Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, or Pirates of Penzance?

Question

We are currently picking our high school musical and are down to these three. We will not pick something from outside these three.

Our best performer is a baritone. We also have a very good tenor, a comedic actor without much singing range, and another bass but very few other men. We could hopefully get another baritone, but he chose to do a production at a local playhouse instead last year

Our girls are very good at singing, musically we have no problem, but not as strong at acting.

As we rent our costumes, this should not be a concern.

Plz tell me the pros and cons of these productions with ides of how a high school could pull them off.

Answer 1

Pirates, at least the only stereotypes in this one are Brits.

Answer 2

Out of the 3, your best bet is King & I. You only need 2 men with any talent and it sounds like that's what you have for sure, The King & LunTha. The other male can play the Kralahome. It's the women that really need to come through vocally plus LunTha in We Kiss in the Shadow. BTW, Captain Orton can double as Sir Edward, just dress up your captain with a beard and captain's hat etc. unless you have a non-singing male you'd like to give the part to. The main drawbacks would be the children. Unless you have a large number of short freshman, you need to get children from the community willing to commit to your rehearsal schedule. Also, you need a Louis and Chulalonghorn that can act. Those can both be freshman or smaller guys that you have, but they should be able to act. Do you have good dancers or does your school have a dance team you can enlist? There are dance numbers that should be kept in the show. BTW, many productions cut Western People Funny, but the last one I was in did the number and the audience loved it. It was a nice was a nice way to start act 2! You would however incur the cost of renting those dresses, but it will make your female chorus happy to have something else to do.

Fiddler & Pirates you would need a lot more male talent who can both sing and act well. I like both of the shows, but honestly if you're that short on men and you don't know who your incoming freshman will be... go with King & I.

Answer 3

I have never seen "Pirates of Penzance", so I don't know how much help I will be with this show, but I'll take a whack at it. "Pirates..." has several male roles. The male lead (Frederic) is a tenor, there are also several supporting roles that sing baritone. You would need several guys, however, so unless you have girls who can look like guys and sing baritone, I would stay away from it.

"The King and I" is an excellent show! I saw it at a local high school last year, and they did very good at it. The male lead (the King) is a baritone, and you would also need a good tenor for Lun Tha, who is considered a supporting character. Anna's son, Louis, is a tenor as well. In the production I saw, Louis was played by a fifth grade boy, but he could easily be changed to Louise. It would probably make the scene where he gets mad and yells at the prince even funnier. There are a few other male roles, but none of them are very memorable (I forgot all about them until I read about it again just now) and they don't have to sing much.

Fiddler on the Roof is also a very good show, and I recently went and saw several of my friends in their high school's production of it. The show would fall apart without a strong actor to play Tevye. He is a baritone and sings B2 to F4. You would also need a couple of boys to play Motel and Perchik, both of whom are tenors. They aren't as important, however they do both have a song. If I remember correctly, in the production I saw, Perchik wasn't a very good singer, but it was still okay. Lazar Wolf is also a baritone role, although he doesn't sing very much by himself. He sings part of "To Life", although his lines could almost be spoken, and he is supposed to be drunk, so if he played up the drunkness he could pass without a good voice. "Fiddler..." also needs a decent ensemble, and although you could dress up girls as guys, you would have to have a pretty large number of girls to be able to cover all four parts in the opening.

I would say that your best bet would be "The King and I" based on the information that you've given. I'm not sure about sets for "Pirates..." but I do know that both "Fiddler..." and "The King and I" don't require much for sets. I hope I've given you what you are looking for along the lines of pros and cons, but if not feel free to email me ([e-mail]) with any more specific questions. Have fun with your show!

Answer 4

All three musicals are a lot of fun. Fiddler tends to do better with older actors. I loved the King and I, though I was only in the chorus and was the assistant choreographer. The sets and costuming for it should be luxurious which might be tough on a high school budget. Pirates is an excellent choice and one of my all time favorite numbers is "Modern Major General". One of the others who answered had a good point about the popularity of pirates at the moment. And the whole point is to get people in the seats. "Break a leg", whichever you choose.

Answer 5

Cool that costumes are not a prob. It sounds like sets should not be a prob also. You are very fortunate. I think The King and I would be a great one for a barritone. Not much of a challenge to his vocal range, but that's not the point here. fiddler might be a bit much for High School students. There are attitudes and dynamics of the era that they prob won't be able to convey without more life experiences. The King and I is much more lighhearted and better, I think, for your age group.

As for how to "pull it off" it depends on the size of your theatre, and the time allowed for the finished production. You'll prob need to cut a few scenes. Look to purchase scripts that are intended for a high school production.

Have a great show!

Answer 6

Pirates and fiddler are very male-role heavy, and it sounds like you do not have too many men compared to women. The king and I would be feasable, but do remember the costs for that show will be much higher to stage. The set can be complicated, and depending on where you rent from the cost for those costumes can be much more expensive. You also need MANY more chorus members. So depending on the size of your school that may be an issue. You need groups of monks, groups of wives, groups of children. You need the ballet costumes, the wives costumes, the wives colonial costumes for when they meet the English, the children's costumes. Usually this show for our shop runs a good 5 times more than the others you listed for the sheer complexity and number of costumes you need. Fiddler would be the easiest to stage. (cost-wise)

Answer 7

Since both Fiddler and Pirates REQUIRE a TON of men, "The King and I" is your best bet.

King = Baritone
Lun Tha (Tuptim's boyfriend) = Tenor

You'll also need a Louis (Anna's teenage son), Prince Chulalongkorn, Sir Edward Ramsay, and The Kralahome (Prime Minister) - all of whom don't sing enough to really worry too much about.

You'll need a strong Anna, and a Lady Thiang, and a Tuptim - plus a bunch of wives and children (it's ok if most are girls).

Answer 8

Unless you have women willing to play men, Pirates would not be a good option. You need a passle o'guys.

Fiddler needs good actors.

King and I--the king needn't be a good singer (but be a good actor), you need a good tenor for Lun Tha. You need strong players/singers for Anna and Lady Tuptim. I'd say go with this one.

Add: Another advantage of King is many non-speaking parts, so you could put a lot of people in it, such as dancers and children.

Answer 9

Pirates of Penzance and Fiddler require A LOT of men so you can throw those out the window. The King and I would require only a few and it's a popular musical so you would draw in good crowds. Have fun!

Answer 10

I would proabably pick The King and I. I was in it a couple of years ago, and we only had three guys actually cast. So you could probably get away with it. It's a great show, and some really good women parts. Good luck with your show! :D

Answer 11

THE KING AND I deffinatly!!!!!!!!!! thats so great!!! fiddler on the roof is good to but u need really good actors