Swing Joined: 7/19/14
I'm thinking of doing a mini-show or concert for my school and the idea is to have 4 or 5 main musicals weaved into a coherent story line. The theme of the story should ideally be on love, determination and success. I am hoping it could be something fun (think something showy and loud but I can't really seem to find musicals that might have strong connections with each other. Any suggestions?
How would this be "mini"? Using 4 or 5 MAIN shows would already be 16 to 20 songs. And if you are having MAIN shows included, that implies using MINOR ones, as well.
Have you thought about paying for rights to all that music?
Use Gilbert and Sullivan. It's all public domain, which means you can add, cut or change anything you like.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
If it's truly a "concert" at a school, then I don't think paying for rights is an issue. You don't think anyone pays for rights when middle school choirs sing half a dozen songs from "Wicked" in their spring concert, do you?
They are supposed to do so. There's just not enough money involved to track them down and sue. (Not to mention the bad p.r. of being the giant corporate entity taking children to court.)
A lot of my work is done by non-profit groups (adults, not children). They buy the sheet music and assume they have the performance rights. They don't. But am I going to harass a non-profit group of volunteers? Of course not.
None of the above makes the theft any less theft. I'm sure none of the groups mentioned would tell their members to go and steal costumes from the local mall.
Swing Joined: 7/19/14
I'm sorry I didn't make it clearer earlier (my bad totally). What I meant to say was to sort of take a few songs from each musical and make them into one coherent story. Something like a medley of a couple of popular songs but instead of going by an overarching theme, I was hoping to have a story instead.
And yes, paying for the performing rights is part of the budget.
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