Musicals '07, '08, '09?
"Beauty and the Beast" this weekend in Chatfield. I'm not considering it for '07 or '09, but enough places are doing it that I should be familiar with it. . . Bit more challenging costumes, good family show.
"High School Musical" is available for a select few schools this fall, then open this January -- HUGE buzz, but I'm not familiar with it at all. . .yet! Great to do for recruitment and fun, but it needs to be done first in the area or not at all.
I also heard "Chicago" could be cleaned up enough for a HS production . . .I love the dancing!
"Sound of Music"
"Annie Get Your Gun"
"Oklahoma" a personal favorite, but not sure we have the cast for it. . .
Other suggestions, responses? Anyone is welcome to throw names in the hat and advocate, just with the understanding that only one of us makes the final artistic choices. I try to balance style, genre, accessibility/difficulty, cast growth, budget demands and offering a coherent four-year cycle for developing actors.
posted by erdecker @ 4:28 PM
29 Comments:
I'm With Arij! We should do Chicago. That would be so awesome!!! But it would have to be super cleaned up but its an amazing play and fun music and dancing.
Sam
Chicago is mucho good, although cleaning up would be necessary! I also like Sweet Charity, but that would also have to be cleaned (hehe- Big Spender!). Oh... so many shows in my mind!
I'm a fan of the more classic ones you listed. "Sound of Music" and "Oklahoma" are definitely some of my favorites -- I love the music in both! Can't wait to see what others think...
-Madeline
CHICAGO. Since 9th grade I've always hoped JM (or any high school in the area for that matter) would perform it, and its by far my favorite movie musical. Its amazing...seeing what we did with RAGS, it would be a great production.
High School Musical would also be a good choice because it has the momentum. It is a huge hit...the soundtrack is the number one selling CD this year. EVERYONE would have to make a stop at JM to see their version of the hit film.
-P
Spencer said...
To me, any of those choices would be good. I am just looking forward to being in the pit...
Spence
Chicago would definitely be interesting. It'd be something different, I think everyone's seen a good share of Oklahoma and the Sound of Music... I think a choice like Chicago would attract a very large audience. =D All good choices, but Chicago is the most intriguing.
Okay, so let me put a light misting of cooling H20 over the CHICAGO posts. I'm not quite sure we're ready or needing a half-clothed stylized dance-o-rama. Intruiging is a great term for it. I've seen it on Broadway, and have one friend who directed it in HS. It's pretty rare. btw, no vocal director yet anyway. . .
High School Musical!!!!!!!!!!!
--Katrinna
i think it would be cool to do a classic of some sort...those always seem really fun :-)
~Holly
i just thought of a musical we should do....Tommy the Rock Opera!!! how awesome would that be?!
~Holly
HSM really honestly I think is out best bet. No other high school has done it before so it would be fresh and new. Absolutely I would go if any other high school did it, it's one of my favorite musical movies. Classicals have been done over and over and they're just not new anymore. Most of our older audience probably hasn't seen it.
--Katrinna again
thats why Tommy would be sooo awesome!! and the older people would enjoy the music along with us getting to know some pretty awesome music!
~Holly
Okay so what about one of the classics that you never see in HS ever? As in... Man of La Mancha, 42nd Street, Gypsy, Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Desert Song, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Ragtime, idk... anything but HSM! The show portrays theatre people in a stereotypical fashion that some of us are trying so hard to break out of!
HSM would be fun though honestly. I HATE doing plays I've never heard of. That's why we didn't get as big of audience as we should have for RAGS. Yes it was amazing but some people shouldn't have gotten the leads. I'm sorry, but some of you should know what I'm talking about. Even if we did some classic musical, do you really think people will go to a play they've seen at Century or Mayo? If no other HS has ever done it before, STILL. Most of those that 'Anonymous' the last time posted I'VE never heard of. That should say something in itself. Let's do something FRESH and new. And, another thing. Even if you are a senior you shouldn't get dibs on lead rolls if you're not the best. Sorry, but it's true and I need to get that out there. I'm sure that some underclassmen agree.
see with the classic ones we don't have to do the typical classics like grease, west side story and so on...because those aren't the only classics out there that people know of. and we don't really want to do a fad because people expect it to look a certain way and if we don't do it the way that they want it then people will think it sucks even if we do amazing. we need to do something that JM has never before.
and the stuff about seniors getting leads...seniors have put their time into the theatre program and they've been there and have had time to improve their skills...so in theory seniors should be the best because they have had more practice and more instruction. and yes there are some really good underclassmen...but if you're one of these underclassmen you just need to stick with it and keep improving your skills so you can be the best there is. always be the best you can, in whatever you do.
Amen Arij!
I think HSM would be a lot of fun, but i would mostly like to do Singing in the Rain, that would be a great play to do, even if the civic just did it this past year.
but all of the suggestions sound great. can't wait to see what we'll do.
Aaron
Come on guys. Do the number one cult classic of all time: Rocky Horror! Just kidding...If you want a classic try to think of a unique classic. Oklahoma, Annie and shows like that have been beaten to death. Bring something fresh. HSM would probably cost just as much as Wicked because it is newer and it is from Disney.
Anonymous:
"Yes it was amazing but some people shouldn't have gotten the leads...Even if you are a senior you shouldn't get dibs on lead rolls if you're not the best."
Get a backbone and post your name if you are going to say something like this, PLEASE. That was unnecessary and hurtful.
Aaron: I agree. I'm rooting for Singin' in the Rain. What a fun musical.
-P
I agree Aaron! I'm rooting for Singin' in the Rain...what a fun musical.
-P
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL ALL THE WAY!!!!! Like Paul said, It's a huge hit and it's got a good vocal range too. The message may be cheesy, but if you look past the cheesiness, it's true also. It's also called, "HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL", duh! :) we should sooo do it!
Chicago would be my second choice :)
Andy Phillips
I think another good choice would be SWEET CHARITY!! It went off broadway in december '05 and it has some real good numbers. It is like a cleaned up version of CHICAGO with a mix of FOSSE and A CHORUS LINE.
Oh, another good one could be 42nd street. Someone helped out with costume and set for it in North Carolina. The costumes might seem like a lot, but its a big cast, and good music as well as dance bits. The only problem is.. it is a lot of tap.
BARE! the musical should be a consideration. Its modern, pop-rock opera with a full cast. Another good one is "Never Gonna Dance" because it has amazing music as well. i just think they should be a consideration =)
RAC
I just saw 45 Minutes from Broadway in St. Paul (I had never heard of it but I recognized a few songs like "Harrigan" and "Give My Regards to Broadway". It is pretty old but it was a blast to watch because there was a lot of audience participation!
-P
I vote Chicago. And yes it will have to be cleaned up, but... not THAT much. Our audience as well as us, are somewhat mature enough... sort of.
-Rachael
Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, On the Way to the Forum...lots of choices.
i would LOVE to do chicago. if it can be cleaned up, we can do it!! our one roadblock: parents. =/ mer, it doesn't really matter.
singin in the rain is my second choice.
high school musical: sounds like fun!! but...i don't know...i like it and all, its just....meh. we can do better than that, i think.
sound of music/bye bye birdie/oklahoma: they'd be fun to do too, but i really did like the response we got from Rags, with the quote "unknown" [or rather "uncommon"] show. but then again, those three are in fact beloved classics and we'd get turnout.
look into this: i heard there was a musical "Clue." i think its based after the board game/movie. i'm not familiar, but if anyone wants to read it, let me know!!
-emily gresbrink-
Ahh!! Em! Just looked up Clue the Musical, and guess what?? There are 216 possible endings, supposed to be different at every performance!! That's a little bit over the top for a high-school show, I think. Although, if we worked at it we could pull it off. The show was never on Broadway, and closed after only 29 performances. Which is nothing compared to Rags, but at least they were on Broadway!! Ha!
~Lizi
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