new musical
Thu, 19 Apr 2001, 06:51 pmTom8 posts in thread
new musical
Thu, 19 Apr 2001, 06:51 pmHello i am planning to start a younge- 17-20 musical theatre group in wa and i was asking around for ideas of a musical which could kick the company off. I would like to do a younge, viabrant, dancing, good music musical which reflects the younge and viabrant company. i am a dancer and i love to have rocky music and great dance routens in my show-would anyone have any ideas of any musical which we could do.
thanyou
tom
thanyou
tom
RE: new musical
Sat, 21 Apr 2001, 05:48 pmTom -
First let me express my relief at someone starting up a company and then asking for an opinion on what musical to perform. It seems to be a trend among younger would-be entrepreneurs to think 'gee I'd love to do that musical' and then starting up a one-joke-wonder company which then sink without a trace after said musical has been performed in a slighly half-arsed fashion, due to the inexperience of the production team.
Having got that off my chest - musicals to do. Avoid the big blockbuster-style dance musicals. My opinion of the recently mentioned 'Fame' - great musical, great with a big budget, great with quality triple threat performers some who are also excellent musicians. Finding the latter qualities in sufficient numbers in an 18-25 year old amateur group? Unlikely. Take a lead from WAAPA. Their productions are always classy, because they always gear their choices strictly to the abilities of their students, which are probably at, possibly above, the skills of young amateurs. They *never* do Fame, Grease, Chorus Line or even West Side Story because (and this is from the ex-head of Music Theatre) they simply don't have performers with the multiple skills and experience needed, even just for chorus roles, even after three years of full-time song & dance training, to pull off a quality production.
Now, good musicals for a small, moderately experienced group of performers, with varying levels of dance abilities:
- 'Working' by Stephen Schwartz (*great* songs in this one, easy to stage cheaply)
- 'Godspell' by Stephen Schwartz
- Any of the lesser known Kander & Ebb shows (authors of Cabaret and Chicago, but we've had a lot of those recently) e.g. 'Flora the Red Menace'
- 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' could be pulled off (as it was, of course, written for a group of amateurs). Please don't even start thinking about JC Superstar. It's suicide to ask a young guy to sing Gethsemane - for him and the audience.
- 'Rent'? Is this too difficult? I'm not hugely familiar with the show, but it definitely has the rock-y quality you're looking for.
- Cy Coleman has some terrific shows which could be done simply, although his are more jazzy than rocky (e.g. 'Seesaw', 'City of Angels', 'The Life' - good luck finding boys, hey Dave G? :-)
- 'Big' based on the Tom Hanks movie. Some of the music is marked (I kid you not) 'perky seventies pop' (!)
I'm sure I'll think of ten more in the middle of the night. This may not be the last you'll hear of me...
Amanda Chesterton
First let me express my relief at someone starting up a company and then asking for an opinion on what musical to perform. It seems to be a trend among younger would-be entrepreneurs to think 'gee I'd love to do that musical' and then starting up a one-joke-wonder company which then sink without a trace after said musical has been performed in a slighly half-arsed fashion, due to the inexperience of the production team.
Having got that off my chest - musicals to do. Avoid the big blockbuster-style dance musicals. My opinion of the recently mentioned 'Fame' - great musical, great with a big budget, great with quality triple threat performers some who are also excellent musicians. Finding the latter qualities in sufficient numbers in an 18-25 year old amateur group? Unlikely. Take a lead from WAAPA. Their productions are always classy, because they always gear their choices strictly to the abilities of their students, which are probably at, possibly above, the skills of young amateurs. They *never* do Fame, Grease, Chorus Line or even West Side Story because (and this is from the ex-head of Music Theatre) they simply don't have performers with the multiple skills and experience needed, even just for chorus roles, even after three years of full-time song & dance training, to pull off a quality production.
Now, good musicals for a small, moderately experienced group of performers, with varying levels of dance abilities:
- 'Working' by Stephen Schwartz (*great* songs in this one, easy to stage cheaply)
- 'Godspell' by Stephen Schwartz
- Any of the lesser known Kander & Ebb shows (authors of Cabaret and Chicago, but we've had a lot of those recently) e.g. 'Flora the Red Menace'
- 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' could be pulled off (as it was, of course, written for a group of amateurs). Please don't even start thinking about JC Superstar. It's suicide to ask a young guy to sing Gethsemane - for him and the audience.
- 'Rent'? Is this too difficult? I'm not hugely familiar with the show, but it definitely has the rock-y quality you're looking for.
- Cy Coleman has some terrific shows which could be done simply, although his are more jazzy than rocky (e.g. 'Seesaw', 'City of Angels', 'The Life' - good luck finding boys, hey Dave G? :-)
- 'Big' based on the Tom Hanks movie. Some of the music is marked (I kid you not) 'perky seventies pop' (!)
I'm sure I'll think of ten more in the middle of the night. This may not be the last you'll hear of me...
Amanda Chesterton