Broadway Persuasive Speech Topic

I have to do a persuasive speech for a public speaking class, and I really, really want to do a Broadway topic. Really the only requirement is that it has to be 5-7 minutes and it has to have statements that can be backed up factually (which is why I'm having a problem with this). Anyone have a good idea? Or at least at starting point for an idea? And, maybe some evidence for it?
Thanks guys!

How about something along the lines of, "Musical theater is not the corny song and dance affair that many people believe it to be, but instead an art form that reflects real life with inspiration and poignancy"?

How do you define 'factually'?

I mean it will make me cringe if your teacher claims that being 'factual' means just regurgitating the opinions of others (apparently more 'factual' than your own).

But while claiming "Musical theatre is not a corny song and dance affair" is an opinion, you can use 'facts' to support it. Though I guess to be 'backed factually' you will need a secondary source, I guess. But this would be hard to do (as you have mentioned), [ignoring that I still dispute whether that is 'factual'].

Maybe you should just do something boring/something scientific, because scientific studies should use objective data, which your teacher would probably agree is a 'fact'. (But again just blindly reporting results of studies as facts isn't really a good thing either, because the study may have issues).

God I feel like I'm some kind of strange tangent, but my point is that I think just saying something is 'factual' or not, unless the fact is based on a sound deductive argument, will be difficult, as everything otherwise can always be disputed.

Talk to your teacher about what is considered 'factual'.

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Updated On: 11/22/09 at 05:58 PM

My God, I was the gayest child ever and even I had interests outside of Broadway, at least in as much that I didn't have to try and shoehorn my love of show tunes into anything I was given even a whiff of free reign with.

Is there nothing in the world you care about enough to try and persuade others to see your way of thinking besides something vaguely about Broadway?

You should try and persuade them that teenagers who solicit Broadwayworld for help with their schoolwork aren't really the brightest bulbs in the bunch, because right now I am NOT convinced.

Who said this was a high school class?

And when I coached speech and debate at college, the speaker needed to care about the topic. Otherwise, the speech was dull and lifeless. If the OP wants to speak about Broadway - fine. It's actually probably harder than ANOTHER speech about the evils of drunk driving or why people should be nice to others and do charitable work. There's just no "burden" there - the speech fails on the assignment. I judged hundreds of persuasive speeches - both by high school and college kids - (and in my last year, one of my students finished third in the nation) and you can tell the stock speech that students didn't care about and probably 75% failed because there was no persuasive burden. I'd rather have heard a speech about why drunk driving wasn't bad - because that is a hard sell. But, for the OP to do a speech where s/he has to convince the audience of something about "Broadway" is not going to be easy. The OP has to make the audience aware of something they haven't thought of and try to convince them of a proposition or action.

Anyway, it didn't sound like the OP was asking someone here to write the speech - just to help with ideas. Why is asking here for help with an idea a worse thing than asking other students/classmates?

I meant factually as you need to have sources backing up most of your statements. Sorry if that was confusing.

Those are some really great speech ideas, really. I was thinking of what I could do, but I couldn't think of ways to back them up. I'm going to do some research on all of them tonight, and see what I could do. This was a great starting point, and I really do thank you guys for all your help.

Phyllis Rogers Stone and MusicSnob1 - The reason I was asking on this board were because I WANTED to do a speech on Broadway. It's not that I don't have any other interests, it's because Broadway is one of my main interests. I'm a musical theatre major - I love theatre. The main thing our teacher told us to do was think of something that we loved and give a speech on it - the first thing that popped into my mind was a speech on how Phantom is the best musical of all time. I decided that that was something that was a little too narrow minded, (and I'm a little bit too biased too :) and maybe it wouldn't be all that interesting to a class of freshman, so I wanted to broaden my topic out a bit - while still staying in the theatre realm. I didn't want to give a speech on what I feel are the cliched topics of gay marriage and blood donations. While I feel both are important, everyone in that class knows about those topics. I wanted to actually TEACH them about something, instead of just handing them canned facts. Others will get up there and teach about cancer, but I want to get up there and teach about something that I love, like ggersten said! Besides, I will be writing the speech all by myself - I'm a big girl. I didn't get into a musical theatre program without doing my own work. I just wanted a starting off point - and this is exactly what this board did for me. (and I thank you guys wholeheartedly for that).
So, before you guys go off about me not going my own work, read my prompt first. I wanted an idea, not someone to write my speech, on something that I love, not the cliched every day speech.

I'm glad that you decided against the PotO topic because if I had a student who gave a speech on how it was the best musical of all time I'd probably fail them.

Good thing I TA psychology courses and not MT, huh?

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Updated On: 11/23/09 at 04:20 PM