Desperately seeking advice on school musical

[romgitsean]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 5:03pm

As I posted previously, my situation for my school's drama club is this:

We don't have a stage. We don't have lights. We don't have a drama teacher. We have a music room in a double-wide trailer, (where we're performing our play, Arsenic & Old Lace in March, with studio lights. This is the second play the school's ever done-last year we did a low-budget production that was a mixture of Greek Myths. Very campy), and our music teacher can sing, but can't play piano, and is very stingy with his time. Sounds like a heaven for artists, right?

So, basically, my friend Devin and I run the entire drama club with the assistance of a faculty sponsor, who is a theatre enthusiast, and took improv classes in college--and that's about the extent of his experience, with a few other minor plays under his belt. This year we were supposed to do a production of The Princess Bride and The Wiz. We got off to a late start, we couldn't secure rights for The Princess Bride, so we decided to go with Arsenic and Old Lace, which we've been rehearsing for for about two months, and we debut in March, and The Wiz was set to start from March and go up in May.

However, Samuel French had other plans. Devin (who's directing Arsenic, I'm in it) and our faculty sponsor were well-aware it would cost money to get the rights. We have a budget of $1,000 for the whole year (that includes Arsenic and Old Lace and one other production) and so, Samuel French charged a total of $650 for materials, rights, etc. so, my faculty sponsor made the cut-throat decision today that we cannot do The Wiz, since it costs so much, and auditions were scheduled in a few weeks.

We've decided to have an interest meeting for *a* school musical and see who comes. At the meeting, we'll vote on either doing a Broadway Musical revue, a revue of all Disney songs (which I'm trying to avoid, since I'm already in a Disney cabaret at the moment), doing a concert version of The Wiz or some other show.

However, Samuel French, difficult as always, doesn't license out concert versions, so we'd have to write to whoever owns the rights for concert versions regarding the film. My question is, how much of a show can we make it to be with that concert version title? Can we have dialogue, sets, costumes? Or do we just do a simple musical revue of kids dressed all in black? (Note, this will be the school's first musical. We're a fairly new charter school, very poor, in the south with kids who may or may not have any musical experience).

I'm pushing to do a concert version of Wiz, but what does everyone else think? Sorry this was so long. Any help appreciated. :)

-Sean

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 5:31pm

Can we have dialogue, sets, costumes?

Generally, no.

I think you can do up to three songs without getting production rights, but no staging that would suggest the show.

However, there are always exceptions, so you should definitely contact all the rights holders for the various writers and ask. I imagine their offices get questions like this all the time and could give you a quick answer.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/27/10 at 5:55pm

If you make any box office money from ARSENIC, you might be able to swing the cost of a JR.

MTI's b'way JR. series. It's MEANT for younger kids but can use up to the age of 18 (I think). They are PERFECT for less experience actors AND directors. But here's what you get: Scripts (which bring the show down to 60 to 90 minutes, Rehearsal CDs, PERFORMANCE CDs and gads of directorial and choreography help. They cost UNDER 600 bucks - unlimited performances granted (within a calendar year -- if I remember correctly).

Musicals are usually very expensive: I pay over 2K for most of my musicals for rights, royalties and rentals. I doubt you would have gotten The Wiz for under 1K to begin with.

But as far as a review/concert performance -- the above poster is right. You'd still have to pay if using over 3 songs...and if they don't license it that way, it's not available.