Musical Idea?

Hi, all!

I've seen people share their ideas for musicals, so I thought I would.

I'm currently in the midst of writing a musical about Santa's 8 original reindeer (Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, etc. ... just no Rudolph!) It's such an untold story (although we are told that "We know" them in the Rudolph song, but do we really?), that I wanted to see if I could tell it. (:

Let me know what you think! Open to comments, ideas, anything. I love critique!

Write a musical and get Meaghan Trainor to write the music. NORTHERN EXPOSURE the musical. The Joshua Brand TV SHOW

Since I don't like puppets or people in animal costumes(if you do have people in animal costumes do the lion king way) make sure the reindeer are only mentioned and never shown.

@FindingNamo Thank you!!

@KCW: I will be sure to keep that in mind, thanks! I definitely don't want to make all of the songs overly-Christmasty.

@Call_me_jorge: I haven't really thought about that yet, but if I do decide to go the more animal-like route I don't think it'd be anything too crazy. (: All I know is there'll be antlers!

@haterobics: That's very true, thank you for mentioning that!

GavestonPS said: "If you keep it simple enough that churches, schools, community theaters and choral groups can perform it, you could make a fortune on it. All those groups perform at Christmas time and love to find new material. You won't make a lot from any one performance, but there are thousands of such groups!

Although haterobics is right that if the execution is sufficiently creative and accomplished, even reindeer may make for a big Broadway musical, first-class Christmas musicals have the problem of making money in the short window when customers are interested in their subjects.

But lower your sights a peg or two and you'll find the non-profit market is hungry for holiday material. A single Christmas song of mine that was finished last year is having its third performance by a third different group next week. And I don't live in a large city, nor has the piece been advertised outside the immediate area where the composer and I live.

"

That's a very good point. Thank you!!

The whole concept of only seeming interesting around Christmas due to being a Christmas-themed show was one of my worries at the start. The idea had stuck in my head for a few years to where I couldn't shake it so I decided to start on it anyway. I really like the idea of making it simple for that reason, but at the moment there's a lot of characters (from reindeer, to Santa, to elves, to even dogs) that I feel as if it'd be too complex. Another worry of mine is that it isn't completely child-friendly, I know that seems odd for a Christmas-oriented musical but the entirety of movies centered around reindeer have been just for children and I wanted to stray away from that. It's nothing too crazy, just some language and characters (for example, Blitzen starts out as a drunk, haha). I mean, I'm sure it'd be okay for some schools and community theaters of course but I'm not sure about churches.

I'm always open to making changes, though, and it's very far from being finished so I'm not scared to tweak it! The idea originally started as a sort of movie concept (art is my other passion next to broadway) so I always have a back-up. Thank you for the pointers (:

Updated On: 11/29/15 at 10:50 AM

The song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer portrays "all of the other reindeer" as quite mean-spirited, so if you portray one of them as a recovering alcoholic, it doesn't seem to me that it would be anything that radically non-child-friendly to me (but i'm not a parent, so my standards might be lighter). Plus no doubt some kids have one or more alcoholic parents, and some kind of redemption story about that might resonate with them. And schools/community groups generally favour shows with many characters, since they don't want to turn anyone away who auditions. All of this to say don't worry - just keep developing your idea!

Consider including a pantheon of the other, less commercial, Christmas Icons. Santa is the hero, but what about Krampus, Knecht Ruprecht, Swartpiet, the Yule Lads and the Goat of Yule?

Haterobics is right that one can't do one's best work while worrying about the end, commercial result. But there's a difference between writing a show for the broad non-profit market vs. the relatively narrow, big budget Broadway/national tour market.

That being said, I wouldn't worry about sanitizing your show for some imagined evangelical congregation. Write the show YOU want to see. No show appeals to every group, but there are many kinds of churches; some have very strict requirements re content, others are much more liberal. And the non-profit market is quite wide, even if your show doesn't appeal to religious groups. (Schools, including colleges, like "secular" holiday pieces because their groups are composed of people from many different faiths.)

Bottom line: if you write a score that can only be sung by Kristin Chenoweth and Jason Danieley, one that requires a $14 million budget for sets and costumes, you may limit your options.