Songs/Scenes Cut for Amateur Productions

After years of watching, performing, and directing amateur musical productions I have noticed that in a lot of cases songs or scenes which should be in the show have been dropped for whatever reason. A couple of examples:

1) Both times I have done The Pajama Game the "Jealousy Ballet" has been cut. Obviously this is not unheard of since this sequence was permanently cut in this past year's revival.

2) I have never seen an amateur production of Little Shop of Horrors that has included "Call Back in the Morning".

3) In several amateur productions of Oklahoma! I have seen "It's a Scandal, It's an Outrage" cut.

4) Many productions of The Sound of Music have replaced "An Ordinary Couple" with "Something Good". I think in this case it is legal and is an option.

5) In several productions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood there are numerous song cuts (and I am referring to all of the songs BEFORE the audience votes. Look at all the songs missing from this production done at East Carolina University:
http://www.theatre-dance.ecu.edu/Productions/Mystery_of_Edwin_Drood/program.html
They have dropped "A Man Could Go Quite Mad" and "Never the Luck" which are both pretty familiar numbers from the show. I went to Tams-Whitmark who licenses the show and they do list "A Man Could Go Quite Mad" as an optional number -- but "Never the Luck" is not.

Anyway...have any of you been in productions that have dropped songs or cut scenes that are supposed to be included in the show? If so what were they and how did it affect the overall show?

---

What? How is cutting HYMN FOR A SUNDAY MORNING even allowed? That is not just a little/unimportant scene/song to cut.

And sadly TICK TOCK is not avaiable for amateur productions of Company..

A few productions (And both movies...Boo! ) have cut The Herbert Hoover song from Annie. I think it's one of the show's better songs but...

Usually when a school does cabaret I believe that Two Ladies is cut, I have also seen Meeskite (sp?) added. I have also seen High School Production's were the whole thing about Cliff being gay is cut.

From Oliver!, That's Your Funeral and I Shall Scream.

Also I think More I Cannot Wish you is almoust always cut from Guys and Dolls and My Time of Day because that is three Sarah and Sky songs in a row and doesn't add much to the plot.

Updated On: 6/9/06 at 10:37 PM

I actually recently saw a professional production of Seussical that cut everything about the military, completely eliminating the character of the general, and in turn, necessitated the removal of the Who's christmas party scene and Havin' a Hunch (which is one of my favorite parts, I was pissseeeeddddd).

I don't know why "A Man Could Go Quite Mad" has been offically cut. It's a good song. But then again, these people changed the name of their show in the middle of the original Broadway run, so who knows how their minds work. However, the one time I saw it (in a summer stock production), they did do the song, and produced the show under the original title, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, rather than just "DROOD."

Also, Neddyfrank: Most likely, the whole Cliff being gay thing was NOT cut, because (I believe) the only version of CABARET that is being licensed is the original version, rather than the "revisal." However, I do wish they would license the new version, as it is so much better.

Oh, and let me add that changing ANYTHING in the script, whether it's a professional or amateur production, is ILLEGAL and MORALLY WRONG unless you get permission from the licensing company or the authors themselves (if they're still alive). What an insult to a writer to just cut something because you don't like it!

I just had to make sure that point was included in this discussion somewhere

Baritone, I believe that the '87 revival of Cabaret is also licensed, which includes the songs "I Don't Care Much," "The Money Song," and "Don't Go," deleting "Meeskite" and "Why Should I Wake Up". Cliff in this version is "sort of bisexual," as Joe Masteroff put it. I wish the '98 script were licensed, though. I think it's the best version of the show. Ah well...

~Steven

As far as the Seussical cuts someone mentioned, MTI recently starting licensing a shorter version for schools and/or children's theaters that eliminates Genral Ghengis Kahn Schmitz and the whole army thing. So it's likely those cuts were legal.

O, my college's production of Hair cut "Hippie Life." It's supposed to be an encore for "The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)." I think that's one cut that's completely beneficial to the show. It wasn't even in the original show.

~Steven

Admittedly I'm in the UK, so things maybe different here with regards to licensing.

When we did Cabaret at my high school (about 10 years ago), Cliff being gay was cut (as our Max was played by a woman) and it retained more than a hint of the movie. We had Two Ladies, but were missing a couple of others such as Maybe this time.

I've never seen Cabaret on stage, just the film and I know that there are a lot of differences between the two, so forgive me for any mistakes in the above - it doesn't help that I was in the band and so didn't see the cast rehursing the show until we got to dress rehursal stage!

Baritone:

The official title is back to being "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." The song was cut because Rupert Holmes didn't want to give too much away in that first scene. Jasper's menacing, Jekyl/Hyde side should come out gradually, not be obvious from the beginning. He felt the song spelled it out a bit too obviously.

It still exists in part at the end, though, during his last song).

Sorry for the hijack. Back to the previous discussion...

Yeah, I heard about a similar situation at a high school in New York that changed/cut all of the "dirty" parts of A CHORUS LINE. However, when Marvin Hamlisch attended the show (unannounced, I'm assuming), he wasn't too happy. The school ended up getting fined thousands of dollars. Oops.

P.S. I'm glad they changed they officially changed the title of DROOD back to its original form.