What musical should I teach?- Page 2

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 7/24/06 at 7:31pm

"Kiss Me, Kate" (stage PBS version) would be my first choice. My second choice would be Piazza. I fell in love with it as a high school junior.

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/24/06 at 7:37pm

Plain and simple - as Margo said - non-theater fans in middle/high school will NOT appreciate Piazza. There is NO chance that you will get anywhere with it. It's hard enough for many of them to accept the singing and/or dancing in the play - but music that they will not at all be able to relate to - let alone likely understand - is not going to win you any converts - or indeed help the kids appreciate what you're trying to teach. Depending on what specifically your aim is, the best bet IS Into the Woods.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/24/06 at 7:52pm

Nor will they appreciate ITW which is hardly a classic worth study but will have the kids sleeping at their desks, given the show's thorny, astringent score, dense philosophising and convoluted plotting. Best play to the students' interest like the accessible romance of WEST SIDE STORY and its contemporary problem with which they can identify or a satire like CHICAGO which no doubt will appeal to their typically teenage skepticism.



Winthrop Paroo
River City, Iowa

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/24/06 at 9:58pm

Both of which are movies, stage productions of which are not available commercially.

Besides, you couldn't be more wrong about ITW -- I show it to my students every other year (I'm on a rotating schedule) and every year my kids LOVE it and ask to watch it again on the off year.

Try speaking from experience next time, enchanted hunter.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 7/24/06 at 10:52pm

"Try speaking from experience next time, enchanted hunter."

If only you knew how ridiculously uninformed your post is, jasonf. It figures. 'Nuff said.


Winthrop Paroo
River City, Iowa

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/24/06 at 11:49pm

Uninformed???

Am I wrong about there not being commercially available productions of the shows you mentioned?

Am I NOT talking from experience in my own classroom?

How am I in any way uninformed?

You would probably keel over and have a devil pour out of your mouth, recoiling in horror, if you were to ever post something, I don't know, POSITIVE on a thread somewhere on here.

[I<3bway]

Posted: 7/25/06 at 12:07am

Do you even like musical theatre EnchantedHunter? Because from all the posts that you have been putting up, it doesn't seem like it. If you don't like musicals, then why did you join bww.com in the first place? Why am I even asking, it's not like you're going to respond anyways.

[I<3bway]

Posted: 7/25/06 at 12:11am

I think the PBS special The American Musical would be a great DVD to show them. Also think FOSSE the DVD and Hair would be great to show to your class too.

[PaintWordPictures]

Posted: 7/25/06 at 12:22am

If you could find an "acceptable" clip from the new movie of The Producers, it could definitely show kids that Broadway shows aren't all serious and cheesey like they probably think. You could catch a few of the outskirts that way.

Maybe show one full musical of your choice, but show several different numbers to let them really see the wide range of things that can be accomplished in musical theatre. Its not all just one thing and you can like one genre of musical and not care much for another.

They might all be able to find something they enjoy a little better. Maybe even preview the selection and then assign them to research one musical on their own that would interest them. I know it sounds totally English teacher of me, but they could share their opinions with the class and then the students would hear a bout a LOT more musicals. Best way to introduce them to a lot of material in a short amount of time I would say.

(Of course you can spend more time teaching a certain musical in depth as well, maybe after they've piqued their own interest in what musical theatre could possibly hold for them.)

I think anything a teacher can do to break the typical stereotypes most kids have about theatre and Broadway is a good thing.