What would be a good high school musical?

Question

We are limited on props and backgrounds and have about an even amount of boys and girls. thank you!

It has to be PG. And no Greese because of the song Greese Lightening

Answer 1

I can see where you're coming from re Grease--you don't want there to be any profanity in the script or the song lyrics. But you could still do the show, albeit a modified form of it. What you could do is assign the script to one or more students to have them *rewrite* the dialogue and song lyrics as necessary, and then have an "adapted by" credit in your program booklets.

This sort of thing does happen from time to time. I was once involved in a production of a David Warrack musical called "Piper", which is about what happens to the children after the Pied Piper has led them to the magic mountain. We were doing a run of the show and we needed to shorten it to accommodate a few bus tours that we knew wouldn't be able to stay for the show in its full length. Since David was also directing the show, he, as the writer, should naturally have had the first say-so as to what to cut, but he was out of town and we couldn't reach him. So we assigned the rewrite to someone else--a rewrite that was additionally difficult because it had to accommodate the back-and-forth costume changes for one actor who was playing two roles. David saw the shortened version later and remarked that although he would have done the cuts differently, the guy had done a pretty good job considering the circumstances.

If you don't want to do Grease, but instead decide to do some other show, bear in mind that each show has different production demands. Here are a few examples. The music for "Guys and Dolls" is very tough to play. "Little Shop of Horrors" involves almost full-body puppetry for most scenes involving Audrey II, and assigns a lot of dialogue to the main character, Seymour. For "Fiddler on the Roof", you'll find Tevye is not an easy character to cast. For "The Music Man", you'll need to borrow some band instruments for one scene, and may need to borrow lots of books to use as props for another. And in general, scores for musicals will include one or two vocal tunes that are not included on the show's soundtrack.

One show you might want to do that is very simple in terms of orchestration and set design is "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". I've seen photos of the original Broadway production starring Gary Burghoff and their sets were very simple--a tall wooden box, for example, served as Snoopy's doghouse. And of course, since there's no profanity in the comic strip, and the script of the show was based on the strip, you won't find any profanity in the show either.

Answer 2

If the school doesn't have enough props, ask the students to bring some in.

You can order scripts/songbooks for the high school versions. That's what we did when we put on Grease. It replaces the bad lyrics with really dorky ones, but it's clean. This year we're doing High School Musical. YAY!

other productions: West Side Story, Annie Get Your Gun, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat, and Calamity Jane may bee a good one. I saw that put on at a local theatre and it was very good. You may have to look at it though.

also try stageagent.com

Answer 3

Yep, PG is the key.

If I were a teacher I'd try and make it educational -- perhaps in a historical setting or political commentary.

Candide
Three Penny Opera
Pippin
The Fantasticks
or even Godspell
-- all these are minimal sets and backgrounds.

Pippin is the best bet, I think. Like the Fantasticks it deals with the concept of "everyman" which I think would be perfect for a high schooler.

Break a leg!

Answer 4

Do something a little more original that not every high school and their dog has done (like Grease). Try A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, or Into the Woods. The Sondheim stuff will be difficult, but not impossible and they're both fabulous shows that aren't done very often.

Answer 5

Grease, High School Musical, West Side Story, The Music Man.

Answer 6

Ther are several great show to do in high school. When i was in theatre then, i graduated in 2004, i had done The Pajama Game, Lil' Abner, and Once on This Island, which was my all time fav for high school. The during HS i was also in some community shows put on by my church, we did Godspell, Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and West Side Story. I would recommend either Once on this Island, since you hardly need any props to work with, or Lil' Abner too as well as West Side too. Good luck though and have fun with it.

Answer 7

I recently was in a production called Time and Time Again. it's a very clean musicale and the sets are very simple, but you could easily make them very elaborate. There are plenty of roles and a few of the characters can be either male or female. it's basically a smaller version of Back to the Future. Vic Ames is an aspiring musician but he's failing science, and can't sign a recording contract unless he can pass science and graduate. the only way he can do this is by creating a science project for the science fair. when examining other students projects for ideas he is suddenly sent back in time to when his parents were in high school. just a word of advice. if you plan to set the beginning and end in present day you will need to change a date in the song "Yesterday Used to be Tomorrow" it's very cute and fun, i loved it!! The only word that may need to be changed is screwy, it only appears once and can easily be changed to silly. Also this year, like Jamie B my school is dooing High School Musical. Another good one is You're a good Man Charlie Brown, my school did it a few years back and it was awesome. Good Luck and God Bless!!

Answer 8

Grease,footloose,Little Shop Of Horros

Answer 9

Sound of Music. I think I did that one like 3 times. Or Little Women, they have a musical version of that. Same with Oliver Twist... or do Grease, just leave out the "inappropriate" parts. (if there is any... I don't see anything wrong with Grease)

Answer 10

Grease