepenny Opera. She has done her own cabaret show in New York.
"This was always what I wanted to do - pop music," she said. "We do some jazz, some music from the '40s. I love the music from that time period, which I think holds its own."
