Ambitious musicals for a high school

[BNN]

Posted: 1/2/07 at 5:08pm

Our head honcho theatre director is looking for a musical that would be really ambitiious to do for next year. He knows we have the resources for it but is stuck on what to do and is accepting suggestions from people. I, however, cannot think of anything ambitious except for Evita so I am looking for some ideas.

PS Don't say Sweeney Todd, he hates it.

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 1/2/07 at 5:22pm

Titanic
Les Mis
A Chorus Line
Candide

I'll think of more

[EmieMarie]

Posted: 1/2/07 at 6:40pm

Pirates of Penzance

[hannahshule]

Posted: 1/2/07 at 6:55pm

What does he mean by ambitious?
If he means racy/edgy than something like Chicago or Hedwig and the Angry Inch maybe. But if he's talking more about the degree of difficulty, than I'd say a Sondheim show (like BOTH acts of Into the Woods).
Sorry, that's probably not much help.

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 1/2/07 at 8:43pm

naked boys singing...even though none will do it

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 1/3/07 at 12:57pm

No, he means something that's "hard".

Les Mis
Ragtime
West Side Story
Candide
ACL
Titanic
South Pacific
Carousel
Into the Woods
Cabaret
Kiss Me, Kate

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/3/07 at 3:07pm

The dance musicals like ACL and 42nd Street and Sondheim shows come to mind.

BNN, your signature cracks me up.

[gertiecummings]

Posted: 1/5/07 at 6:23pm

DO NOT do Evita unless you know your school has the talent to pull it off. I saw a community theatre do it a few months ago and it was AWFUL.

[[e-mail]]

Posted: 1/5/07 at 6:28pm

agreed... I think Evita is harder to do than Les Mis in some regards because the burden is placed on such a few amount of people, as opposed to les mis which has a large cast to spread the singing around.

[WaitingForKathy]

Posted: 1/5/07 at 8:12pm

Bat Boy

[singtopher]

Posted: 1/6/07 at 10:24am

A high school near me does very ambitious shows (and I must say very well). Here's what they've done in recent years.

Evita
Big: The Musical
Les Mis
Into The Woods
Ragtime
The Scarlett Pimpernel
Miss Saigon

[Matters]

Posted: 1/6/07 at 5:00pm

Merrily We Roll Along (Sondheim). My old highschool did it this past year and it was undoubtably an ambitious show on a number of levels and it was fantastic.

[BrunetteBombshell]

Posted: 1/6/07 at 5:07pm

When I read the title of this thread, I immediately thought of Les Mis and A Chorus Line.

[elvenprincess971]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 4:49am

For the love of theatre please do NOT reccomend "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". If a high school ever tried to do that show (and that is no offense to your drama program or anything, just as a general thing)... I just don't think it's a high school show at all.

[hannahshule]

Posted: 1/7/07 at 11:24am

Don't worry, neither did I. I was just trying to get a sense of what they meant by "Ambitious".

[BarberOfTheBarricade]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 6:08pm

Well, Les Mis and Evita are always good. Add to that Miss Saigon, Candide, Pirates Of Penzance, and if you don't really have a lot of girls, and tons of guys, which is probably not the case, Man Of La Mancha. Tommy would even work, that's edgy, and would be tougher for traditionally trained Musical Performers to pull off, sort of, plus it's a ridiculosuly fun show.

[LiLMuNkEe22]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 10:23pm

miss saigon has just become a school edition... look into that. its wonderful. :)

[BROADWAYBOUND5]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 9:15am

Violet my highschool is doing it right now...
it is amazing,but an extremely difficult show
intended for college or professional theatre
get the cd off of amazon.com
i promise it will become your favorite new musical!

[Future Elphaba]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 2:44pm

Thoroughly Modern Mille. My hs was gonna do it but it had too much dancing.

The Secret Garden - I just did this. The music is VERY complicated but beautiful and the sets have to be good. Ours wasn't.

[trickedout22]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 9:19am

chicago

[costumes1]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 11:39am

The Mystery of Edwin Drood...weird vocals but when it comes together with the orch its great!

[dramaqueen2]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 5:55pm

yah, i'd say anything by sondheim. pretty ambitious. which is really cool, i respect good attempts as sondheim, as well as anyone else would i think.

good luck!

[The Wardrobe]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 10:21pm

All things Gilbert & Sullivan. Most things by Rogers & Hammerstein, and one of my personal favorites: Ragtime! Which I'm going to see for my birthday. (16 baby!) Beauty and the Beast as well, but be sure to have the techies to back the show!!! (WOWZA!)

[Julian2]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 10:28pm

I would say Jane Eyre. Not only is it difficult as a show, but its also rarely done, so that gives doing it a bit of an edge. I saw my High School do a minimalist version a few years ago ( no fly in house) and it was wonderful. Its a great show if you have the enough good singers and a good directer.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 10:42pm

Chicago was craziness from day 1. It's realllly hard to pull off.

Into the Woods is such a complicated musical with so many parts going on at once. It's personally one of my favorites and I would love to be in it someday.

My Favorite Year is ambitious in a way. It could easily be very long and boring or hilarious and adorable. It's all about the delivery.

Others would be: Jane Eyre, A Chorus Line, Evita, Aida, The Last 5 Years, Les Mis, Pirates of Penzance, Ragtime, anything Sondheim