Rights to a Musical

[Forester]

Posted: 6/28/05 at 3:09am

Who actually hold the right to a musical? The composer, lyricists/bookwriter, producers, etc?

[Jon]

Posted: 6/28/05 at 6:47am

Ultimately, the composer, lyricist and playwright hold the rights. The original producers get a small share of the royalties forever, but once the original production and touring companies close, they no longer can control who does the show.

The authors and producers decide which company (Samuel French, Tams Witmark, MTI, etc.)will get the rights to license the show for regional, community, and school productions. Typical royalties amount to around 8% of the box office gross. The standard Writer's Guild arrangement says a playwright gets 6% of the gross. In the case of a musical, that's split three ways between the composer, lyricist and book writer. The producer then gets around 1%, and the licencing agency keeps the rest.

[Forester]

Posted: 6/28/05 at 7:57am

If the team consist of composer and lyrcist/book writer, will their share be divided into two? What if they have they produced their own plays?