High Schools and Sondheim Shows

There have been topics on this. Some have done COMPANY and unfortunately FOLLIES. You can see clips on youtube.

I have yet to see or hear of one doing NIGHT MUSIC.

yeah, I saw a HS do Sweeney last year.. it was fairly good I must say, it would have been much better if the orchestra knew how to play and not just blast the music and if they actors had mics, but overall, very good.. far better than i expected

My high school did ITW my senior year, but I've never known of a school to do anything other than that and Forum.

My High School has done a lot of Sondheim. I've done Company and Sunday during my stay alone, and they've done Merrily, ITW, Sweeney, Assassins...yeah. My director loves him.

---

and RENT's Awakening... Are there any clips from any of these productions?

Into the Woods has been done a couple of times

We have a children theater doing Sunday. Auditions are in a couple of months.

Updated On: 1/31/09 at 10:59 AM

Sondheim is incredibly tough, as I'm sure you know. My HS has only done West Side Story in the last 15 years but I am directng Sweeney Todd next fall. (And I'm already getting complaints.)

Another factor besides the difficulty level is the cast size of many of his shows. I would be shot through the eyes if I ever tried to do a show with a cast as small as Company or Into the Woods, etc.

---

My director is afraid to do ITW because of the cast size. There's lots of leads, but besides that she doesn't think there's enough ensemble involvment to satisfy the 50+ kids our principal requires her to cast (we cast from two schools in our district). So any Sondheim besides West Side and Forum is basically out of the question.

I saw a teriffic production of Company done at a high school last November. They kept the pot smoking but they didn't have the scene between Bobby and Peter about being gay. What I liked about it was that all the actors really understood what the show was about, and their acting choices reflected that. They showed a sensitivity to the text that you don't see a lot in high school shows.

I didn't see this one, but a school in my area did Pacific Overtures a while back.

---

Updated On: 1/31/09 at 11:52 AM

We kept the pot scene and the scene with Peter. I don't think it's that big a deal...

I uploaded a few pictures from our production of Sunday to my Photobucket. I was Jules...the password is Bobby.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v335/Gimli92/Stuff/Sunday%20in%20the%20Park/

---

In case you didn't know: they now have available a "high school version" of ST. It simplifies and shortens the show just enough to maintain the integrity wholly while still keeping it challenging for a good HS program.

As far as the complaints: they are coming from a small group...it's too serious, too bloody...not appropriate for HS, etc. For most of them, they only know the movie version and are use to happyhappy, joyjoy type of musicals. They weren't thrilled when we did Urinetown a few years ago.

Complaints might be too strong -- being not pleased is probably better. My principal, god love her, is 100% behind it, as is my music department and 99% of the kids. Funny enough...the only two kids that I know are unhappy are the two girls that had the leads in this years musical of Thoroughly Modern Millie as juniors. And I was suprised...they are, for HS kids, pretty theatre savvy and sophisticated.

Personally, I cannot wait!

---

Updated On: 1/31/09 at 05:16 PM

The picture of the HS Sunday look good. But I cannot imagine HS students are able to justice to the score.


But I do think FOLLIES is the most absurd for a HS to do. It makes absolutely no sense. The show calls for 3 different generations of actors, and a HS cannot provide that. I do not care how talented the students are, it makes ZERO sense.