Please Help!! In need of show suggestions

[brandontwin2]

Posted: 5/14/09 at 4:07pm

My director is looking for a show to perform for next year and I am out of ideas. We are looking for something that is going to bring in a large crowd and teenagers. Last year we performed Footloose and it went really well. Last year we pretty much started over so we want a few solid crowd favorites to bring people in and get them to start appreciating our drama club again. Does anybody have any ideas? I am also looking for a play to perform in the fall.

[brandontwin2]

Posted: 5/21/09 at 5:05pm

we are lost on what to do

[[e-mail]]

Posted: 5/22/09 at 12:29am

You could try RENT School Edition

[brandontwin2]

Posted: 5/22/09 at 3:38pm

That would be very interesting with our drama club. I think the director might consider it though.

Posted: 5/23/09 at 7:22pm

As much as I dislike it, High School Musical would bring in lots of people.

[brandontwin2]

Posted: 5/23/09 at 9:47pm

We considered the idea of high school musical but our civic theater is doing it this summer. A neighbor school did grease last year and we did it two years ago. We did music man last year. Civic theater did bye bye birdie two years ago and the cross town rival school did Beauty and the Beast and Thoroughly Modern Millie. We are so lost on shows to perform with so many theater groups in the area.

[observer]

Posted: 5/24/09 at 12:41am

Fiddler on the Roof
Sound of Music
West Side Story

All of those are well known and popular.
Rent will bring in the teens big time.

There are others that would sell tickets, but you'd need critical things:
Peter Pan: need big $
Les Mis: Need a Valjean
Phantom: Need legit singers
Cats: Costume and make up nightmare
Little Shop: The plants are expensive to rent and impossible to make.
Good luck Updated On: 5/24/09 at 12:41 AM

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 5/24/09 at 1:50pm

Are the rights available for Phantom?

[brandontwin2]

Posted: 5/24/09 at 6:38pm

Little shop has a pretty small cast doesn't it? I don't think we could pull of west side story at all. We have lost our amazing soprano because she graduated this year so I'm not sure what we will do

[observer]

Posted: 5/24/09 at 8:47pm

You may be right about the rights not being available for Phantom, Laura. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any chandeliers crashing in schools or community theatres, but thought that's because it's so hard to find the singers at that level. Would be tech heavy as well.

Little shop calls for a small cast, like 10 or less, but depending on what your needs are, you could make due with fewer or stretch to more. Top of my head, I think bare minimum is 8 (includes Audrey's voice). If you want, several characters usually played by the dentist could be pieced out. And the trio could be split into 2 trios or even made into a dancing choir.

[[e-mail]]

Posted: 5/24/09 at 10:31pm

The show Lucky Stiff could be good you could make the cast as big or small as you need it to be and its a funny and very entertaining show

[supportivemom]

Posted: 5/25/09 at 11:07am

Once Upon a Mattress. My daughter did it 2 years ago and whoever was not in the show was in the lobby doing a Renaissance festival before the show, during intermission, and afterwards. It worked out really well!

[brandontwin2]

Posted: 5/26/09 at 7:26pm

thanks for the suggestions! Has anybody seen an all white version of The Wiz? :-/

[theatremom4]

Posted: 5/26/09 at 11:09pm

Rights are not available for Phantom. RUG did a pilot study with 2 colleges and a few high schools a year or two ago, but as of now no rights are available.

[supportivemom]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 7:03am

They did a special on TV last year about a high school staging The Wiz- it was with a predominantly white cast.

[blondebaby589]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 8:05am

A high school in my area did an all white production of the Wiz and it was fantastic.

[doitonstage8]

Posted: 5/28/09 at 9:05am

URINETOWN! It's got such a crazy name that people who don't know anything about theatre get interested.. especially teens. You know how boys are they see "urine" and they're going to be all over it! That's what happened at my school last year. People who had never even gone to see a musical came to see Urinetown just becasue the show is called Urinetown lol.

[theatremom4]

Posted: 5/28/09 at 11:15am

URINEOWN is a great suggestion! I saw a high school production of this show a few years back and it was excellent! A GREAT show for high school-- lots of parts, a nice-sized chorus, one of the funniest, most ironic books/scores ever, and a real crowd-pleaser.
Updated On: 5/28/09 at 11:15 AM

[supportivemom]

Posted: 5/28/09 at 12:07pm

There's also "Fame"- high school students who go to a performing arts school. My daughter saw a production of it at the Florida State Thespian Festival this year.

[dg22894]

Posted: 5/30/09 at 10:48pm

The last couple of years High Schools in my Area have done...
Anything Goes
Bye Bye Birdie
West Side Story
Beauty and the Beast
Guys and Dolls

I would also recommend Legally Blonde and Hairspray I believe the rights come out pretty soon

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 5/30/09 at 11:06pm

Yeah, if you can meet the ethnic casting requirements for Hairspray, then you should do it (if the rights are out).

[brandontwin2]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 3:49pm

Legally Blonde was our absolute number one choice and our director has been talking to MTI but I don't think the rights will be available.

[blondebaby589]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 4:06pm

I haven't even heard of any regional theaters doing Legally Blonde yet, let alone a high school.

[SamanthaisFierce]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 4:29pm

The student version of Miss Saigon might be available...but I think the only reason people might come would be to see you guys attempt to fly in a helicopter....

[brandontwin2]

Posted: 6/6/09 at 1:29pm

Haha Samantha.
Yeah I tried to tell them that the rights would not be available for Legally Blonde but oh well.