Musical

Theatre

Write this down – Yes, there will be a test….

So, let’s say that you want to produce a play. Hypothetically speaking.

So, what do you do first?Choose the play, right? So how can you get hold of plays and musicals to read?

Is there a place you can go to get synopses of plays,

so you don’t have to read the whole thing?

YES. Samuel French, Inc.

Dramatists’ Play Service are the two biggest.

AND The biggest publishing houses for musicals are:

Music Theatre International

You can Google them and getthe online versions of the catalogues,

but you can request the hard copy, too.

Once you choose several that you might want to produce—you want to read them to pick the right one, yes?

So, how do you get the publishers to send you scripts?

Let me back up for a minute:

The catalogs will give you synopses of scripts, numbers of characters, cost per performance, instrumentation, and

sometimes more info than that.

So how do authors get paid?

What are Royalties?--an amount of $$$$ paid to the publisher to get permission to produce a play or

musical. So you pay the publisher and the publisher takes his cutand then pays the authors.

That’s how an author makes a living.

What is a play without music called?Straight play

They get royalties.So what are they, the King?

Nope.

Scripts for a straight play cost around $8.00 apiece

Shakespeare and old plays like that--free (no royalty)

Neil Simon--royalty of $50-$75 first performances $25-$50 subsequent performances

Where does one go to purchase scripts?Oh, yeah--Samuel French

Dramatists’ Play Service So, one could do 3 performances of a straight play for $175.00 plus scripts.

If you paid for 10 scripts it would total $80.00. So, you could get the rights to produce the play for around $250.00.

Scripts for musicals are more, though…

So, if you are reading straight plays,

Musicals cost more—but they make more money, too.

There are more costs involved…what do you think they might be?

Librettos

RoyaltiesMusic

Vocal Instrumental

Musical royalties, including scripts and music run about $1800 to $3000. Depending on whether the show has been on Broadway or not and how recently.

So Cabaret cost less than $2000 for royalties and rental.

Guys and Dolls cost $3000 even though it was an old showbecause it had just had a revival.

Just an aside, they charge $50 per book for unerased music.

Equity-

AFTRA-

SAG-

IATSE-

ASCAP-

OSHA-

Royalty-

Actor’s Equity Association (the stage actor’s union)

Allied Federation of Television and Radio Artists

Screen Actors’ Guild

American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees

Occupational Health and Safety Administration

An amount of money paid to the publisher to get permission to produce a play or musical.

OperaIn opera,

even conversations are sung“Hello.”“How are you?”“I am well, but how are you?”“My sciatica is giving me fits.”

-Generally serious “heavy” musicon serious or tragic themes

Tosca, Susannah, Amal and the Night Visitors, La Boheme (became Rent)

OperettaOperetta has

lighter music, flimsy plots, less serious subjects, there is spoken dialogue,but the music is still in a classical style

-Songs happen around the plot, they don’t develop it

The Merry Widow, Babes in Toyland, The Student Prince, Little Mary Sunshine

Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy?

Comic OperaComic Opera may have some spoken dialogue

but is mostly distinguished by its humorous and/or satirical nature

Gilbert and Sullivan

What is satire?

-HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance

sat·ire Noun/ˈsaˌtī(ə)r/ 1. The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Musical Review

A Musical Review is songs strung together with a theme

rather than a plot

Ain’t Misbehavin’ , Zeigfeld Follies, Jersey Boys?

Musical Comedyplot is weak but there is one,characters are more believable,dialogue is clever, songs are stuck in--they may reiterate the plot, but they don’t develop it.

-Anything Goes, Guys and Dolls, Annie Get Your Gun

-Showboat-bridged gap between operetta , musical comedy, and today’s musical play (Kern /Hammerstein)

Musical comedies and musical plays are, like jazz, an American art form.

Musical Play-real people in real situations -acting and choreography are important-good story, clever dialogue-interesting characters-well-designed choreography-catchy music-meaningful balladsall woven together.

Les Miserables?Big River?

SONGS CONTINUE THE PLOT OR DEVELOP IT

Sweeney Todd?

book

entr’act -

choreography -

choreographer -

chorus -

blocking -

composer -

conductor -

Musical Theatre Vocabulary

- the dialogue

- the dance

- the person who plans the dances

- The singers --they support the leads

- movement that goes with the words

- writes the music

- leads the orchestra or band

- music before Act II begins (like overture only between the acts)

libretto -

librettist -

lyrics -

lyricist -

musical -

overture -

dialogue -

- the spoken words

- script with dialogue and written lyrics

- person who writes the libretto

- words to the songs

- writer of the song lyrics

- a play with music, songs and often dance

Musicals are not meant to be realistic. They are an ALTERNATE way of expressing an emotional message. My friend Timm says that characters sing in a musical when their emotion is too great to be expressed in words.

-pieces of all the songs in the show, played before the show begins to give the audience a taste of what the music is like it sets the mood

production number -

recitative -

score -

segue -

sides/asides -

ingenue -

soubrette -

principals - - leading roles

- singing and dancing by the whole cast

- song performed by talking –sort of like rap (ex. Trouble)

- the musical notes

- a transition

- pieces of the script containing only one person’s lines

- first lead female (usually young and innocent) ex. Laurie OKLAHOMA

- Second lead female (usually comic role) ex. Ado Annie OKLAHOMA

vamp -

straight play -

royalty -

crossover -

concept musical -

underscore -- music under dialogue

- to repeat measures of music (for as long as necessary)

- not a musical

- fee paid to composer, lyricist, librettist, publisher, etc. for legal rights to produce their work

- short scene designed and written to cover a scene change

- a play built around a theme (ex. Cats, Chorus Line)

About West Side Story and Li’l Abner

Plot: from Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare swiped it from a Greek myth Myth: Pyramus and Thisbe

WSS: Dance: Choreography by Jerome Robbins Dance as expression of emotion Dance as athleticismBecause it is filmed, the choreography can be done nearly perfectly (and is). (This explains why we have not produced WSS. We don’t have enough men with dance training.)

10 Academy Awards: Best Picture 1961 Best supporting actress: Rita Moreno (Anita) Best Supporting Actor: George Chakiris (Bernardo)

John Astin’s cameo as Glennon Watch for John Astin’s cameo; he creates a whole character in less than ten lines.

Symbolism: Colors of Maria’s dresses… scene in the dress shop

NOTEs: When the Sharks catch up with Baby John, they pierce his ear. Natalie Wood (Maria) didn’t sing her own songs. Marney Nixon (who did the voice over for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady) sang Maria’s songs.

Notice the 1950s slang : “Buddy-boy” “Daddy-o” “You won’t dig it”

Jets character names: Riff, Ice, A-rab, Baby John, Action, Anybody’s

How are the adults, especially the cops, depicted?

Deliberately making fun of somethingin order to reveal a weakness or flaw.

In Li’l Abner, politics and politicians are made fun of all over the place. You need to have some idea about the cold war to understand

the nuclear fallout jokes.See what else you can spot that is satirized.

Satire: