"Can't miss" suggestion for a musical?
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
Forum Discription: Need help finding a show that's right for your theater? Ask here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4876
Printed Date: 4/30/24 at 2:50pm
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Topic: "Can't miss" suggestion for a musical?
Posted By: jayzehr
Subject: "Can't miss" suggestion for a musical?
Date Posted: 11/18/10 at 6:39pm
| Looking for the safest choice possible for audience appeal. But it would need to be a somewhat modest size cast, 20 being the absolute max and hopefully less. What's worked for everybody? |
Replies:
Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 11/18/10 at 10:07pm
|
Forever Plaid ... 4 guys with a piano & bass and a song list that keeps the audience coming in. Good comedy with some audience participation. I'm going to assume you're looking for something larger though. |
Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 11/19/10 at 11:50am
|
Depends on your customer base and what their tastes are. "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" is good, and it does have name recognition. "She Loves Me" is a modest sized musical, but little name recognition - unless you advertise it as being based on "The Shop Around the Corner", "In the Good Old Summertime", and "You've Got Mail." "Dames At Sea" is really good. Would your crowd go for a Mini-Busby Berkely musical? Any of the nostalgia shows would work: "Forever Plaid", "Christmas Belles", "Buddy", etc. I particularly like the concept behind "Chaps" - a group of BBC radio staff, during World War II, having to fill in "on air" for a scheduled USO country western troupe whose bus is delayed. "All Shook Up" is a nostalgia musical that can be done with 20 or less. Not based on Elvis's life or career, but full of Elvis songs - a slight take on Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" with a girl mechanic dressing like a guy to hang out near the cool dude biker who's just rolled into her small town. - Worth looking at. That's all I can think of right now. |
Posted By: BlueEye217
Date Posted: 11/19/10 at 12:43pm
| The group I am involved with is closing on Sweet Charity this weekend. We have a very small space and haven't done a musical in about 5 years. We've been able to run for 3 weekends and have sold out pretty much every show. We have a cast of 18 but can definatly cut it down. |
Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 11/19/10 at 2:53pm
I'm not entirely sure what our base is interested in. We haven't done a musical for years and have been doing more serious plays. I'm assuming that a musical would or could draw in a larger audience then what we currently have since we have done best with big comedies (as does everyone else, I'm sure.) Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions everyone! |
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 11/19/10 at 8:37pm
|
okay. I hate to write it. But, let's face it - it's the truth. Wanna drag in every possible audience member in your county? Sound of Music or Annie They are licenses to print money. ------------- http://tristanrobin.blogspot.com |
Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 11/20/10 at 4:17pm
That's funny. I was thinking of Sound of Music even though I know little about musicals. My one concern was how often that might be done by high schools in the area ( I don't know the answer.) |
Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 11/21/10 at 1:19pm
Truer words were never spoken. |
Posted By: mrlloyd23
Date Posted: 11/21/10 at 8:26pm
| How about You're a Good Man Charlie Brown or Little Shop of Horrors. |
Posted By: Rorgg
Date Posted: 11/22/10 at 11:22am
|
Little Shop is possibly my favorite, and is extremely cheap and easy to put on IF YOU CAN GET THE PUPPET CHEAP. But, it's not quite for everyone. I might suggest Into The Woods. Good name recognition, recognizeable characters, GREAT story, moderate cast size ... I counted 16-21 just now (some parts are traditionally doubled up). Wonderful music -- but it IS musically challenging. The show that's a ridiculous license to print money is Joseph. I'm not a fan, but I hear it over and over again. |
Posted By: diburbano
Date Posted: 1/11/11 at 2:17pm
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Caddie Woodlawn http://www.caddiewoodlawnmusical.com - www.caddiewoodlawnmusical.com |
Posted By: peacock
Date Posted: 1/12/11 at 10:29am
| We did Anything Goes at a very small high school. The script is P.G. Wodehouse and the music is Cole Porter. Not well known, because no real movie of it was every done, but it has the best score of any musical ever, including Your the Top, Anything Goes, Blow Gabriel Blow and I Get a Kick out of You. I think adults would love doing this one, and the cast is not enormous.< id="gwProxy" ="">< ="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" =""> |
Posted By: Mr. Lowell
Date Posted: 1/12/11 at 4:11pm
|
A small cast musical comedy that sold out every night for us, (600 seat high school) was a little-known gem called "Return to the Forbidden Planet". It is easy to produce musically, since it is made up of pop tunes from the 1960's. Here is a previous Forum thread: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2256&KW= - http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2256&KW= ------------- Mr. Lowell, Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director, for the Linda Sloan Theatre, in the Davison Center for the Arts, at Greensboro Day School |
Posted By: NDTENOR
Date Posted: 1/19/11 at 2:23am
|
My own opinion is that there really are no "can't miss musicals" because even the best show can be done poorly. In selecting a show you should consider a number of factors such as A) Your physical theater space B) The financial support available C) The experience and talents of the potential production team D) The talent pool of actors that you potentially have available E) The theater interests of both your potent actors and your potential audience F) your long term goals for the theater.
You could do any musical but my my advice would be to look long and hard at only the musicals you could do WELL considering the above factors. For instance.... lets say you have a very nice "black Box" theater space. Not that much room for a big orchestra. More than 15 in the cast would be claustrophobic. There are only certain shows you should attempt.... like "The Fantasticks!" or "Company" , for instance. And lets say you have some people who sing , but honestly, are not really great singers. This should also limit your choices. So in the final analysis... my advise is to try to play to the strengths of what you have available . Only attempt what you can do WELL. |
Posted By: SpenceKenzer
Date Posted: 2/04/11 at 1:39pm
|
Fiddler on the Roof is also a license to print money. ------------- --------------------<*> Saludos, my dahlinks, and you know who you are ... ! |
Posted By: Jim_L
Date Posted: 2/27/11 at 7:06pm
|
I recommend my Tavern musical?
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/index.html - http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/index.html ------------- 
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/ |