Howdy Colleen!

First of all, I think you might have better luck addressing the issues which are currently preventing your Choir students from trying out ... rather than trying to find a musical which requires little singing.

OR choose a musical which is going to entice your Choir students to try out.

Either way, here's a great book which can help...

"Let's Put On A Musical: How to Choose the Right Show for Your School, Community or Professional Theatre," by Peter Filichia. He's updated it as well in his 2007 edition.

The book analyzes just about every available show, including such things as creators, background, story, assets, who you'll need, designated dances, suggested sets, costumes, important props, provided instrumentation, advertising and marketing, suggestions, resources, and rights.

The author is succinct, but candid, offering a great snapshot of hundreds of shows.

Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Put-Musical-Theater-Expanded/dp/0823088189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid37754892&sr=1-1

BTW, if you'd be interested in RAP musicals, let me know -- I have a good friend who's on the leading edge of this movement.

All my best,

Tom

Tom Carter
www.choralcharisma.com
tpcarter(a)earthllink.net



Tom Carter
tpcarter(a)earthlink.net

Colleen,

If you restrict the suggestions to "edgy" and current, then the pickings are slim indeed as far as your vocal limitations are concerned. An edgy show often has very high vocal demand. I can think of one new show, "The 24th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" which, if I'm not mistaken, has just become available. "Putnam" is mostly "character" voice roles and manageable by the untrained singer. "Grease" is the perfect show for the untrained voice, but done to death. There's a censored version of RENT available, and as I see it, untrained voices can manage this with a minimum of fuss. "Seasons of Love" is very popular from that show.

"Hairspray" and "Mamma Mia" would be fun, neither requiring trained voices, when they become available. I'd really consider some unknown, brilliant show that no one ever does - two in particular - "The Boys from Syracuse" and "Finnian's Rainbow." Syracuse is one of those shows where, when people hear it, they say "I never knew THAT song was from THIS show." It's full of surprises, and a good book as well.

FINNIAN'S is filled with gorgeous music, not wide in range, a lot of character voicing, you need black actors - much of it is about race, but with a real satirical view. There's a Southern Bigot Senator complete with white suit and ante-bellum manse, sipping mint juleps on the front veranda who has wonderful lines like "Foriegnors! Immigrants! Mah family's been havin' trouble with foriegnors and immigrants ever since they came to this country!" The senator turns black as a result of an act of magic, (there's a leprechaun in the cast), so it's tradiitionally been done with a white male who has to do black-face with make up for the change - pretty much anathema regarding political correctness these days. So my answer is, cast it black to begin with, then as the white senator the black actor can be in "whiteface," then just wipe it off for the change. Then you circumvent criticism, (if that's ever possible). If you don't have enough African-American kids, then you can't really do this. It would be like trying to do "Showboat", or "Ragtime" with no black actors.

"Pal Joey" and "Pajama Game" are also not done much, but are both suitable to your vocal requirements. They're not as edgy as Urine Town, or much at all, so they may not appeal to your director. Damn Yankees is still a lot of fun if you have a lot of boys. It can be made edgy enough with Lola and the Devil, and the baseball locker room, and it's not done much. Thinking of that, there are a number of shows that can be re-thought to update them and make them edgy, but that requires some time and thought.

I'd love to know what you decide on, if you'd care to share when the decision is made. Best of luck with wnatever you select.

Best wishes,

Bruce Haines
brucejhaines(a)comcast.net
Oakland CA

Hi all

Does anyone know if there is a website that has a database of school
musicals and can rate them according to the musical, staging,
production difficulty?

Thank you
Colleen
cmahalchoral(a)gmail.com