[Not Dead Yet]

I have a dilemma... so naturally I turn to the all-knowing, omniscent, omnipotent, omnipresent MdNers for advice.

Our High School Drama Teacher is torn every single year when it comes to picking the spring musical. He always ends up picking the tackiest, cheesiest crap. Examples: last year we did a knock-off of the Wizard of Oz called "Oz!" It had rapping munchkins. Nuff said.

So this year a bunch of students wanna get together and find suggestions to give HIM ahead of time so that when he's done with the fall play, he can focus on choosing the spring musical.


basically:

-non-set heavy musical
-2 strong male singers/actors, 3-4 passable male singer/actors
-4 strong female singer/actors, 6-10 (or more) passable female singer/actors
-preferable for the lead female not to be a soprano.
-medium to no dancing

I was thinking along the lines of Into the Woods (with doubling), Urinetown, Fantasticks (with some work on the characters), Pajama Game, or maybe even the school edition of Sweeney Todd, but I would have to convince my teacher that we have the talent for it first. Also, our school is pretty liberal, as long as we don't have a lot of swearing or nudity we'll be fine.






IN DEPTH: (optional. read with caution)

Here are our limitations:

We have, (and I'm estimating here) for males:
-one incredible male singer who's a natural baritone but can pull of tenor, hell even soprano notes (in falsetto). Can pull of dance moves. Strong actor.
-one singer who's a baritone. strong character actor and very strong dancer.
-depending on how many people I have to torture, I can probably maybe get like 3 or 4 more guys that are.. adequate. And if they're not, I can help train them, not a huge deal, but I don't want these guys to get the focus in case they end up being no good. No matter what, I doubt these guys will dance, and I won't expect their acting to be amazing.
-we might have some freshmen that will surprise us, however, I wouldn't bet money on that

so we need for sure AT LEAST 2 GUYS, but can stretch it to 5, maybe 6 guys.

for girls:
-one legit first soprano (me). Awesome head voice, I can only belt to Bb above middle C, and I have a rich chest voice for alto parts as well. not big on dancing, but will if I have to. strong actor
-two/three light second sopranos, good dancers, 1 out of them is a strong actor, the other 2 are passable.
-two/three alto/mezzo, dunno about dancing, one is a strong actors, the others I'm not aware of
-big chance of finding a bit more hidden female talent in the rest of the drama department.

so at least 4 girls, stretching to maybe 10 (or a bit more).

we also have 2 trained female dancers, one who has a light mezzo voice, not much of a belt, and one that cannot sing a solo part to save the world, but we do wanna involve her because she's a senior this year. Character actor, think evil stepsister or pissed off woman is basically her range.

A key thing here is that the lead female role should not be a soprano, because our drama club President (who is an alto, maybe lower mezzo at best with a STRONG belt) gets priority as she's a senior this year. Last year = star vehicle for her. She usually ends up playing Narrators and male parts. So the teacehr's looking for something different this year. Also, nothing extremely set-heavy. Preferably one-two sets at most.


That's basically what we have... doesn't matter if the show doesn't have an ensemble, less work for us.

So other suggestions would be extremely awesome. THANK YOU MDN FORUM! YOU ROCK!

good night, Miami.


P.S.: sorry for the long, rambling post. I'm hyper at 1 in the morning.

[TylerMcMahon]

Go with "The Pajama Game"

It's an easy simple show sounds like you have the right mix of people.
It's got a lot of standards in it people will recognize.

Or even "Guys and Dolls" if you could get guys

[windscreen]

you can try www.asongforeurope.co.uk royalty free until Ovtober 2008

[Jim_L]

My Tavern play:
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/index.html
-Jim

[katiebelle]

how about something like Little Women (4 Men 6 Women) with room for a chorus. Or You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. Theres 4 lead males and 2 lead females ( I believe there are some smaller parts, but I'm not positive). Godspell has 5 Men and 5 Women and is relatively simple, also the roles are all basically the same size and they can also be split up (as my high school did) to allow more people particiate. Thats all ive got right now. If you dont see anything that gets your attention, you could try http://ww.mtishows.com they seem to have alot of shows and casting alot of info about each. Best of Luck!

[Not Dead Yet]

As of now, Urinetown has been eliminated from my list because it's been overdone in my area. Pajama Game is under consideration. If we turn Pseudolus and Hysterium into females, we might be able to do Forum. If we turn the two fathers into two mothers in Fantasticks, we could do that. Into the Woods is a possibility for next year, Pajama Game is under consideration. No more Sweeney Todd.

My teacher is really leaning towards a straight play, and that's cool, too, except our principal really enjoys musicals. It would be messed up to deny him that after he gave us 7000 dollars to add to our budget...

Most of the more active drama club members are being part of Charlie Brown this summer in community theatre (I'm playing Snoopy!!)

I don't think my teacher likes Godspell, is it religious? If it is, definitely no. Little Women sounds ok, actually, how is it as far as sets and costumes? And is it really good? There must have been a reason why it flopped...

[Jman383]

Hey there! You sound JUST like my school, cept we don't really have a typical male lead for this year. We wound up choosing Babes in Arms, despite Into the Woods being absolutely perfect for what we have (evemn the director admitted so, but she has a thing about doing hs shows with no ensembles).

My suggestions are as follow:

Urinetown (a box office nightmare though b/c no one knows it)
The Pajama Game (too much dancing though?)
Anything Goes (same as Pajama)
Guys and Dolls (female lead is a soprano though)
Oliver (girls are basically screwed unless you have a petite thing for Oliver, and a belter for Nancy)
Once Upon a Mattress

Now, based on what you said you have, I vote OUM. The main female lead, Winnifred, is all belt, Dauntless is an awesome male character, as are both the Minstrel and Sir Harry. As for the ladies you have Winnifred and the Queen for mezzo/belters, and Lady Larken along w/ Nightengale for Sopranos. I say go for it!

[Not Dead Yet]

Mattress sounds like an AWESOME idea! I'm gonna discuss it with the officers... Thank you!!

[Jman383]

No problem! Let us know what you guys wind up doing!

[rcs]

How about She Loves Me? It's not at all set heavy and calls for a small cast and minimum dancing. It's got parts for 7 guys (but one's a speaking role only, and could be made female) and 2 girls (but they could be double-cast, and there's also a small ensemble, which could be mostly female).

The one problem is that the female lead, Amalia, is a soprano (as I recall, she doesn't go up that high and could probably be done by a mezzo, but she's no belter). However, the other female role, Ilona, is a superb belter role with two powerhouse solos and a nice duet (also in several of the ensembles), and she gets almost as much stage time as Amalia, so it could still be a star vehicle for your Drama Club President.

Plus, the show doesn't get done that much, so you don't have to worry about it being overdone.

[Bookworm]

What comes to mind:
Little Women
YAGM, Charlie Brown

[qpidsangel]

Bye Bye Birdie