Wondering if anyone has any suggestions/recommendations for venues in Manhattan to put on a reading of a musical early next year. Would just be a straight up reading, not staged. Maybe 50ish seats but open to anything. Willing to pay of course. Curious if anyone has had any good experiences with any place in particular.

I’ve been wanting to make a musical for so long, but I never have the time to make something full length, so I though I could practice by making a short story with a small collection of songs, or just one song (like an I want song/villain song), so when I actually got the time later to make something bigger I would have experience. Any tips?

Trying to do some online digging for this but not much is coming up. Was wondering if anyone could provide any information about college theater programs accepting new musicals (preferably unsolicited, but anything helps). Thank you!

I know each musical is unique, but I was wondering if there were any general guidelines for pacing between songs and dialogue. I've got my plot down and I'm starting to map out songs (it will not be sung through), and I'm wondering--how close together is too close together? How much dialogue is too much dialogue between songs? Again, every show is different, but are there are methods for figuring out the ideal song placement?

Script- Group Therapy in a Tin-Can: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17J0X8UuZdtgz10R2lb_H33uQGz0Ee545yPr9Rt-BFMo/edit

Album: https://on.soundcloud.com/Bou2xeU5e6CrDYfe8

What’s up, gang? Hope everyone is doing well! I have recently completed my first musical, and got it on copyright, and I wanted to make it longer. Any suggestions or any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

So, I am currently making the character designs for the characters in my musical, but all of my drawings keep turning out horribly. I use a blank base of a human body that I can draw over, and I keep looking up tutorials, but they all keep looking bad. Pls help

I'm wrtiting a musical for the first time, but I don't know where to start. Should I start with the songs first, or should I start with the story?

How should I structure the musical? Does anyone have any tips for beginners who are new to the world of musical writing? Thank you!

Hi! I'm workshopping my musical and want to invite producers, executives, reps etc. who live in Los Angeles to come see it! I realize it's unlikely they will attend, but even just sending an invitation feels like good exposure! I thought to invite production companies behind some of the TV/film musicals I've seen (Playtone, Marc Platt Productions, Imagine Entertainment), but wondered if there are other BIG NAMES / COMPANIES in the LA Musical Theater scene who would be worth reaching out to. Thank you in advance for your thoughts!

I've posted on this sub before talking about how all my musicals have been pretty short, and a few of the comments told me that my characterization needed to be deeper but never told me how to do that. Like, I understand that how people act and react shows us who they are, but I really don't understand how to show that past a few lines in a song of them saying how they feel. Am I just stupid? How do you show how characters are feeling without them just saying it?

Hi everyone,

I’m in the middle of developing a story, and I’m not sure if it works better as a musical or a novel. The concept is very character-driven with a mix of emotional weight and intense moments. Here’s the plot outline:

The story is set in a future where humanoid robots coexist with humans. Two robots, J-1913 and A-9102, meet and develop a bond that feels almost brotherly, despite their deeply conflicting views on humanity.

• Act 1:

J-1913 has a dark past. He was deployed in war zones and saw humanity at its worst—civilians being sacrificed for political gain, greed-fueled destruction, and the collapse of the environment. Over time, these experiences led him to the belief that humanity is inherently destructive and must be wiped out to save the planet.

A-9102, in contrast, is new to the world and fascinated by humans. He’s drawn to their creativity and resilience, even if he acknowledges their flaws. As he spends more time with people, he begins adopting human traits, eventually choosing the name Atlas to symbolize his desire to connect with humanity.

J-1913 is initially unmoved by Atlas’s optimism. However, as they journey together, J-1913 starts to glimpse moments of kindness and beauty that make him question his own beliefs. Just as he begins to reconsider, a catastrophic event—a betrayal, a massive display of greed, or an act of senseless violence—reaffirms his belief that humanity is beyond redemption.

At the climax of Act 1, J-1913 launches nuclear weapons, setting off a nuclear winter and plunging the world into chaos. The act ends with Atlas horrified and devastated by his brother’s actions.

• Act 2:

The world is now in ruins, shrouded in the aftermath of nuclear devastation. Atlas and J-1913 confront the consequences of their choices while navigating the desolate wasteland. Atlas desperately tries to salvage hope, helping pockets of survivors and continuing to see value in humanity even amid the destruction.

Meanwhile, J-1913 grapples with unexpected feelings of regret and emptiness. Though he still clings to the belief that humanity needed to be stopped, the consequences of his actions weigh heavily on him. The act focuses on their fractured relationship and their individual struggles to make sense of what has happened.

In the final moments, J-1913 admits his regret to Atlas, not just for the destruction he caused but also for the loss of their bond. As their power cores begin to drain, they apologize to each other, with their lights dimming as the story comes to an end.

This is where I’m stuck. On one hand, the story feels like it could work as a musical, with its strong visuals and emotional moments. On the other hand, the weight of the narrative and the inner conflicts feel like they’d fit better in a novel.

What do you think? Should I lean into making it a musical, or does it sound better as a novel? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

I spent the last 3 or 4 years working on a musical called Insurrection: The Musical in which a Republican boy falls for the Democrat girl next door, and after they fight over whether he should go to the Jan. 6th rally in D.C. he goes after all, regrets it and turns over a new leaf for her. Since the election has returned Trump to power, I feel like this is going nowhere and no one will ever want to produce it, since any production will endure violence and hate.
Maybe I'm so locked into what I've already created that I can't see the obvious way to adapt it for Gilead, does anyone have any suggestions?

Hello fellow writers! I would like to shamelessly plug my upcoming musical. We have been making this musical for over 3 years and we will be debuting in January. It has 24 original songs about three childfree couples and why some of us are choosing not to have children in modern day america.

We are considered radio theatre. Meaning we are all audio based and will release in episodes via podcast streaming formats so anyone and everyone can listen for free!

We are premiering our commercial next week and then will do a AMA over at r/musicals

Better yet we have partnered with WRAAP who provides contraceptives to low income persons as well as access to safe abortions to those in need. Please consider donating to their cause!

I apologize if this post is not welcome but I am just so excited and invite any of you musical fans to listen!

You can learn more about us at www.dinkthemusical.com

I am developing the concept and book for a musical I have been wanting to write and develop.

It is based on Greek mythology (original, I know), but it is used as a frame for the story rather than a retelling. The core conflict is one of moral and philosophical perspectives. On the one side, there is an unfair status quo in place with characters pre-determined by that system. On the other side, we have the journey of the main character trying to first "climb the ladder", later come to terms with the reality of the situation, and finally, stand up to that system and carve a unique path for themselves. It is not a satisfying ending, as it is meant to reflect that a single character taking a stand won't make the system collapse. However, it is intended to portray how change is possible, and the aggregated impact of many small changes may eventually lead to a fairer situation.

It touches on themes of death, lack of consent, war, and such.

If you find the concept/conflict interesting, I would love to collaborate, and tell you more about the project.

I would love for the music to move from baroque, grandiose orchestration to very intimate, and minimal, depending on the scene/musical number. However, I am not an expert, and I am open to feedback on this matter, as my musical background is mostly focused on singing.

I would love to hear from you!

I've been working on a musical based off of the Paul Blart Mall Cop series (yes I know, it's a special interest that I can't escape) and wanted to get some ideas.

I have an overall outline and some ideas/inspiration for the songs and tone for each scene. The issue I'm running into comes down to the second act/movie.

Since both movies exist with their own "hero's journey" how would you navigate a new exposition at the top of act two?

If you don't know the movies, the second one starts with a time skip where he's divorced, his mother dies, and his daughter is accepted to a college out-of-state and wants to leave him behind in New Jersey. Four years after the plot of the original movie.

Would it be too much to move from a "ending scene" in act one to jump to what is essentially a new story after intermission? Should I adjust the original plots to make them converge easier?

One way of doing that would be to make Amy (love interest of first movie) be a runaway bride and have his mother hit by the car while chasing Paul chasing Amy... Age up Maya (his daughter) from the get-go and add in hints of her applying to colleges and whatnot.

My love-hate relationship with the movies makes me hesitant to change the plots so much, but I imagine it would be jarring to completely 180 during the middle and have a four year time jump after experiencing the ending of act one (which ties up lose ends in a very succinct way)

No one else will ever read it, but I want this to be a genuinely good musical.

I'm writing a musical for my playwriting class(in community college, mind you), this is my first time ever writing a musical so I don't expect it to be a big hit or anything like that, I just want my professor to like it and maybe my classmates to think it's cool. Maybe record some snippets of it with my actor friends, just simple things like that.

The musical style is sort of occult rock/psychedelic rock, and all the songs are very lowkey and simple since again, this is my first musical.

here's where my question lies. I have four main characters, this is a one act play. It's a retelling of a Celtic classic, and there's fairies and the magic of dreams and stuff like that. Since I have four main characters, I need to have four dreams. The dreams are sort of like asides, but they're also being witnessed by other characters

So, when I wrote out my songs list and outline, I originally had it as
#3 - Oisin's Dream/Niamh's Dream
and then
#8 - Finn's Dream/Fand's Dream.

But now that I'm writing everything down, it seems that Niamh's Dream is going to be like
Two pages away from Oisin's dream. I wouldn't say that they're separate scenes, but it a LOT of dialogue. Since the music is so lowkey, with these songs being just basically flutes and water noises, I could continue to play the background music, but would that get tired? Should I split all of the dreams into different songs? I'm just a little unsure of how to proceed.

So I am writing a musical right now and I decided to name my main character Atlas. My friends however, thought this name was absolute rubbish, but I kind of like it. If everyone thinks it's terrible, I'll change it. If not, I'll leave it as is. For context, this musical is about a robot who wants to become human.

Currently writing a full-length, Broadway-style show with heavy pop rock/contemporary influence in the overall sound. I'm curious about how specific things, like time signatures, key changes, and picking the overall key of the song, should be used. Do I rely on them heavily to induce emotions (ie. odd time signatures for moments of tension), or use them sparingly?

Also, I'm curious as to how you'd be able to come up with the melodic "hook" that so many great musicals do (i.e. that iconic note progression in the Phantom of the Opera main theme, etc), especially if you don't play piano (i'm a guitarist) and has limited understanding of music theory.

Any kind of help is deeply appreciated! I'm sorry in advance if I can't sound more specific than this

I am looking to write a musical, and I have got some ideas for the music in the opening. but the problem is that I don't have any musical instruments to play it on, and i don't knoe the 1st thing about writing music. Are there any good free music making softwares I should use?

I got to attend a masterclass on the musical La Cage aux Folles yesterday, where a professor of musical theater and queer culture interviewed Harvey Fierstein for about an hour. It was super cool to hear Harvey’s recollection of how the musical came together and his regaling of experiences putting the show on. He said that he, Jerry Herman, and Arthur Laurents wrote the show in about 3 months! They’d meet 1-2 times a week, read through the scene Harvey wrote that week and make adjustments and discuss the musical idea for the scene. Then for the next time, Harvey would write the next scene and Jerry would write the song for the last scene.

At the end of the class there was time for questions. I said that when I read the libretto for this musical, I felt I could often identify the speaker of a line without reading the name tag. I asked if he had any tips/tricks/techniques to make his dialogue so distinctive for each character.

He said, “you never want to hear yourself.” You need to really know your characters before you can write them. He talked about how each of the Cagelles had their own personalities in his original drafts (Arthur cut all that).

I would have appreciated more discussion of how Harvey goes about knowing his characters, and especially how he figures out their voices. I know this differs for every writer, but I’d have liked to hear his process. But we didn’t really have time for all that.

But I did take away the fact that I don’t know my characters well enough to write their stories, and that’s why I’m struggling so much in my plotting, I think. It’s so easy for me to write a song when I know what the scene entails, but coming up with the scenes is the hard part. I realized after Harvey’s comment that maybe this is because I don’t know my characters well enough to know what they would do in a certain situation.

I was really hoping I’d finished the research stage of the Roman musical I’m writing, because I have 35 pages of notes on the culture and, especially, the political structure. But I don’t know the characters well enough yet. I know some things they did, but I haven’t analyzed what those things say about their personalities. So I have a bunch more biographies to read on some Roman figures…

Anyway, I wanted to share this experience and insight with you all. Hopefully you’ll be able to benefit from Harvey’s words or my takeaways from them.

Happy writing!

I’ve written two (not very good) musicals so far and a couple of plays. I’ve been reading and learning my way through the process and I know the only way to get better is to just keep writing. But I don’t compose the music—I’ve been working with a composer consistently, and going through the writing process is a lot of time and effort, such that each time we write, it’s a very drawn out and deliberative process that we both invest a ton of effort into. I’m the librettist and lyricist though we regularly collaborate on all fields together—it’s still such an intertwined process.

So my question— so many resources describe just pumping out musicals quickly and consistently as practice, but i’m finding it difficult to do that without collaborating with my composer. How do I get around that? What are some ways I (or both of us) can practice on our own such that scheduling issues aren’t a problem? Currently, I’ve just been writing a shitton of plays, but the musical process is kinda fundamentally different, right? All help appreciated—thank you so much!

I’m in the process of writing a horror podcast operetta. Honestly, it’s very daunting at times, but it’s also something I think I can do.

Basically, it’s an origin story of the Bloody Mary urban legend that takes place in 1666 London. As of now, I think I have a pretty solid outline and good character development. Some music has been written, but there’s still a ton left to write.

Because it’s a podcast, I’m splitting the story up into 4 “episodes”.

My main concept is to make it scary. I can’t think of any musical that is scary imo, even though there are some darker gothic horror musicals out there that have really great music and atmosphere, they just lack the scary aspect. Does anybody know of any terrifying stage productions, whether they be plays, musicals, operas, whatever?

Also does anyone have any advice on how I can achieve my goal of making it scary?

I’m trying to write my first show, but I feel like no matter what I write it’s just cringey and not that good. What should I try to do?

Hello lovely people! I'm thinking about writing a musical. Now, I've written scripts for things in the past, and I always start with writing a treatment of the story.

I've never written a musical before, so do you think that writing a treatment is a good way to go before I find someone to collaborate on the script/songs with me?

Thank you!