Good Musical Theater Colleges?

if anyone knows of any good musical theater colleges in the US please post them here, i've recently been changing my mind to persue musical theater instead of music education...let me know of good ones

Rhymes with Muliard and starts with J

If you want just plain Music that is

---

Updated On: 4/6/04 at 10:16 PM

Look in New York for some colleges. I know lots of people going to different ones and different people like different criteria of the schools. You just have to pick one that you feel is good for you.

---

Five Towns College in Long Island has a recommended musical theatre/acting program.

Carnegie Mellon. Very stiff competition, but amazing program.

---

Many of my most talented friends graduated from CCM (Cincinatti Conservatory of Music) they have (or had, anyway) a hellish good musical theatre program, judging from the people they turn out - check into it. And Carnegie Melon (sp) turns out extremely talented people.

---

Updated On: 4/7/04 at 10:34 AM

I major in musical theatre at Shorter College in Rome GA and I the program must be finest in the SOutheast! We have many people who graduated from here on Broadway tours, cruise ships etc. The education is 1st class and we put on amazing shows. I've been wanting to come here since my sophmore year of high school and I have loved my experience so far! Go to www.shorter.edu and take a look! Hope that helps!

---

Trust me when I say I understand. I have spent many nights over this decision, and haven't been able to come up with a good answer other than double major in music ed and music theatre. But believe me, it is not for the weak of heart. It is an extremely demanding load, and I have wanted to pull my hair out at least a hundred times a day.
I recently recieved some advice that helped me a great deal though. You might want to consider getting a BA in MUED and then go to a really great graduate school (such as NYU) for an MFA in MUTH. Just a thought! Best of luck to whatever you decide to do!

---

Write State University in Dayton Ohio.
Oklahoma State
Florida State
University of NY ( I think)

Awesome program at Middle Tennessee State University for the southeast part. And it's not as expensive as these other schools.

---

Really? Elon University? I heard their Music program was good, but theatre was just average?

---

Just throwingt in a dose of reality. The number of really talented people who audition for a small number of spots at alot of these schools is astounding. Take, for instance, Carnegie Mellon. According to an official at a CMU audition, they see about 900 people for 28 spots...of the 28 spots, only 10 to 12 are for musical theater, Not really very good odds, no matter how talented you are. My daughter was rejected for musical theater, but they would take her for acting. The problem is, her greatest talent and passion is as a singer and $40,000 is a lot of money to spend and not really be able to do what you love.

Other "big" name musical theater programs seem to have similar odds. The day we were at Ithaca, there were literally more than a hundred people auditioning. (And this was just one of several audition days.) Call me crazy, but I'm thinking that everyone starts to look the same by 3 pm, if that's when your 5 minute audition spot happens to fall.

I'm not saying this to be discouraging, just trying to put things in perspective. My advice would be to shoot for the stars...why not... but audition for several schools and do it early; don't wait until February. By then a lot of spots have been filled.

One other thing...SUNY Purchase doesn't have musical theater. It's focus is on opera.

Good luck!

---

I am currently a Musical Theater major at SUNY Cortland (it's in central NY). Although we are a small program we are building a reputation as an outstanding program. Our past two mainstage musicals were "Chicago" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". Both of whom were the talk of the community as well as neighboring cities, which says alot because we are in the shadows of other theater/music schools (ie Syracuse and Ithaca). We also do a straight play every fall. This year we had the debut production of "Round O and Crooked S". A show I'm sure you will hear about in the near future. We offer a BA and our graduates have had a high success rate once they leave here out in the real world. One of our future grads (leaves in May), just got in a production of "Beauty and the Beast" as Gaston and another Graduate finished a year long tour with Sesame Street Live. We're a small program, but we're slowly growing and offer a wonderful theater/liberal arts education