We are looking into producing a musical with our home school co-op next year. We can't afford an orchestra and the musicals that we are leaning toward do not have performance cds offered by the production companies. Is there a way to get the recorded performance music? I've tried looking online for karaoke but it seems hit or miss.

Or you might look into the smaller musicals, like "Nunsense" - they have a four piece that could easily be trimmed down to just a piano.  Also, you might want to checkout children theater - they can usually be done with just a keyboard, depanindg upon the show of course, but we're done several by the Paper Bag Players and used a recorded  CD as we did them as touring shows.