Posted: 7/31/15 at 3:23pm
This comes courtesy of NPR. Lots of fascinating stuff here...
The most frequently produced plays and musicals by high schools organized by decade
Updated On: 7/31/15 at 03:23 PM
Posted: 7/31/15 at 3:41pm
Posted: 7/31/15 at 3:57pm
Where is the list that takes account of all the illegal productions of Wicked and Frozen?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 4:01pm
Lion King Jr. is coming for their weaves
Posted: 7/31/15 at 4:05pm
Anyone know why "A Midsummer Night's Dream" became so popular all of a sudden? It didn't even rank in the forties or fifties, but begins to climb the charts until it tops the list in the 2000s. It has a big cast, and a lot of the male roles could probably be performed by females, but it's so much older than any of the other titles ranked. I think it's a good thing to expose high schoolers to the Bard, and this title's a good choice, but it seems to pop on the list out of nowhere.
Posted: 7/31/15 at 4:17pm
No wonder my college students always groaned aloud when they saw ON THE TOWN on my syllabus. I promise they didn't end up with that attitude. There's a lot going on in Grover's Corners that most high school productions ignore.
Posted: 7/31/15 at 4:44pm
I'm kind of shocked West Side Story isn't on this list under the 2000's-2010's. In my area, at least one school decides to do it. It's so overdone this year, in fact, that there was a separate group for all the award winning Tonys and Marias at our local theatrical award ceremony. It's getting just a tad bit ridiculous, but some people just never get bored with it.
Chicago is starting to go the same way. There have been four schools do Chicago in the last 2 years.
Posted: 7/31/15 at 5:35pm
I played Lou Martin in our high school production of Up The Down Staircase and was also in Fiddler.
Posted: 7/31/15 at 5:42pm
Illegal productions of Wicked and Frozen? How awful. Really, there are other teen-friendly shows out there...both better ones AND ones that won't get your school sued.
Posted: 7/31/15 at 5:44pm
I too was surprised not to see west side story. I thought everybody did that in high school!
Posted: 7/31/15 at 6:19pm
Ah, THE CURIOUS SAVAGE. We've come a long way, baby.
Posted: 7/31/15 at 8:19pm
I laughed when I saw that Bye Bye Birdie was the number one musical for two decades. I think it was the only musical my high school did when I was there.
Posted: 8/1/15 at 3:07am
This is pretty interesting... I find it funny that my old high school and the school district(just graduated!) have done so many shows that are on this list
Posted: 8/1/15 at 5:50am
i am surprised no anything goes
Posted: 8/1/15 at 6:12am
I know that West Side Story is generally understood to be a staple of high school drama programs, but I have never actually known anyone whose high school did the show. It requires a lot of men with dance ability, and so few high schools have that.
It's nice to see lots of very strong shows that can really inspire a love of theatre on this list. However, seeing favorites of mine produced so commonly also makes me very nervous--as Gaveston said, there's nothing like a weak high school production to turn you off from a really great play.
