[theatreisme]

I am a director at the University of North Texas, and I direct a junior theatre program for 13-18 year olds. We only do musicals. And all the musicals we have done this year have been a lot of dancing. We have done

*Avenue Q(the edited version)
*Wicked(cabaret, JUST SONGS)
*Godspell
*Damn Yankees
*Chicago

and we are about to start Annie. I need shows for at least 26. I do not want to do A Chorus Line, Pippin, Sound Of Music, or anything Disney. These students are use to long ours (4-5 hours) per rehersal, and we only have 5 weeks to put it together. But it needs to have a good amount of dancing. Any Suggestions?

*Note we have
13 year olds-3 (2 girls, 1 guys) alto, mezzo, tenor
14 year olds-4 (2 girls, 2 guys) alto, soprano, bass, tenor
15 year olds-9 (4 girls, 5 guys) soprano, soprano, alto, mezzo, baritone,
baritone, tenor, bass
16 year olds-7 (4 girls, 3 guys) mezzo, alto, alto, soprano, bass, bass,
tenor
17 year olds-6 (4 girls, 2 guys) alto, alto, mezzo, mezzo, bass, tenor
18 year olds-3 (1 girl, 2 guys) soprano, baritone, baritone

[theatreisme]

oh, and everyone in this program can tap, so tap would be awsome, but its not a big deal if it doesnt. And I listed 32 people, which is the actual company. But we do occasionly hold auditions for a show, when we dont have someone to fit that part. They dont nessecarly have to have 26 people, but I do want a good amount of people, even if it is chorus.

[Sweeney Hyde]

Anything Goes
42nd Street
Kiss Me, Kate
Singin' in the Rain

All have tap I believe...

...but...

...how were you able to do Wicked?

[theatreisme]

I should edit that to wicked cabaret, you are only able to get rights for the songs

[Sweeney Hyde]

oh ok.

Thought of a few more with a good bit of dancing:

Brigadoon
Cabaret
Guys and Dolls
The Pajama Game

[theatreisme]

I thought about pajama game, but i dont think there is enough actual characters for this group

[Srsly]

Crazy for You.

[kiwitechgirl]

Guys and Dolls - no actual tap but plenty of dance, lots of parts and great songs!

[Set_Buildin_Dad]

I second Crazy for You. Everyone loved it when we did it. We had a cast of about 40 high school aged kids, and were able to work them all into the show.

[LaurelDP]

I was going to suggest Crazy for You, so I'll just go ahead and third that.

[theatreisme]

The shows I have figured would work for us is

*West side story( plenty of dancing)
*42 street (plenty of dancing)
* A chorus Line (plent of dancing)
*Guys and Dolls

I will defintly look up crazy for you.

[theatreislove]

I second 42nd street,

[Vice]

CATS?




....
*hides*

[theatreisme]

ehhhhhh, I hate the music for that show. I dont think that would be the best show anyway.

[Sweeney Hyde]

[theatreisme]

i would perfer more, and a theatre near us, did that show a few months ago anyways

[kk5033]

Hey saw your problem and I have the same one except you have one up on me. Your kids can dance! How lucky. If I get one guy who can jazz square without falling on his face, that's a bonus.

We've done here at my school in my brief tenure:

On The Town (One big ballet and some fun dance numbers)
How To Succeed (pirate dance, coffee break, cinderella darling)
Damn Yankees (Baseball ballet, shoeless joe with cleats as taps)
Bye Bye Birdie (can be some big numbers especially with a gyrating Birdie)
Guys and Dolls (crapshooters dance can be really challenging)
Kiss Me Kate (Not a lot of group dance numbers except Pavane and the Grape Festival thing that we cut)

I usually expand my casts to 30-35 by writing in extra roles and lines. I make sure that each kid has something to do in both acts so mommy and daddy don't leave at intermission. So casting numbers shouldn't be a problem.

I'm thinking about :

Thoroughly Modern Millie (don't know enough, anyone know it well?)
42nd Street (how to get around the tap though is tough)
Funny Thing ... Forum (getting around the use of the words Eunuch and Virgin)
Anything Goes (I would try except we just did a Cole Porter show)

Hope I've given you something you can try. Throw a couple my way if you think of any.

KK

[theatreisme]

Well for our program, you had to be able to tap, or you dont get in. at the local theatre, i teach at though, we do the same thing, so everyone has like 2 lines.


We cant do modern millie either, just been done. AHHHHH. And damn yankees we just did that. THis is soooo difficult.

[kk5033]

I know. It seems like there is something wrong with every show so I can't do it.

42nd street or Anything Goes are tap heavy shows and if your audiences are expecting to see tap, then go for it.

Also loaded up The Music Man on my mp3 player yesterday. I want to do it but so many problems. Some good stuff there too. I wish I had guys who could sing the barbershop stuff.

HAIR? I remember in college we had a lot of dance numbers. Mostly freeform wiggling and movement but a lot of intense dance sequences. I can't do it here because of the drug and racial themes.

KK

[theatreisme]

well, tap is something that we always want, or heavy dancing, since everyone knows how to tap. And since most of the students in the program are a lot older, the whole drug stuff, is not a big deal. Like I sad before, we did avenue q

Anything goes is a great idea to, i will have to look up how many characters are in the show

[Salome]

Anything Goes

Billy Crocker
Reno Sweeney
Lord Evelyn Oakleigh
Hope Harcourt
Moonface Martin
Erma
E.J. Whitney
Mrs. Harcourt
Captian
Purser
Bishop Dobson
Luke
John
Purity
Charity
Chastity
Virtue
Sailors
Passengers

[theatreisme]

thanks for the characters, but i need to know the voice ranges of each character