sex!

Jason Gamble wrote:
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>>"Leighton is definately wrong...do not listen to that response if u want to appeal to ne1 under 85. Use rock, rap, soul, bit of pop, occaisional heavy metal. Also use this in ur advertising, U will get attention from all age groups, most importantly the younger ones."




'n if u uze lotz o' u's in ur wurdz u'll suun no that no1'll no what u r sayin 2 'm.

("definitely" seems a bit pointless correcting "occasional" spelling errors....)




Anyway - back to Richard - I'm not entirely sure what you are asking for?
I take it you're not just looking to do an established musical, but to create something new? Then why not new music as well? My first suggestion would be to find a good band or songwriter and put something original together that suits your story.

But it sounds like you want to create a new story using songs that are already popular and established?
If that is the case then I think I'd agree to avoid using material that is already associated with other musicals, they will probably suffer out of context.

Finding some sort of unifying theme, like Alan's suggestion of all Australian material, could possibly be a good idea. Are you hoping to somehow link your favourite songs together by creating a script afterwards? My fear is that it will become little more than a concert, not really what I would consider a musical...but this might be what you really mean and it could be successful as just that.

Better would be to try and nut out what you want it to be about - a plot outline, characters, what mood, issues, etc... and then go about finding appropriate songs to support your script.
There is probably an element of attacking the process from both ends - both finding songs to fit characters & ideas you have written; and creating characters & scenes to fit songs you want to include.

"most popular music of all time"....you're never going to be able to please everyone with this kind of ambition, and it may be your downfall. Make your own decisions about what you think would be appropriate. At least then you can justify the songs you include and hopefully incorporate them into some kind of unified structure and style.

If you choose songs only because they're someone's favourite, you are going to lay yourself open to performance criticism, much like many cover bands have to deal with. They are going to be compared to the original, and unless you have an interesting interpretation or arrangement, all the audience will notice is how well (or not) the singer scrubs up.
If the songs are cleverly incorporated into a meaningful script, it could introduce many other elements, like irony, social comment, character development, humorous juxtaposition...all things that an audience wants to be entertained by in a musical...not just their favourite songs that they probably hear on the radio.



Of course, I don't know what kind of problems you are going to encounter getting copywrite permission, and that's an entirely new issue by itself.



Cheers,
Craig

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