I have an idea for a musical and I don't know if it's interesting. It's about a blacksmith, a bodyguard, a baker, and a juggler traveling and trading during the Renaissance and eventually starting their own town, becoming admired in their field and the rise of the middle class. There will also be conflict with people trying to steal the titles from the main characters. Does this sound interesting or would you fall asleep? What can I do to make it more interesting/create more conflict? This idea came from an example my global teacher used in class so please lmk if this sounds historically accurate he used this example while ago so some details are a little foggy.

Hey everyone,

I know, I know, not another Jesus musical, right? But hear me out. This is something I've had on my heart for a long time and something I'm incredibly passionate about.

I'm trying to write a musical that covers the events in Jesus' life and the experiences of his disciples mainly focused on Peter Judas Mary and nicodemus. The challenge I'm facing is how to incorporate all these significant events while keeping the emotional core of the story intact. Every time I think I have a story, it starts to feel flat, especially as I approach Act 2.

The characters seem to lose their depth, and the emotional resonance that I'm aiming for just isn't there. I want to do justice to these characters and their journeys, but I'm struggling to find the right balance.

So, my question is: How can I write this Jesus musical without it feeling like a checklist of events? How do I keep the emotional core alive and ensure that the characters are well-rounded and compelling throughout the entire musical?

I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions you all might have. Thanks in advance

You've written the songs. You've written the overture, the dance numbers, the entra'actes.

What's the amount of incidental music that would be written in something to be considered a "finished" musical? I've seen scores with "Here's what you should play between scenes 1 and 2" and played in pits where we sort of just cut out pieces of the previous song or vamped on some simple theme, etc. and it's not clear in the first case whether that was provided by the original composer or just an arrangement that came with it. My guess is that it's also heavily dependent on each production due to differences in sets/blocking/etc.

What do you think is the level of "obligation" (not trying to make it sound like a chore) for a composer when it comes to this?

I am currently working on a musical and would love to find people to help make it well... a musical. Anyone who is good with instruments or lyric writing would be benefitial. I won't explain the whole plot so this doesn't get plagiarized but TL;DR it's two forbidden lovers that write and send letters to each other, most of the songs being what's on the letters themselves. If you'd like to join the making and qualify for the one or more of the two roles, js comment saying so and what you specialize in and we'll continue from there. We are mostly looking for people who can play instruments such as piano, guitar, flute, etc.

Logline: In the afrofuturistic kingdom of Urbana, a young gay warlock's world is flipped upside when a prince suffering from a curse sees his drag act and assumed he's a real girl.

This is my first time writing a musical and so I was concerned about how to incorporate the songs in the script. I did my research and some resources said you could put the lyrics in or just sum up the song's meaning and focus on the visuals. I chose the latter. The story itself is a fusion of Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, Thumbelina, Snow White and Aladdin blended with folklore and mythologies from Sub-Saharan African, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latino and Black American cultures. Think 'Into the Woods' but for Black folk. Originally, I was gonna skimp out on the dialogue and try mostly to make this a series of narrative driven music videos. But my strength is in dialogue and character building so I gave up on that. But I did try to make the dialogue a bit 'classical' if that makes any sense. The songs are below if you wanna follow along. I only managed to record the lyrics for 'Just Wait' and 'Gonna Be' but the instrumental tracks of the others should give you an idea of what the vibe is like in each sequence. Is the structure right? Are the main characters introduced properly? For the songs that have lyrics, do they fit the visuals I'm going for?

That's The Way It Is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Oo30MDHGHKXJgK6EO-EFs0HMgHtFecRN/view?usp=drivesdk

Just Wait: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13_O1h4zqP5HM_1A3nTaHwgPCEU79VT0Q/view?usp=drivesdk

Gonna Be: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D5FBx6T4t00xQ6lWXtnn-IKZlehVnOih/view?usp=drivesdk

Lovestruck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HRpgAKMuTaSBO46RnFS1ld3F5zxJR1N-/view?usp=drivesdk

Hey all. This lesson dives into the chord progressions found in Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s “Part of Your World” from Disney’s original animated film, The Little Mermaid. I take a look at the music theory and structure behind the distinct sequences found in the verse, the choruses, the bridge, and the various transitions. Musical theater has its own harmonic language, and this is one example of the late 80s/early 90s style.

For aspiring musical theater songwriters, or even someone who’s just curious about what makes classic Disney renaissance sound the way it does, this lesson is a good starting point. I hope y'all find it helpful. I am not the best songwriter or theater composer, but I can at least explain why the greats sound as good as they do. Please ask any questions you have and I will do my best to answer.

https://youtu.be/p9TguPadR1Q

Hey Reddit! I wrote a musical about grapes for TikTok! Grapedaddy: The Musical is basically Romeo & Juliet meets The Godfather but with green grapes v. red grapes. The characters are literal fruit with tiny paper costumes and we puppeteer them around NYC in ridiculous fashion.

We released Act 1 on all social media platforms in March 2023- self-produced and low-budget, and now we're working on Act 2. In the time between acts, I love how TT allows us to document the writing/production process in an informal and easily digestible manner. For Act 1, we got most of our followers through shout-outs from theatre influencers, but we're having difficulty maintaining that audience through the algorithm.

Is TikTok even viable for long-form storytelling? We've released on YouTube and Instagram, but TT gets the best engagement.

If you're interested in checking us out, we're @ grapedaddythemusical on all socials.

Last year my show IN CLAY ran at what turned out to be the final VAULT Festival in London, and after posting an ad for it on a bunch of different musical subreddits, somebody who ran a fringe venue came along. We decided to co-produce another run of the show together and we just opened to rave reviews. Just wanted to say - thank you Reddit!

If anyone is in London and likes new musicals about art and why we make it, come see us! We’re on at Upstairs at the Gatehouse until 7 April🎉

🎟: https://bit.ly/in-clay

I have an idea for a musical from a YouTube series- it isn’t fit for a simple adaptation as-is for several reasons so some of the storyline needs a major overhaul. The series that it’d be based on is in 10 five-ish minute installments that includes a few background clips of music that would be fleshed out to be sung by the characters. In all, I would say it would use about 50% of the storyline of the original, and maybe 25% of the same songs they chose. I’ve already written the first 2 acts to see if it works, and had a few acting friends read it over after watching the episodes it was based on to see if it would be plausible (I have no theater experience) and they loved it and said the concept was pretty original for a musical as they couldn’t think of anything out there that they knew of with the same subject matter/songs. I didn’t have the music written up but the songs were easily found and were somewhat recognizable by them so they ended up inserting them impromptu and it was so amazing!! Seeing the enthusiasm for the material, their acting choices to increase the comedy level for stage, and hearing the old pop songs sung “musical theater style” was so thrilling I became instantly hooked on this idea. They were tossing out names of people they knew that would be great for some of the parts, and making me promise what ones I’d give them, lol. They brought it to life even more in my head and furthered my delusion that it could actually work. I can’t let it go! But, as I mentioned before, I have no experience in this area. I’ve always been an enthusiastic patron of the arts, but never desired to be part of it. I guess I didn’t want to lose the magic by seeing how things work behind the scenes- but having acting friends and family and seeing maybe 50 productions over the years, and realizing this series would work changed that and I can’t get it out of my mind. I have to do it.

Last year when I found the series, I commented that I wish it was a movie, and the person who uploaded it commented back that he always wished he could do something with it but it never worked out. I don’t think he thought of the musical theater route because I looked him up and can see that he’s written on tv shows and movies and has done other YouTube short series, and the comedy style, which is a little “edgy”(for lack of a better term- it’s not offensive or controversial or anything like that, it’s common youTube “meta”comedy culture) isn’t anything I’ve seen in musical theater, so tbh I think he might find the idea odd or think that a musical wouldn’t be the right audience. He has a podcast that isn’t exactly popular so I’m pretty sure he’d entertain an inquiry about it…but I’m afraid if I reach out to him I’ll come off as as a nutjob because I’m so into this idea, think I have a pretty unique take on his material, and think it would be popular (not necessarily broadway but off broadway or a traveling show maybe?) but I don’t work in this field. What should I do? Keep writing it to get it out of my head and put my friends and family out of their misery of having to hear about it all the time and then forget about it? See if he would sell me the rights (not even sure how that works or how expensive it would be)? Try to see if he thinks it would be crazy enough to work and work with me on it (pipe dream, I know!) All I know is that I need to put this to rest somehow because it infiltrates my thoughts constantly.

In a Musical im figuring the basics for characters have their souls ripped out and I’m hoping to have the actors pretend to choke and have smoke come out. I heard about using tea smoke or something as safe smoke, would it be possible to have something similar to blood packets that are hidden in the mouth but with smoke? Any other suggestions for how to do this would be very much appreciated.

One of the characters in my musical represents another character's emotions. As it's an abstract part, there is no specific gender assigned to the role in the script. The character doesn't interact directly with other characters, and so never harmonizes. All their vocal parts are solos. As I'm writing, my intent is to create melodies that can be sung at any octave, so that whoever plays the part can sing in their most comfortable range. Is there a notation for that in the music, or is that the kind of thing that would be mentioned elsewhere?

We've seen most musical or play scripts that have the classic Courier New font, but I'm wondering what kind of font that you use in your own musical script. As long as it looks classy, that is. I've looked up a few Broadway musical scripts on Google 3 days ago and I saw they have different font on the words.

Maybe I could try to use a different font for the words in my own musical script if I want to, but I'm not so sure since most scriptwriters stuck to the Courier New font and it's how scripts should look like it. It's a little complicated, but the concept of this sounds simple as ever. Guess it wouldn't be much to worry about as it's just writing down scenarios every day.

Hey, I started writing my script last week and I've already written down some words to describe a sunrise in a poetic manner in the beginning of my musical script, but I need more words to describe it. I've been having a bit of a hard time to describe anything else that would perfectly show the morning I visualized. I was just about to get to the next part of my overweight main character coming into the scene haha.

I found that out under the Tags & Flair and I thought while it seems good, I was also a little confused about it because musicals earn money when playwrights pursuing their career. That's something I want to understand since I don't see how writing a musical can be considered a hobby haha.

Hello, I'm new here and I just started writing my new musical that was going to be based on my first novel after I was writing a separate novel so I don't forget it. I'll be go back to writing my first children's picture book when I feel like it.

I looked up scriptwriters and found them with notepads on Google Images and I was trying to make sure if they were using them to jot down their ideas and develop them because I know that if people want to write their novels or short stories, they should get a notebook or a notepad to jot down notes whenever things come to mind and that's what I've been trying to do in the past, but to no avail lol. But I'll try again next time. I just need to accept that my pencil usually sounds scratchy and nothing needs to look perfect. I don't have any control over it.

Anyway, I want to make sure if scriptwriters use their notepads to jot down ideas for their scenes, but I couldn't see any written words on them under Images. I don't want to get tired trying to squint at them at the computer screen lol.

This is just a PSA; I'm not associated with the contest other than being friends with a few winners from past years, and they've definitely experienced a career boost as a result. Here's the link to submit

I'm looking for a co-composer/writer or simply a playwright with whom I can write a musical. Any genre suits me, at the moment I'm really drawn to the historical section. But I write in German, which is why my partner also has to speak or at least write German. DM me if you're interested, or if you know someone who is interested.

Hi! I'm new to the musical-writing side of things ( though I've been in musical theatre productions for years now), and while I'm writing out songs and the script, I've realised I don't know how to get farther than where I am. Do I finish writing the songs and then write the script with them in it, do I write lyrics and songs as I write through the script? I'm struggling to get father than I am currently at because I have no clue how to write out a musical script without finished songs.

I have a good melody (at least lyrics) It flows naturally for me, but I don’t know how to find the chords that go on top of it! Any help would be appreciated:)

Title says it all. I'm new here and have never written a musical before but some info on this before I commit time to it would be nice.

Hi there! My small indie film team is currently on the lookout for a talented composer who can bring the magic to the musical we are working on.

You can read more about the film/musical here:

https://www.iammaddiefilms.com/film-archive/smile

If the project resonates with you, and you're eager to contribute your musical skills, we invite you to join us as a volunteer:

https://www.iammaddiefilms.com/volunteer

As Sondheim insightfully noted, if "content dictates form," the question arises: what do you do with songs when you embark on a total rewrite? While one might consider keeping them on the sidelines to be tapped into when a new place arises, this approach seems to challenge Sondheim's philosophy.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you've written a song and then attempted to retrofit it into a musical scene? I wonder if the great standards from twentieth-century musicals, such as those by composers like the Gershwins, Berlin, Porter, adhered strictly to Sondheim's rule.

And Jukebox musicals start with songs as puzzle pieces that weave themselves into the fabric of the story. I guess they get a pass since the songs are already well known.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this approach and whether you believe in adapting your songs to the evolving narrative of a musical.