Skip to main content
My Shows
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!
#1

Lesser known musicals

what are some lesser known musicals that are fun to do in high school theater?

My drama teacher loves doing lesser known musicals.
#2

re: Lesser known musicals

How about:

Tintypes
Little Me
Leader of the Pack
How to Succeed at Business Without Really Trying
Once on This Island
The Boyfriend
Babes in Arms
Smile
Merrily We Roll Along (if a REALLY good theater dept.)
Side Show
Barnum
Starmites
Tommy
The Wiz

#3

re: Lesser known musicals

The only one's i've heard out've those are "how to succeed at business", "babes in arms" "barnum" and "the wiz"


but I'll check out the other ones, thanks for replying
#4

re: Lesser known musicals

YOURS, ANNE!!!

It is a goregous musical about the diary of Anne Frank.
#6

re: Lesser known musicals

One that's not a musical persay, but its got songs scattered through it is "Spoon River Anthology"...It's like an older version of "Our Town". It's a bunch of monologues about characters, who are dead, and their lives they left behind. Its got some pretty good songs in it.
#8

re: Lesser known musicals

City of Angels


its really hard though... not going to lie... but we did it and it was really good............you just have to have a good cast
OH! It's time to start livin! Time to take a little from the world we're given! Time to take time, 'cause spring will turn to fall... In just no time at all!
#9

re: Lesser known musicals

Spoon River Anthology? I loved that book!!! It's a musical!! OMG!!!! (I'm finished.)
I have NEVER met Cheyenne Jackson. I have never hung out with him in his dressing room, he did not tweet me, he never bought me a beverage, and he mostly certainly didn't tickle me. . .that is all.
#10

re: Lesser known musicals

Ohh I LOVE Once On This Island! It's really a fantabulous show! And The Wiz is cool too!
The course of true love never did run smooth.
#11

re: Lesser known musicals

Once On This Island is probably one of the most well-known and overdone musicals in high school theatre. This school year alone, 4 high schools have done ooti, including mine. Just throwing that out there.
Academy Theatre

Learn it. Live it. Love it.

#12

re: Lesser known musicals

Return to the Forbidden Planet.
#13

re: Lesser known musicals

I'd love to see how a high school audience would respond to Sideshow.
"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
#14

re: Lesser known musicals

My high school has never done OOTI. And neither have any near me. Maybe next year. Wow, I just jinxed us.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
#15

re: Lesser known musicals

I've done Smile.

Don't do it. don't say i didn't warn you either...

I just got the OBCRs of Applause and The Fix and although i have never seen them i would suggest those to my theater director in a flash. look into those.
"Love all; Trust a few; Do wrong to none." --William Shakespeare
#16

re: Lesser known musicals

how about elagies for angles, punks and raging queens? great music and not that well known : )
#17

re: Lesser known musicals

I agree with Ashley...I love Side Show. It's one of my favorite musicals...but I would like to see my peers reaction to it.


It's like I'm your lover- or more like your ghost.
#18

re: Lesser known musicals

"Tick, Tick, Boom" if you have a really small, REALLY talented theatre dpt. Heh. :)
#19

re: Lesser known musicals

how about A Day in Hollywood/ The Night in the Ukraine
very vaudeville fun full of tap dancing and variety Marx brother is a big influence
#20

re: Lesser known musicals

We just did Working, fun show.
#21

re: Lesser known musicals

Oh god, NEVER do Applause. My school did it last year and it was AWFUL. It's become our joke... "Let's not make this another Applause"...and whenever something goes bad everyone says APPLAUSE APPLAUSE. The show is a joke
#22

re: Lesser known musicals

Working...there was a sitcom called Working a few years back...any relation?
#23

re: Lesser known musicals

STARMITES! it was my first musical (i was in 7th grade) and it's perfect for highschoolers... LOTS of sufficient parts/solos! it's rock opera style... and the best part? the men are superheros... superheros = tights!!! mmmmmmm
#24

re: Lesser known musicals

Please don't suggest Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens for your high school. The material is rather depressing and I wouldn't ever want to see that show done by high school students. I do think that the suggestion of Smile is a good one if you have a female-dominated program. I know that I went to a high school with more talented men than women so we did Joseph our senior year but you could look at something like 3hree. I'd stay away from Once on This Island and SideShow. But H2$ is a great show if you have a good dance program for your musicals...good luck.

Cheers,

Christopher
www.christopherviolett.com
#25

re: Lesser known musicals

H2$ and The Boyfriend are good for high schools. Also, besides OOTI being overdone, both it and The Wiz are written for ethnic casts. There's nothing saying they can't be cast color-blind, but it would look awful if the cast couldn't handle the material (speaking from someone who was in just about the whitest version of the Wiz ever!) On a more classical note, I had a really fun time when our school did Pirates of Penzance my freshman year of high school. It was different, yet really fun. A little more cultured than your typical high school musical.

BroadwayWorld TV


Ticket Central
Hot Show
Tickets From $59
Hot Show
Tickets From $59
Hot Show
Tickets From $59
Hot Show
Tickets From $71