Future Overdone High School Musicals- Page 3

[BwayBoy25]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 12:21am

beauty and the beast is very very very overdone down here...there are always at least 5 schools competiting with it in the tommy tune awards in houston annually

[Patronus]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 12:23am

I'd be suprised to see Rent done in a high school.

I agree with the majority here. The jukebox musicals, Millie, Hairspray and BatB.

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 12:46am

Hate to burst anyone's bubble, but I SERIOUSLY doubt Wicked will be done as a high school show more than just a few times. It's incredibly complex not only performance-wise, but also technically. Only schools with really talented talent pools, and a LOT of money to burn and a very large stage would be able to pull it off.

Beauty and the Beast is starting to get done a lot, because Disney just recently released the amatuer rights to it. However, most people will find working with Disney to be a deterrant from staging the show.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 1:07am

Disney is a bit of a pain to work with -- they require a number of specific procedures to be followed that affect the advertising of the show, the costume and set design, and they even restrict you from selling Disney merchandise at the theater! Nevertheless, high schools are lining up left and right to do Beauty and the Beast and Aida, and even the most mediocre productions are selling out. It's not going away, nor is the Les Miz concert version.

I can think of a number of schools that can do justice to Wicked. Honestly, you'd think it was Shakespeare the way some of you talk about it. It's no more technically daunting that Beauty and the Beast or Peter Pan, or at least it need not be. And I've already heard a couple of teenage girls sing the hell out of Defying Gravity -- so it's not like it's too difficult musically. For better or worse, it is going to be done everywhere when it is released.

I also feel that shows like Mamma Mia and All Shook Up will be very popular. Urinetown will take some time, but it should get a repectable number of productions. Rent, meanwhile, is not going to be done by huge numbers of high schools regardless of how many high school students love it.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 1:41am

Are the rights to Urinetown available? I didnt think they were.
Also, I don't think WICKED is all that daunting. The singing might be hard to handle for some, but I'd imagine some high schoolers could handle it. As for the set, I don't think it would have to be as gigantic as the $14 Million Dollar Broadway Musical. I think the Time Dragon could be clipped, and there aren't that many different "sets." Besides Glinda & Elphaba, all the other roles are vocally easy.
I could see some schools doing "Hairspray." I could see some "funny" male teacher dressing up to be the mother.
"Spelling Bee" will go over huge, i'd imagine, with regional theaters, maybe not so much high schoolers because I dont think the show would be as funny w/ people around the same age as the actual characters.
Maybe "Good Vibrations"? If the rights aren't already burned.
What do you guys think about "Tick, Tick, Boom." Only 3 characters and the vocals aren't too too bad. Although I know John's family is pretty restrictive.

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 1:49am

interesting topic....

I know they have or will have high school versions of shows like Les Miz and Phantom, but I still don't think time will make these shows any less difficult.

Where as I can see things like Beauty and the Beast, Millie, maybe..., juke boxers,

Spelling Bee, maybe?
Edited version of DRS?
Spamalot

[BrdwyBnd2005]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 2:03am

Disney's Beauty and the Beast... I've already done it twice in one year. Oy!

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 2:15am

Urinetown is controlled by MTI and currently restricted, though the first productions nationwide have already been announced. Word is that it will be available generally sometime next Spring or so, but don't quote me on that.

[jam_man]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 2:37am

Rentaholic: I don't think Spamalot will be done too often after the original closes. The Pythons keep close protection over their material, and I wouldn't think they'd be too keen on some 16 screwing up the French Tautner (though many of us could do it word-for-word, too). There has only been one group EVER allowed to do any of the Flying Circus routines that weren't Pythons, and they did it in French. Even if they did release the rights, there's only one girl part and over half of the show is done by four people. Not the makings of a high school staple.

And by the way, I didn't know there was such a thing as Rentahol! :)

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 3:24am

I could see Urinetown being one. I already know of a school who MIGHT do it and the rights practically just came out. It seems like something a high school level could pull off.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 4:56am

Beauty and the Beast and Seussical are already getting there, I've heard of way too many high schools doing them recently.

Spelling Bee, maybe if it was edited (which always scares me). No administration would let a high school student perform "My Unfortunate Erection".

Everyone is worried about Wicked because of all the obsessive fans that want to do it now, but by the time the rights are released for the show, the fervor will have died down some and the current obsessive fans will all be in college and beyond. Unless these kids saw Wicked at age 6 or something, they're not going to aspire to be the spitting image of Kristen or Idina the way the fans do now.

[AngusN]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 5:00am

Honk by Stiles and Drewe is very popular in high schools. However, it is quite a difficult score. I'm not sure how much they have scaled it down for the Junior version. It's a lovely tale with an important message. If you don't know it, check out the Wichita cd, it's got some of the best songs written for the stage.

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 7:21am

Wicked will definitely be attempted by high schools everywhere....it's a show with mostly female leads, the guys don't have that much to sing so you can easily throw someone in there, and really isn't that technically complicated at all. Yes, it will suck.
It'll probably end up the new Pippin, a show high school's and community theaters all around the country keep BUTCHERING.

[shira467]

Posted: 8/16/05 at 7:23am

Millie.

Posted: 6/2/06 at 9:52pm

Wicked, most definitely. It'll be the new Into the Woods.
Millie

The rights to High School Musical are being given to some community theatres before it goes to Broadway.

I don't think many schools would do ALW's Phantom. Maury Yeston's... maybe.

[schlitze]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 9:58pm

I teach at a small high school in the midwest, and a lot of schools our size have been doing Honk! and Seussical. I hear there's a lot of interest in High School Musical, too. I imagine we'll see a lot of that for the next few years.

[faithanytwo]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:02pm

people predicted urinetown right, my college did a show on it a few months back.

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:09pm

Despite how many people I would kill to play the Lady of the Lake (exaggeration!), Spamalot in a high school would suck.

Since the majority of people involved in hs theatre are girls and there are 6 guys and 1 girl, and the rest are in the chorus. This wouldn't sit very well and we'd have American teenage accents (or the ones who try come out with Australian accents). And there aren't many teenage girls that can pull off a good Lady of the Lake.

Seeing a 16-year-old male play the French Taunter would make me cry myself to sleep.

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:54pm

Hands Down Wicked.

I can see HSM becomming big

All Shook Up, I think, would be an awesome High School Musical.

Spelling Bee will be done by community theatres

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:54pm

Hands Down Wicked.

I can see HSM becomming big

All Shook Up, I think, would be an awesome High School Musical.

Spelling Bee will be done by community theatres

[west end artist1]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:56pm

Here in the uk one of the biggest shows used for high schools is FAME.Iknow fame has never reached the heights in the states as it has here and around the rest of the world but do high schools in the states ever do Fame xx

[Renthead#1]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 10:59pm

Fame I think is pretty good for High Schools. But Wicked OH MY GOSH how bad that would be. I would just love to see the scene done in high school when all the Monkeys fly around.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 11:02pm

Prob. In My Life, it's just that kind of musical

[2]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 11:07pm

High school students shouldn't be able to touch the Phantom of the opera with ten-foot pole, unless it's a drama school with really well classically trained student. otherwise, they should stick to Wicked, but even that is challenging...

[Fabrizio2]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 11:10pm

Millie is actually being produced by a high school cast, but not by a high school. There will be a production of it that was obtained from MTI to be performed at the International Thespian Festival.