Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

#1

Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:31pm

Is it just me, or are they few and far between?

If anyone can help me come up with any size list of musicals that have a lot of women parts (but a lot of guys too) and a strong participating ensemble, I would be very happy.

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I mean, Denzel Washington? Gun to my head..of course.

#2

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:32pm

Would Anything Goes work?

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Theatre is a safe place to do the unsafe things that need to be done. -John Patrick Shanley

#3

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:34pm

although it's not a good show - Legally Blonde has good female lead roles

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"The theatre is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life." - Arthur Miller

#4

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:34pm

The Color Purple?

#5

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:35pm

Well, shows that a high school can do. So really nothing on Broadway right now.

Anything Goes is a possibility. But as far as the ensemble, it's really just a couple of scenes and songs right? The rest is up to the (uh-oh I forget!! Are they called..Angels? It's been so long..and I'm getting old..)

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I mean, Denzel Washington? Gun to my head..of course.

#6

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:47pm

There's Jekyll and Hyde, which has two major female parts (Lucy and Emma) plus several smaller ones (Lady Beaconsfield and another prostitute whose name I can't remember...) and other women are needed for the scenes in the Red Rat.
For men, there's Jekyll/Hyde, Simon Stride, Danvers, and Utterson, who all have significant lines/singing, plus other men on the Board of Governors
The ensemble is involved in Facade, which is one of the first numbers, the several reprises of Facade that occur, and Murder Murder (the opening of Act Two)

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Please, don't let me be normal!

#7

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:50pm

Sound of Music

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"The theatre is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life." - Arthur Miller

#8

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:54pm

How To Succeed has 4 female leads.. many ensemble roles,
urinetown has a bunch of female lead and supporting roles as well as ensemble roles, Gypsy has lots of female roles, Into The Woods, Bye Bye Birdie

#9

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:57pm

Not that I would necessarily recommend a high school doing it, but Mame.

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"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife

#10

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 9:57pm

How many do mean by "a lot"?

OKLAHOMA! has three lead female roles, along with some smaller roles (Gertie, Dream Laurey, etc.); a good amount of men's roles; and the ensemble is in many of the scenes.

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I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.

#11

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 10:00pm

Smile by Marvin Hamlisch
Carrie by the Fame guys
Nine by Maury Yeston
The Mitford Girls by don't know
Little Women...several versions


hope this helps

#12

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 10:05pm

I'm suprised no one said it yet, but Les Miserables...3 somewhat Major leads (Eponine + Cosette + Fantine), of course a great chorus + ensemble songs (at the End of the Day, Look Down, One Day More, the Finale among others.)

#13

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 10:09pm

I think he's more worried about not having enough men to fill male roles, so something like Les Mis wouldn't work. At least, when I was in high school, we always had a crisis of not enough men wanting to be on stage. We usually had a ratio of five women to every one man.

#14

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 10:19pm

"Nine" would be great....if it wasn't a high school. I just can't imagine too many parents taking kindly to "Call from the Vatican."

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Some people paint, some people sew, I meddle.

#15

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 10:27pm

Wicked

#16

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/21/07 at 10:50pm

Musicals With Many Female Leads and Strong Ensembles That Can Be Done In High Schools:

42nd Street (Dorothy Brock, Peggy Sawyer, Maggie, Anytime Annie, the featured girls--- TONS of ensemble numbers- the ensemble is super important and always on stage)

Mame (Mame, Vera, Agnes, Sally, Pegeen, Mother Burnside)

Grease

Footloose

Hair

The Wiz

Ragtime

Annie

Bye Bye Birdie

Follies

Henry Sweet Henry

Crazy for You

City of Angels

Me and My Girl

Dreamgirls

Once Upon a Mattress

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[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.

#17

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 1:23am

If you're asking for suggestions for a high school, this techically falls under the student boards.

Nine is a great idea, even if it would incur the wrath of parents. My school has almost no men in their choir department, so last year to women's chorus all sang the overture. a lot better than I thought it would sound like.

#18

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 1:48am

If you have some really good dancers then I would say Sweet Charity

#19

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 2:16am

Because club dancers aren't as offensive as an orgasm...

#20

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 4:08am

How about "Fiddler on the Roof"? Golde, all the daughters (5), Yente etc.

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Popular...You're gonna be Popuular....;)

#21

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 7:32am

I never said I had any problem with Nine, I even kind of like the idea of a high school doing it. But, Sweet Charity is much more "tasteful" IMO because a number like Big Spender is somewhat done for laughs.

#22

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 8:31am

If High Schools pull off Pippin and Evita, why not Nine? It does have a lot of female roles. Here are ones I think would work:

Fiddler
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
The King and I
42nd Street
Bye Bye Birdie
Sound of Music
Crazy For You
Les Mis

Some of these would require strength in drama. My high school severely lacked in that category, so our productions of 42nd Street, Annie and The King and I were dreadful. Good luck!

#23

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 8:37am

You could do The Witches Of Eastwick. Its an amazing show, Three Females as the Leads, with the strong male lead in Darryl Van Horne. You then Have Felicia Gabriel, And the dughter Jennifer, and the ensemble is very character based with lots of female roles. Itsa great show!

#24

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 10:20am

CAN-CAN, a largely forgotten about Cole Porter show although "I Love Paris" is a very recognizable song. The show has the lead, La Mome Pistache, and Claudine (roles that have been played by Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon respectively). This show also has a large female ensemble because of the laundresses.

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. You have Annie of course, and also Dolly and Winnie Tate.

These are both shows I was in during high school.

#25

re: Musicals with many female lead roles and a strong ensemble

Posted: 10/22/07 at 10:23am

Follies

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"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson