Revue

[BeingAlive]

Posted: 8/18/05 at 6:37pm

Okay, well, I'm coordinating a revue for my high school that chronicles the last five years of musicals. I'm having a problem of how to tie them together. Do I have a narrorator introduce each number, each show? I don't know--I just need help. Please bestow any revue wisdom!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/18/05 at 6:42pm

1. do a credited revue like Putting it Together....u never know what copywrite issues u can get into putting Wicked and Avenue Q together with The Producers.

2. do it year by year, with the shows in chronological order. have a narrator give some historical info about the year.

[BeingAlive]

Posted: 8/18/05 at 6:46pm

I was definitley planning number 2.
See, our history is
2000- Children of Eden
2001-Kiss Me, Kate
2002-Fiddler on the Roof
2003-A Chorus Line
2004-Guys and Dolls
2005-Jesus Christ Superstar
2005/2006-South Pacific/Little Shop of Horrors
and in the studio theatre
Cabaret and A Little Night Music

I've included about three songs from each show in my working list. Opening with "Another Openin' Another Show" and closing with "What I Did for Love".

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/18/05 at 6:49pm

ah, i read your message wrong....

starting with another openin and closing with what i did are great choices. perhaps, have a sparate section for comedy numbers...brush up your shakespeare/if i were a rich man, love songs...i dunno how to love him, suddenly seymour, production numbers....to life, i hope i get it, sit down your rockin the boat

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 8/18/05 at 6:57pm

Revues are challenging. They are great opportunities for students to do varied material but you often end up narrating the thing to death, or making it so historically based that it stops feeling like much of a show.

I recently wrote a similar revue for a local high school. I did it in segments, usually selecting a song or two (or sometimes parts of 3 or 4) and tied them together with dialogue that was in character but not necessarily from the show. In short, I made 8 minute partial versions of the shows included. I shyed away from using narrators, because that is irritating as all hell for the audience to watch, except for an introduction and a closing part which introduced the final number.

Some scenes were easier than others. In Wicked, for example, I just have two girls doing Popular, with basically the same amount of dialogue as what you hear on the CD. The Full Monty was more difficult, as I had to VERY briefly explain why in the world Jerry and Dave were talking Malcolm out of killing himself in Big Ass Rock. Worse, I had to find a way to present ANYthing else from that show without being able to end with Let It Go. Board members were very helpful, at least the ones who didn't use the whole thread to become copyright lawyers.
Updated On: 8/18/05 at 06:57 PM

[BeingAlive]

Posted: 8/18/05 at 7:01pm

Here's the master (working) list-No Fiddler, because no cd, and also no order for Cabaret and Night Music because the only way I can find out what year they were is from yearbooks at school.
1. Another Openin' Another Show
2. The Spark of Creation
3. In Pursuit of Excellence
4. Lost in the Wilderness
5. Always True to You (In My Fashion)
6. Brush Up Your Shakespeare
7. Cabaret
8. You Must Meet My Wife
9. Send in the Clowns
10. At the Ballet
11. Montage Pt. 1 Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love (I threw that in...better idea?)
12. Guys and Dolls
13. Adelaide's Lament
14. Sit Down You're Rockin the Boat
-intermission-
15. Could We Start Again, Please
16. Gethsemane
17. I Don't Know How to Love Him
18. Nothin' Like a Dame
19. Some Enchanted Evening
20. A Wonderful Guy
21. Skid Row (a friend really wanted this..It seems kinda out of place)
22. Somewhere That's Green
23. Suddenly Seymour
24. What I Did for Love

additions? subtractions? ideas for Fiddler? I was thinking Matchmaker..

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 8/18/05 at 7:07pm

Ok, I am just now understanding that you are doing material from the last five years of your SCHOOL's musicals. Makes much more sense now.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 8/18/05 at 7:12pm

As stated above, you might organize material thematically rather than by show, especially since the material will be mostly familiar to your audience.

For example, you could have a real whopper of a section on the different kinds of love: Unrequited (Adelaide's lament), Confused (I Don't Know How to Love Him), paternal (The Hardest Part of Love), Infatuated (A Wonderful Guy), and even for your dreams (What I Did For Love).