directing a musical revue
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Directing
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5007
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Topic: directing a musical revue
Posted By: bernster74
Subject: directing a musical revue
Date Posted: 3/20/11 at 1:54pm
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Any thoughts or suggestions on directing a musical revue? How do you keep it interesting song after song, and there's not much book to speak of? Your experience and advice would be appreciated!
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Replies:
Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 3/20/11 at 5:35pm
We'll assume you have a general "theme" for the evening, so you should design your set accordingly. You can do a lot with set pieces and lighting to keep the show from looking too static.
As far as the musical numbers are concerned, I assume that you will have solo pieces and some choral or ensemble numbers. Some slow tunes and some up tempo. And some male singers, and some female singers. Mixing them up will go a long way toward keeping the evening feeling fresh.
One thing you should definitely do is make sure you have different "personality" types among your solo performers. They shouldn't individually be too similar in physical appearance, vocal range, age and attitude. Have a cynical man (or woman) of the world, a sultry siren, a leading man type, a young boyish (or girlish) optimist, a dramatic type, a comic type, etc., etc., etc. I hope I'm explaining myself well enough.
Think of it as a variety show. A vaudeville evening with a something for everybody approach.
At least, that's the direction I'd take things.
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Posted By: NDTENOR
Date Posted: 3/25/11 at 12:44pm
I've been a number of musical reviews and have seen many more. The first thing to do is to get a true choreographer involved. Someone truly experienced in stage movement. The last thing you want people to do is just have people come out and sing. You might have one or two true "dance" numbers but really you just want people doing simple and interesting movement and positioning on stage to express the "meaning" of the song. These movements don't have to be complex but just well performed.
And don't forget costuming. Songs and numbers need to be "dressed' appropriatly to fill out the meaning of the song and add sparkel. Just adding a hat, or a scarf or something suggestive with color can really malke a scene much more visually interesting.
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Posted By: GeeGee
Date Posted: 3/26/11 at 11:07pm
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One revue I took part in chose 5 Broadway shows and did three numbers from each show (2 features - solos/duets/trios - and 1 choral number). It was a type of broadway over the past 50 years thing so there was a "narrator" or emcee who would come on and say something about the musical being showcased and the year it debuted. The audience loved it!
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Posted By: Legacy Theater
Date Posted: 7/07/11 at 6:29am
How do royalties work when you do these revues?
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Erika Hose
President Legacy Theater Company
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