<p>So my high school does class one-act competitions where all of the classes (freshmen, sophomore, etc...) produce student-directed one-act plays and I've been trying to see if the senior class can do a one-act musical. I don't want to do a musical revue type thing, but it has to be rather short (around a half hour) or can be shortened. Also, if possible, maybe take it a little easy on the girls' roles vocally-wise because we lack female talent.</p>
<p>Any ideas?</p>
<p>There's a show named The Apple Tree, which is actually three self-contained, one-act musicals. The first is The Diary of Adam and Eve, based on the short story by Mark Twain (2 males & 1 female); the second is The Lady or the Tiger, based on the story by Frank Stockton (3 males, 1 female singer, 1 femme fatale and chorus); the third is Passionella, a take-off on the Cinderella story, written by Jules Feiffer (2 males, 1 female, chorus). When the show is done as one piece, it's the same 2 men and 1 woman in all three acts, but each act can stand on its own. Music & lyrics are by Bock & Harnick, the same guys who wrote Fiddler on the Roof.</p>
<p>The Apple Tree jumped to my mind, too, Chedva. It's a fun show, and fairly simple on production values so would be easy for a high school to do. </p>
<p>Freedom, if you get the okay to do a musical and want to look into doing The Apple Tree, the license is held by MTI. Good luck!</p>
<p>ahrens&flaherty (team behind once on this island/ragtime/etc) have a short musical of The Lorax (the dr. seuss story). it might also be pretty easy to cut down Seussical.</p>
<p>did you think about Snoopy or You're A Good Man Charlie Brown? i know they're revue format, but the characters stay constant throughout.</p>
<p>The problem with choosing one which is longer than the length which is needed is that you'll have to get special permission to 'cut it down'. When a license is issued, it is expected that the show is performed as is. The Apple Tree license allows each of the three acts to be a stand alone performance, if needed.</p>
<p>alwaysamom, I've always loved The Apple Tree - I saw it with the original cast, when Alan Alda was still known as Robert Alda's son!</p>
<p>The other option is to consider some of the "Jr." versions of shows - Into the Woods, Jr., Honk, Jr., etc. Those are already cut versions of the shows, but I don't know if they're actually short enough for you. You can find the list of shows and licensing information here:
Broadway</a> Junior</p>
<p>I think that most of the Broadway Junior productions are at least 50 minutes to an hour...</p>
<p>Freedom -- another show that can easily be cut is Smokey Joe's Cafe -- it's just a musical revue, and very male dominated vocally. No script, so you can pick and choose your songs.</p>