After a 10-year hiatus, I am again serving on the board of directors of our community theatre group. We do four shows a year, one of which is a musical. We only do family-friendly shows and stay away from anything that might not be well-known. Some board members think well-known sells tickets. I think the community is sick of R & H and our repeat of shows. I am hoping to shake things up a bit by suggesting new things. We also compete for actors with a second community theatre in town and I think the good actors would be more apt to audition for something new.
I have never seen Urinetown (gasp) and I am wondering if it is family friendly. If not, exactly what makes it not? language? sex? controversial subject matter?
Any other semi-current shows that would fit the criteria? (occasional curse words are okay as this group will change them to shoot, darn, heck, etc.)
My answer would be “maybe”. Really depends on the audience dynamic. I love Urinetown, but let’s face it, it’s a musical about paying to pee. It also is about killing those who refuse to pay the fee, and deaths occur in the show. I don’t recall much strong language or anything, so I personally think it is family friendly, but others may disagree.
The rights to Disaster! just became available… Super family friendly, familiar music (1970s hits), funny, lots of roles, recently on Broadway. Maybe look at that one. Search it on YouTube… there’s a promo video.
I agree with @stagedoormama, “maybe.” I love Urinetown, but it is rife with dark, sarcastic comedy. One of the characters is a sadistic, pregnant, teenage unwed mother, who sings the duet, “Snuff That Girl.” The leading man gets thrown off a building. Another song is “Don’t Be the Bunny”:
This is definitely not Rogers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Lowe. It is a strong “PG” show.
A terrific analysis for community theatre directors, “In the Bowels of Urinetown” by Scott Miller can be found here:
By the way, I strongly recommend Scott’s books that analyze musicals for community theatre directors: Deconstructing Harold Hill, Rebels with Applause, and From Assassins to West Side Story.
I have always wanted to have our theatre program do Newsies. I think the rights become available this summer. We are currently doing Hunchback of Notre Dame - huge production with a full choir in addition to the actors. We’re kind of in the middle of no-where, so we are the regional premier - but I don’t think this one has been done much anywhere. It’s a Disney musical using some of the familiar songs from the movie, but rewritten to more closely align to Victor Hugo’s writing. Amazing music. There are recordings on youtube from La Jolla and Papermill playhouses.
The “other” theatre in town is opening Hunchback in a few weeks. The other theatre performs about 10 shows a year, at least half of them musicals. They only do family-friendly, too, but because they do so many, they can do less popular stuff every now and then. We feel like our one and only needs to carry a big bang. However, it’s hard to find something that the other theatre hasn’t done recently.
Our school (private high school with religious affiliation - but not Catholic) did Urinetown last spring. It went over well. It would depend on your comunity, I’d guess.
@GSOMTMom brings up a very important point about some of the shows suggested. I’m also glad you linked the opera article as a cautionary tale of what being dismissive and disrespectful looks like.
As a suggestion to the OP, has Music Man been overdone in your community?
If your community is not familiar with Urinetown, it may not have the box office draw you hope for in terms of name recognition. I was on the board one of our local theaters and it was always a struggle between doing new things as well as the tried and true. As artists I think we get more bored of the old favorites than the public actually does. But I totally get wanting to do something different:
Some other shows to consider include:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Shrek
Into the Woods
School of Rock
Wizard of Oz
Annie
Lion King
Madagascar
Seussical
Little Shop of Horrors
The rights for Newsies have just been announced by MTI with a release date (I think in March?) if you jump on it - you could scoop the “other” theater… AND that musical may be new - but has a big draw!
Urinetown is a great show. My Ds school did it and it was a lot of fun. It’s really a spoof on Les Mis (poor rising up, revolution against the controlling government- in this case the local magistrate makes everyone pay to pee). Great music.
@IfYouOnlyKnew We have done Music Man several times and the “other” theatre is doing it in March (my D is playing Marian). We also have done Oliver! many times over the years. The philosophy of the Board is that casting a ton of children sells tickets because all of their relatives will come to the show. A valid point, but kids are a pain sometimes.
Someone suggested A Chorus Line which, next to Les Miz, is my favorite show, but we would not do it because of the T & A song and the homosexual storyline of one of the characters. We are in the middle of the Bible Belt and would not want to risk offending our blue-haired audience.
We do not have the casting pool for Hairspray or In the Heights, although the other group did Hairspray last summer.
Our group is the oldest company here. We are truly nonprofit community theatre. We are always short on money. We perform in a city-owned conference center theater where we always have to rearrange rehearsals due to some other group renting the theater.
The other group is not-for-profit but they have full-time paid directors and the financial backing of a local business man. They have their own theatre. They do great shows and my D performs with them a lot. They bring in actors from the big cities nearby (a former one is on Broadway now and a past performer was in a popular TV show.) I am not knocking them at all. I have season tickets there. They are wonderful people and the actors love performing there and drive up to an hour one way to rehearse and perform.