Hi--

I am a member at small community theatre in Texas.  The theatre is only 7 years old and slowly growing.  Currently only straight plays are produced, but there have been requests for musicals.  We can seat 100, and have an average of 60 in attendance - and each show runs 7 performances.  Our VP of Production refuses to even look into requesting a quote for a musical, saying that they're too expensive, and the theatre can't afford it...  I think we would have larger audiences come in for musicals, and obviously larger audition turn outs as well.  Are musicals that expensive?  Aren't there cheaper quotes for non-profit smaller houses?  Our VP of Production has never been in a musical - and some of us are beginning to think that is why she won't look into royalties for a musical.  Would a house our size support a musical production?  Thanks...

I don't have any exact figures because royalties differ from show to show, but we just did Nunsense II in a 100 seat theater with 7 performances and the royalty costs were about $1000 higher than those for a straight play. Costs were also higher for scripts and music rentals.

Indeed, a musical, particularly a well known one, will boost attendance and many companies charge a premium on tickets for their musical offerings to help offest the higher costs involved.

Hopefully, someone here will be able to provide some additional illumination to what I've given you.

I am on the board of directors for a small community theater in Maine. We seat 125. We have about 80% attendance for straight shows and 90 -100% attendance for musicals. If your question is will you sell more seats? The answer is almost always yes. Musicals are expensive to produce. Not only are the rights more expensive, but there is the music director, the pit, the rental of the music etc. It just is so much more complicated. As to cheaper for non-profit smaller houses. They will charge you according to the size of your house and your ticket price. I have no idea what they use for a formula. We usually budget between $8,000 - $10,000 for a musical. We charge more for a ticket to see a musical then a straight show, that helps with the cost. We get a sponsor to underwrite part of the royalties. Then we ask area businesses if they would like to underwrite other expenses ie. the orchestra, costumes, just about anything we can think of. They really love seeing in the program "The orchestra is underwritten by Joe Schmoe's Sandwich Shop", or the rental of the grand piano is being underwritten by "Keep it Clean Car Wash." Without exception, in the last 15 years we have made money on every musical. They other really good part . .  most musicals involve  more people. We have found some of our best volunteers and participants and members when we did musicals.

Good luck.

I would second everything that Linda has said with the addition that I was told by a licensing company that they figure 12% of the potential ticket sales as the royalty fee. 

Thank all of you immensely for your replies and information. It is a real help.  Thank you again --

Lynda

In support of all that has been previously posted.
While it may cost more to do Musicals & you can either break even or loose money. The benefits that a musical production generates will out weigh any perceived or actual loss to any theatre group. Sure there is a tendency to go over board & in variably blow outs in the budget  may occur - but that goes with the territory. In most cases you will find that there is an increase in local sponsorship & community awareness of the group in general. This translates into increased bums on seats & community support for your play seasons during the year.

I have no idea of your location & the typography of your area, concerning local traders such as restaurants & the like. However in my experience local community theatres who do musicals create a knock on effect of increased local business & trading. It won?t happen over night & does take awhile for it to build up - but it will happen!

The group  will also  get a long lasting effect of increased resources & support, with the greatest increase in reusable resources being people. That is dependant of course if the group is awake & taps into it!

An increasing number of agencies, handling musicals, are accepting midi file music & even producing  rehearsal & show tapes or CD?s of  the shows. As an alternative to having live musicians, which reduces costs dramatically for community theatre groups. Also there are now a lot of downloadable quality midi files of musicals available on the net.
Most fees consist of an standard fee per performance or a percentage of the total box office which ever is the greater amount.

Another thing to remeber about musical royalties, some rights houses will actually refund you some of the royalty payment if you don't fill your houses. For example if you pay royalties for a 150 seat house, and can show documentation that you only filled a 100 of those seats for each performance, you may get some money back. Also, if you cancel a performance also check for a refund.

On the otherside of the coin, watch out for the extra charges that can come from returning rented scripts and scores late. You have a certain amount of time after your production to return these, if you don't make the deadline it will cost you. Also if you loose, damage, or forget to erase notes in a script/score, you may also be fined for this.

Dan

It can be a challenge to get scripts back with the pencil marks erased, too.  Last time we did a musical we required a $25 deposit on the librettos because that is what we'd be charged if we didn't return the book or returned it with damage.  We collected checks from everyone and held them until the books were returned.  In many cases, upon returning the books the cast member would tell us to keep the check as a donation to the theatre. Nice.

I think there is an old adage that goes

 "If you shake the hand of any agent - check your fingers to see how Many is missing?"

Also check the condition & that there is the right amount of scripts &/or scores - prior to using them. If you find they are damaged/missing in any way, contact the agent immediate. .Because you could be charged for any damage done or loss by others.
The amount of times some  companies charge for the same damage/loss is amazing!
Another thing if you are dealing with scripts/scores from another country - check on who is liable for the freight both ways &/or any customs duty/tax, that may be applied at your end.
I have only ever been given a refund once & that was in the form of a future credit.
Always remember if you use the net to promote your production - Big Bother is watching!
A few theatre groups here, have found this out & all they were left with - was the rough end of the pineapple!.
 

It appears that the majority of musicals being refered to in the answers to this post are from the big houses, i.e., MTI, Tams and Samuel French.  It is possible to do musicals from smaller rights houses for much less than the major companies. 

There are smaller companies that have musicals, such as Anchorage and Pioneer.  There are also more and more companies that are licensing only a handful of shows.  I have seen a number of flyers come through for shows like this.  The major problem with the shows from these companies are the quality.  Some of the shows are excellent, but some are very bad.  You have to be very careful when choosing shows from the non majors, make sure your script committee is careful.

Another problem with using shows from the smaller houses is name recognition.  You will not be able to get the shows everyone knows like "Annie", "The Music Man", "Guys and Dolls"., etc.  You can find some musicals with well known names that are not he show everyone knows.  There are a number of "Phantom of the Operas" and "Beauty and the Beasts" avaliable, but they are not Andrew Lloyd Weber or Disney versions.

If you are going to do a first musical, my suggestion is to choose a show you can afford, and even more importantly, do well.  If you do a small lesser know show well, you have a better chance of getting the audience to come back than if you do a big well know show poorly.

John