Voting on our show for next year!

[LeadingMan051990]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 10:30pm

This should probably be posted in the Student board, but it doesnt get very much traffic these days.

Anyway, the director at my high school is letting the students vote this year for the musical we will produce next year. 7 musicals were pitched to her and the voting is on friday. PLEASE help me pick the best one because some are really good but i've never heard of others so heres the list:

les miz
into the woods
south pacific
urinetown
thoroughly modern millie
titanic
scarlet pimpernel

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 10:33pm

Urinetown
Into the Woods

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 10:59pm

Thoroughly Modern Millie <-- That one is very fun for a High School to do.

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 5/24/06 at 11:01pm

Urinetown
Titanic would be interesting but VERY hard to do...
Only do Thoroughly Modern Millie if you have a cast that can pull it off

You know what's a good high school musical? Amour. But no one's ever done it I don't think.

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 12:24am

Millie
Into The Woods
Titanic

[peggyandvelma]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 12:30am

I second (or third) Millie and Into The Woods

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 12:48am

Into the Woods!

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 12:54am

I'd be interested in which on your list you've never heard of.....


and I saw bring back classic Broadway...SOUTH PACIFIC!

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 1:38am

In order of "goodness", in my opinion:

INTO THE WOODS
SOUTH PACIFIC
URINETOWN
LES MISERABLES
TITANIC
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE

But...it's a high school.

INTO THE WOODS is difficult to pull of with trained professionals, let alone students.
SOUTH PACIFIC is glorious, but you need some real singers and a good director.
URINETOWN is wonderful - and very do-able - I just hope the director "gets" it.
LES MISERABLES is good - but very tedious in a school setting.
TITANIC is also good, but without some really convincing sets or brilliant direction, this show could fall pretty flat and just end up looking absurd.
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL is okay, but you need a real brilliant leading actor.
MILLIE sucks, but it's got everything a high school could want, and it's fun.

INTO THE WOODS, PACIFIC, LES MIS, and TITANIC have extreme potential for disaster.

MILLIE or URINETOWN are probably the safest choices.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 2:00am

I don't see how Titanic could be done with a high-school budget. It also has some pretty legit singing in it. I think it would be tough for a high school to pull off because of the size of the cast and the varying ages of the characters.

I'd stick with Urinetown. As long as your Bobby has a good voice, I think the show can be done. It has a few belty type songs, but they're pretty easy to handle and the setting is minimal.

I saw a horrible production of Into The Woods in high school. It's just a hard show to do because of the music. It's a tough show to sing. But, there isn't a lot of questionable singing. As in, I don't think there are any really high/low notes in the score. But it does require smart singers that know their voices.

[Enjolras77]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 9:56am

Urinetown would be great as long as the school's administration and parents will support it. There have been several instances posted on the boards here of principals, crazed parents, or school board members who have vocally opposed the show (had the even seen it?) and a few even succeeded in getting the school to cancel or change their show --didn't one drama teacher even resign over it? Ugh.

Pimpernel would be a lot of fun -- I almost directed it when I taught drama -- but as Munk said you have to have several strong male singers with big ranges. There are also vert few female roles in the show, so you need to have a LARGE group of males. These are two reasons why I decided against it!

Millie may end up being the show most suited for high school performers. For one, there are a lot of female roles, only 2 male roles who do any real singing, the ranges are not that extreme for any of the characters, and the story is fun and easy to follow for an audience.

I have seen great high school productions of both Les Mis and Titanic -- but I have also seen some awful ones. Both of these shows require large casts of talented singers. Titanic has some tough choral numbers and some songs that have big ranges ("Barret's Song" for instance). If your school has a large budget, a huge talent pool to pull from, and a talented director and music director -- then these could work. However, I wouldn't try them unless you have those assets because a half-assed production of either of those would be awful.

Into the Woods has some very difficult music and difficult rhythms to follow so you will need singers who at least are technically sound. They don't all have to be great singers (although you do need a few for some of the major roles) but they have to be able to keep up with the rhythms and intricacies of a Sondheim work. Since this is through-sung (as is Les Mis) you will need to have a strong musical director to help everyone through an enormous amount of music. The story line is appealing to audiences and could be a success if you think you have singers (and a musical director) talened enough to pull off Sondheim.

South Pacific is a classic that many of the audience would be familair with. There are A LOT of roles, so once again you will need to have a large number of people to pull from -- as well as some people to play the "ethnic" roles. The good thing is that the choral numbers aren't quite as difficult or rangy as say Titanic, so even if many of your chorus members aren't great singers you could still pull them off. You will still need a couple of good male singers to play Emile and Lt. Cable and a strong female singer for Nellie and a good character actress for Bloody Mary. The only drawback for high school groups would be the dramatic nature of several scenes. Although this is not true of all high schoolers, most young performers are much more at ease playing comedy than drama. So as long as you have some performers who can play the "heavier" scenes effectively, the show could be a winner.