Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

#1

Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 8:24pm

They don't have to be small casts but just something good for a community theatre whose past shows include Joseph..., Crazy For You, Oliver, Annie, YAGMCB, etc... Any suggestions?

Would Carousel be a good one? Anything Goes??

Updated On: 4/15/05 at 08:24 PM

#2

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 8:27pm

I happen to love Carousel. A lot of people don't, I was in it so have a special fondness for it.

Maybe: Millie? Kiss Me Kate, Evita,

#3

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 8:55pm

Any others???

#4

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 9:08pm

Guys and Dolls might work well.

#5

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 9:11pm

i second guys and dolls also there is always the wizard of oz but i dont think you want to do that.

#6

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 9:18pm

Annie, The Sound Of Music works a lot, Honk

#7

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 10:01pm

We had a lot of fun with "Once Upon a Mattress" - no absolute leads, which spreads things around, and it can be a lot of fun. My wife and I also directed "Kiss Me Kate" at our local High School, and that was a lot of fun... folks around here have recently done "Big", "Anything Goes", "West Side", "Forum" and "How to Succeed"... (for some reason there's an outbreak of the Music Man in our area this year - downright scary!)

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"Not a day goes by..."

#8

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 10:17pm

I love Carousel too. I'd also like to jump on the Guys and Dolls bandwagon. It's such a fun show to do and the chorus work is great.
Others that spring to mind...
Little Shop of Horrors
Gypsy
Oklahoma
Nunsense
Blitz
Pirates of Penzance
Into The Woods
The King and I.

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#9

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/15/05 at 11:48pm

little shop, jesus christ superstar, a little night music, tony and tina's wedding...those are a few of the ones the community theatre in my area have done.

#10

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/16/05 at 12:41am

CAROUSEL hs a beautiful score but requires singers with some training.

It also requires a level of acting where the performers can underscore the subtext.

Few community production can do both and some can't do either well.

It also is a fantasy and that is hard to play, and harder for modern audiences to buy into.

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Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!

I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com

#11

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/16/05 at 2:55am

You can't go wrong with The Pajama Game.

#12

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/16/05 at 4:11am

once on this island

both audiences and the cast will connect.

#13

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/16/05 at 2:53pm

Ummm...a theatre did Sweeney Todd, and the papers said it was great. Anything that's Sondheim really. But, for things like Assassins, you'd have to do it a theatre that produces shockers or something aorund there,or a black box theatre.

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What the puck?!

#14

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/16/05 at 3:04pm

GODSPELL

bye bye birdie, fiddler on the roof, hello dolly, guys and dolls...

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life is PANDEMONIUM.

#15

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/16/05 at 3:39pm

A local theater did "Return to the Forbidden Planet" and it was great fun. Campy, fun songs, and Shakespeare. Can't go wrong with that! I strongly recommend it.

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Happy, smile! Sad, frown! Use the corresponding face with the corresponding emotion! - Kate (Meg Ryan), French Kiss

#16

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/16/05 at 3:40pm

Just don't do ANYTHING GOES...I've yet to see a good community theatre production of that particular show.

#17

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:35pm

You can't go wrong with GUYS AND DOLLS, HELLO DOLLY or, since your group has cultivated kids with both Oliver and Annie, THE MUSIC MAN. All three are huge crowd pleasers with plum supporting and leading roles. Guys and Dolls is probably a little easier to cast - with Dolly and Music Man you kind of have to have someone in mind for the starring roles prior to auditions or just hope that someone shows up. Same with FIDDLER, which is also "community theatre proof".
And remember - most Broadway actors did comuunity theatre of one kind or another. Break a leg!

#18

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:38pm

i really think that URINETOWN would be a great show for a community theatre or school. the rights just came out. i think it would work well because it does not require a large budget or large cast, and it's very funny and lighthearted. people might get turned away from the title if they don't know what it is, but it's truly a great show, and now that the rights are out i hope i can get to see it being produced somewhere!

#19

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:39pm

The rights to URINETOWN are not out yet.

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"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde

#20

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:39pm

Seussical the Musical

I was just a part of a production, and it was some of the most fun I've ever had. Plus the audience ate it up (both out of enjoyment and in ticket sales - probably because it's something new and not overdone, like many of the musicals mentioned).

#21

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:43pm

I second Pirates of Penzance, assuming you have people who can sing the main roles, after than you have a very expandable cast of pirates and daughters.
Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? is good if you have a good group of teenagers.
Lil' Abner is a lot of fun and another that can have a large ensemble.

#22

re: Best Musicals for Community Theatre...

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:47pm

Finian's Rainbow is good if you have a racially mixed cast

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