THE HIGH SCHOOLERS HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT- Page 3

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 9:40pm

Bwahahaha! That doesn't stop most people from posting here, don't let it stop you! It would be nice to have a youngun' that seems to understand the world around him!

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 10:48pm

This thread is ridiculous.

I'm sorry. You're in high school: Kids need to open their eyes, ears, and minds to stuff pre-1996. That's just my two cents.

My high school musicals went up every spring. I got back on the boards my junior year, however, I supported the group wholeheartedly amidst my tenure.

My freshman year: THE SECRET GARDEN
My sophomore year: ANYTHING GOES
My junior year: THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD
My sernior year: LES MISERABLES


I think those four shows covered A LOT of ground with A LOT of talent. Pop musicals are great and all, but you'd learn A LOT more from shows that pre-date your existence. Just sayin'.

- M

Updated On: 5/20/13 at 10:48 PM

[SweetLips]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:36pm

Gorlois I live on the other side of the world to Broadway but this wonderful BWW keeps me connected[and sane] to all things I love about theatre--and the contributions from[almost]everyone continue to amaze me with their theatrical knowledge.Read,learn and write whenever you feel the urge.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:44pm

We had a nice amount of diversity in Musicals at my high school.

Once on this Island
The Wiz
West Side Story
RENT

[Wynbish]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:48pm

I'm pretty sure I have not hated an OP's remarks more than this thread's.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:51pm

When I read the original post, I said "oh no" and thought "here we go...". I had to brace myself before scrolling, I knew this wouldn't be well received at all.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 11:53pm

The four years I was in High School, our shows were:
TOMMY
INTO THE WOODS
SMILE
FOOTLOOSE

The year before I came they did THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM. The year after I left, URINETOWN.

I loved that my HS did such varied and often eccentric works. We were all quite passionate about the shows, since they were ones we were eager to share. And only FOOTLOOSE was a "pop" musical (that our director blatantly admitted to us later we did almost solely to raise funds for the program.)

[emeraldmist]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 6:35pm

In my High school theater days in the mid 1990s we did:

Freshman: Oklahoma
Sophomore: Pajama Game
Junior: Bye Bye Birdie
Senior Li'l Abner

I went back to help direct the next few years and they did The Music Man and Grease.

Students who had been in Grease as well as some of the other shows all said that it was their least favorite production. It was also the most expensive, least well attended (therefor it did not bring in the money needed to pay for itself) and most problematic to revise to be acceptable to the school board.

It was thrilling for me to have been in these shows as a kid and then a few years later to see the fantastic revivals of them on Broadway (all but L'il Abner of course). I remember being 16 and wanting to preform Grease because it was so cool! However even at 20, I realized just what a train wreck it really is.

At 20 I thought Rent was the best musical ever and nothing would ever move me so much no matter how many times I saw it.

However a decade and change later, some of my fondest theater memories are dancing like a fool in L'il Abner, listening to my friend's remarkable voice singing Lonely Room in Oklahoma (he was 16 and incredible!) and running around like crazy trying to play 13 bit parts in Bye Bye Birdie (small high school!).

I am not a stellar singer, but those classic musicals taught me how to use my voice well, doing Rent in collage taught me how to induce vocal damage. Directing Music Man taught me how to deal with a large cast, organize systems and people and more than I can mention about the craft. Directing Grease taught me that by 20 I really disliked high school kids and their crazy antics.

OP, listen to your theater or choir director -- really they know what is best for the group.

[showchoirguy]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 6:44pm

For My High School years (2008-2011 at my first school and 2012 for my second), we did:

Freshmen: Annie Get Your Gun
Sophomore: Fiddler on the Roof
Junior: Seussical
Senior: The Pirates of Penzance

I was exposed to much more classical theatre than I was expecting and I wouldn't trade any of those experiences for the world. It's good to have a wide variety of experience! I found it a lot more fun that doing the same old thing.

[AKarp2013]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 7:33pm

I guess I had it pretty decent. I had fun all four years but it was really my junior and senior years where the shows got to be truly fantastic.

Freshman: Back to the 80's
Sophomore: Fame
Junior: Little Shop of Horrors
Senior: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

[trentsketch]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 8:18pm

I had a great crop of musicals when I was in high school: South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof, Bye Bye Birdie, and Brigadoon. Shoot, the director chose Brigadoon for me because I was a super high tenor who could act and dance. The director heard me in a concert my freshman year and knew what she wanted from me as a senior.

That was all matched off with a yearly Shakespeare festival, straight plays in the fall, in school short play performances as part of the theater classes, and a student-led showcase of scenes and songs as part of the International Thespian Society induction night. And then there was the community theater that did everything from premiere productions of new musicals to large ensemble family-friendly shows to small cast murder mysteries and screwball comedies.

Back then, I did want to do some of the newer shows, but I knew from being so heavily involved in the planning of the community theater performances by HS that they weren't practical. I went to outside community groups, colleges, and even NYC festival auditions to get my fix of modern work. If I was allowed to stage scenes or songs for a performance, I leaned toward flops, modern shows, and Modernism.

Shoot, I wound up using Waiting from Amour and/or Heaven from Carrie for my college auditions. They were great ice breakers at the programs I was really interested in. Wound up going to the program headed by the professor who turned my interview/audition into a 20 minute discussion about Amour and other Legrand scores. She just happened to have some transcriptions of Umbrellas of Cherbourg in her briefcase and we had some fun singing through while butchering the French.

But I digress. Young people obsess over shows if they're passionate about theater. It's what they do. I have students who can recite Funny Girl backwards if you ask them to and students who can recreate the original choreography from Rent thanks to the Broadway DVD from a few years back. You don't know what you'll fall for but you will fall for something.

[Emma White]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 11:15pm

I can say on behalf of everyone in my school musical that Anything Goes was the best and most fun production we have ever done, followed by Guys and Dolls. Chicago and Cabaret were fun too.

We have never done any musical from past the 70's and we love it. Nobody's complaining. If you're not going to do the musical because you don't like the one they chose, then musical theatre isn't the place for you.

[Movidude742]

Posted: 5/20/13 at 11:24pm

during my 4 years my HS did
1989 Pippin
1990 Oklahoma
1991 Little Shop
1992 Kiss Me Kate

I was hoping for Into the woods my Junior and Sr year and they did that show in 1993 and Sweeney Todd in 1994. My School's director did a good job of picking shows based on the talent pool that year and he was right, '93 was the best year to have done that show.

After I graduated College I went back to help build sets for the shows so they did
1997 How To succeed
1998 Kismet
1999 City of Angels (starring Marcus Stevens of Forbidden Broadway and Josh Young of JCS as Stone and Stine)
the next two shows were Of Thee I Sing and Damn Yankees, but I forget which came first.

There was backlash to City of Angels, but what he really wanted to do that year was Assassins and the school board chose CoA, probably based on the titles alone

[Marianne2]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 12:10am

I would have killed to be in any of the school musicals from my high school days. But, because I am not a strong singer and the same people always got chosen for shows, I never got to participate.

Generally, we did the classic shows. I think that changed when the original director of the musicals retired and someone else took over. The new person started to do a mix. Unfortunately, I went to see Thoroughly Modern Millie a few years ago and it was not good. I didn't even dare to see their production of Legally Blonde last year because I was afraid it would be bad based on what I know from the score. I could have been wrong, but it just reminded me of the MTV show casting Elle Woods and how the song So Much Better was difficult. I do wonder what would have been done today though with the old director. His shows were excellent.

[temms]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 7:51am

I am apparently the same age as Movidude742! Solidarity, my fellow forty-pusher (*shudder*).

We did a fall play and a spring musical. For comparison, my suburban Chicago slate of shows was:

'89 - Go Back For Murder/ Bye Bye Birdie
'90 - A Company of Wayward Saints/ Brigadoon
'91 - Stage Door/ 42nd St.
'92 - Blithe Spirit/ West Side Story

I feel like "Into the Woods" was the only new musical released for amateur production between the years 1985-1995, and so I saw at least a dozen productions of it in the early '90s. While I don't love the young'uns' focus on recent shows, at least today there are recent shows available to be done.

Because, of course, no High School will EVER be able to pull off "Les Miz" or "Phantom" or "Cats" or "Miss Saigon" or any of those shows, and besides, the authors will never let them be released for amateur production anyway (according to everybody "in the know" back then.)

[nyguy828]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 10:30am

My High School, back when I was there anyway, did a straight play in the fall and a musical in the spring. It was a nice mix of the old musicals/plays and the new. The only year I didn't perform in either the straight play or the musical was my freshman year, as I wasn't particularly interested in the straight play, and I was spread out a bit to thin to do the musical that year:

2000: Ten Little Indians/Brigadoon

2001: The Odd Couple (I performed in it)/Will Rogers Follies

2002: Biloxi Blues (I performed in it)/Anything Goes (I performed in it)

2003: Our Town/Oliver (I performed in it)

[CoreyRyan3]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 2:28pm

I'm graduation High School this year. I went to a small Private school and we only started performing musicals my Sophomore year. Be glad you are able to do musicals at all. It was a stretch (talent-wise) to try to do musicals for us my sophomore year, but we pulled it off.

Sophomore Year: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Junior Year: Little Shop of Horrors
Senior Year: How to Succeed in Business

I see where you're coming from in terms of types of shows we want and don't want to do, but I would love to perform in classics such as South Pacific. A magnificent score, and a beautiful show.

[broadway guy]

Posted: 5/21/13 at 2:32pm

I agree with the OP. At my HS we always did Old shows and it got really boring. I wanted to do something exciting and cool like Sweeney Todd or Hairspray. The last 10 shows my HS did was:

Oklahoma
King and I
Cinderella
Once Upon a Mattress
Music Man
Annie ( what highshcool does ANNIE? Jesus Freakin Christ)
Hello Dolly
Guys and Dolls
Your a good man charlie brown
Peter Pan


IT GOT REALLY OLD...REALLY QUICK. Our Director had some weird fetish for Roger and Hammerstein and we never did anything cool. Thats not to say the shows He picked are bad shows or anything but I would have LOVED it if we did URINETOWN or even LEGALLY BLONDE or something huge and epic like LES MIS. Something like that. At least every other year... BUT NO... we got to sing grand old songs like " WE HAVE AN OPENING FOR A PRINCESS!! " and dont get me started on the Spanish Panic. Gag me

[Movidude742]

Posted: 6/10/13 at 12:20am

oh we did fall plays as well. Freshman year was "The night of january 16th," Sophomore year was "Our Town." Junior year I was Bert Cates i "Inherit the Wind," and my Senior year we did "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" In that one I was stage crew, but ended up doubling the various murders as the Man in Black.