[Maryssa]

So. In February we are meeting to decide next year's winter musical. (Winter is students' choice, [which still has to be run by the director], and fall is director's choice.) My choice will be for almost purely selfish reasons, or rather, for me and my theater friends, because we all know the director will choose something that fits the talent we have for the fall musical. Hopefully someone here can give me help on suggestions.

HAS TO HAVE:
3 Altos: Well actually 2 of us are mezzo/altos, so I guess one or two mezzos would be okay. All three can belt reasonably well.

HOPEFULLY WILL HAVE:
1 Soprano: Who can also sing mezzo very well, and belt a little.
1 Tenor: Who is pretty much the best male singer at our school.

AND IT WOULD BE AWESOME IF WE USED THESE PEOPLE BUT WE DON'T NEED TO:
Another Soprano: Who can only sing soprano, and is the weakest of any of the people on here (though still good.)
Mezzo: I absolutely hate this girl, and don't want her to do well at all, but she is good and kinda deserves a part.
Another Tenor
Another Baritone

So the requirements are a little unusual, but not unheard of I guess. I'm just having difficulty because of the 3 altos thing. Also, these people will all be juniors and seniors, but the 3 strongest sophomores are all mezzo/sopranos. And quite honestly I don't care about the guy sophomores because they're not competition, so I haven't really observed them. Thanks in advance for your help!

[PappyCat]

Once Upon a Mattress and Anything Goes are two shows that jumped to mind.

[rcs]

Little Women could work (and the amateur rights ARE out, even though it's a fairly new show):

3 altos: Jo, Marmee, Aunt March

1 tenor (best male singer in school): Laurie

Another tenor: Professor Bhaer (technically a high baritone, but could be sung by a tenor)

Another baritone: John Brooke

Then, for your other girls, Meg, Beth, and Amy are all essentially mezzos (but could be done by sopranos with good lower register; Amy is the only one who does anything resembling belting).

The nice thing about it is that it has three very clear alto roles, which is what you wanted.

[Jim_L]

As long as you have people who can sing and want to have fun...;>)
-Jim

http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/index.html

[Brock07]

Matress came to mind right away, probably because I'm in it though. lol

The Music Man also meets most of your criteria.

[Maryssa]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll be suggesting these at the meeting. The only thing is, we probably can't do the Music Man, because the middle school just did that recently.

[Brock07]

My vote is for Mattress......tons of fun. And too terribly hard to put on with a small cast.

[rcs]

I vote for Little Women, if you can pull it off. It's (I believe) the only show that's been mentioned so far with three good alto roles (Jo, Marmee, Aunt March), plus it's got a powerhouse tenor lead (Laurie). And it can be done with a reasonably small cast (unsure of exact size, but I think around 10-15 people).

Mattress has one good belter lead (Princess Winnifred), but the other leading women are a mezzo with a lot of stage time but very little singing (the Queen) and a legit soprano (Lady Larken). Plus, neither of the main male leads (Prince Dauntless and Sir Harry) would make as good of a star vehicle for your amazing tenor as Laurie would.

Granted, Mattress would work pretty well with your group, but I just think Little Women could fit your needs even better, as it seems to be tailor-made to your distribution of vocal parts and abilities (plus, I simply love the show; "Some Things Are Meant to Be" always makes me want to cry). It's a challenging show, but well worth the effort. And yes, I do believe the amateur rights are out, because I saw an amateur production in Indianapolis (Indy Civic Theatre).

[PappyCat]

Lets remember that Little Women was terrible, though.

[rcs]

[The Very Angry Woman]

[PappyCat]

My beef with using Little Women in this high school:

You have to have not only a good, but AMAZING belter for Jo. It can't be done half-assed and I'm really doubtful that a high school has that talent. You also have to have a very good guy for Laurie and a very good woman for Marmee. With such a small cast you can't have any weak links.

The cast is very small. It's supposed to be double cast (like TVAW said) and so it can be as small as Jo, Marmee, Meg, Amy, Beth, Laurie, John, Professor Bhaer, and the Father. Even without double casting, the cast is still crazy small and the added characters are tiny parts. Little Women is hard to do in a high school setting because it excludes so many of the interested kids.

[star2ballie]

[rcs]