I'm starting to look for a large-scale musical to direct next year.

I don't want to do the 'traditional' shows - seen too many "Carousels", "Me & My Girls", "Singing in the Rains" and so on around here.

It has to have a quantity of 4, 8 or 16 part harmonies but not particularly operatic style.

It doesn't matter if it's not written for chorus - I've put chorus in loads of those.

I'm well known for doing little-know shows, so it doesn't matter if it's unknown -but then it'll need a catchy title, theme or similar that I can exploit to get the audiences through the door.

My cast will be mixed ages with a high proportion in mid-30's, mixed talents but well above average singers, with quite a big budget.

If you've got any ideas I'd be glad to hear them.

A_M
I can recommend John Trent Wallace and Gary Sullivans Hunchback of Notre Dame (Samuel French) It has multi harmony some 6 or 8 part and has only seen around 20 productions.
Contact me by e mail if you want to have a look at the video (licenced by S French!!) recorder in April of 2002

Camelot? Not often done. Best Little Whorehouse in Texas? THE most fun I've ever had in a chorus show!

Cabaret?

I don't know too much about large-scale musicals as we don't do 'em very often and then they tend to be the smaller scale ones ....

Best Little Whorehouse is fab. What about Into The Woods? One of my favourites for sure.

There is a little-known one called "The Biograph Girl" that has gorgeous music and is based around the change from silent to talkie movies. It's got a good mix of singing/non-singing parts and could be done as big or small as you choose...

QUOTE (cha003 @ Feb 16 2003, 11:32 PM)

Cabaret?

I think that Cabaret fails the "4, 8 or 16 part harmonies" test. Most of the songs are solos, with the occasional duo or trio thrown in. The only real chorus number is the "Fatherland" song.

[But don't let that put you off. Do it anyway. "If they could see her through my eyes" has the best punchline of any song in any show.]

We did most of the chorus numbers of Cabaret in 4-part and some in 8-part. I know 'cos I wrote most of bloomin' things....

QUOTE (cha003 @ Feb 16 2003, 11:32 PM)

Best Little Whorehouse is fab. What about Into The Woods? One of my favourites for sure. There is a little-known one called "The Biograph Girl" that has gorgeous music and is based around the change from silent to talkie movies. It's got a good mix of singing/non-singing parts and could be done as big or small as you choose...

Thanks, Helen. Into the Woods is one of my favourites but the cast is too small for my group to consider now, and there's virtually no opportunity to write in chorus (although I'm working on it!!)

I looked seriously at The Biograph Girl, but Guildford School of Acting just did it in our theatre so it'll have to go on the back burner for a couple more years. Just done Follies, and one of the best chorus shows ever was How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

I'm not a musicals person, but does 'La cage aux Folles' fall into this category? If not, apologies all round...

Hmm. I've been dredging my memory on this one. It's been a long time since I've been with a company that did musicals, but have remembered seeing a few!

Saw the relatively recent Candide at the National - that was fab. Lots of different characters and some pretty technical singing as well as fab tunes. Would love to see this staged again - don't know if the rights are available though.

My old company considered The Boyfriend and The Matchgirls, neither of which is musically very complicated unfortunately, but decided against as we didn't have enough women (believe it or not!), but could be possibilities?

Ooh, just remembered my present company did do a production of Lock Up Your Daughters a few years ago. It was done very well but I found it left a bit of nasty taste in the mouth, making jokes about rape...

I s'pose Slice of Saturday Night's not got enough parts?

Anne- marie,

Have you looked at Chess?
The music is absolutely fantastic with lots of harmonies etc.

The story line is the only thing that lets this musical down as it is far too complicated, but if you have a good synopsis in the programme....???

Another thing is that it does need quite a lot of marketing (play on the old "I know him so well" theme and the fact that it was written by the ABBA boys!)

As a twirlie, I didn't really want to do this show but as always got roped in and LOVED it. It was great to have a good old sing song and really rewarding when we heard the playback.

Worth a look.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone - keep them coming.

Re Chess, not enough for the women, although I LOVE it. And we've got enough men, which is one reason a lot of groups don't do it. It sells well, too...

Re Cabaret - ok Ryano & Mo, you're in it!

I shall look at Candide, and I'm already looking at the Hunchback of Notre Dame which dogsbody put me onto.

I believe the Pajama Game is good too, although I haven't found a decent recording yet.

Have a look at ?A Chorus Line? done it twice, with almost the same cast - there is quite a bit of part harmonies & inter-dispersed dialogue - Plus a large cast for the ?1st cut? auditions (down to 17 on the'Line')- I re-used the ?rejects? (not my word - it is how the script describes them!) for cameo?s in ?At the Ballet? & ?Give me the ball? (Ritchies song) set in the school yard as part of the Montage. Very easy to do - But the Royalties are heavy because they are in US$?s. or have a go at ?Fame!?
Chookas
Joe

Have you thought about The Bakers Wife by Stephen Schwartz? We did this a couple of years ago and sold out every night - we even added a matinee to cope with demand.

It has some wonderful songs (there is a CD avail of the London Cast recording) and can accomodate any size cast from about 20 upwards, all ages.

There is a synopsis available on www.musicalheaven.com/b/bakers_wife.shtml

Good luck finding your show.

John.

just a few to think about, you can probably find info on the web about them.
The Grand Hotel - has a cast probably the size you're looking for
Rags ( hardly ever performed, cast of between 12-20 odd) about a Jewish lady in the early part of the 20th century who goes out to New York, written by Charles Strouse etc
Working - could have a cast of hundreds I suppose, has some interesting songs
Allegro - again, interesting songs
Godspell - i love the music and there's a HUGE amount of scope for being original, which it sounds like you are

hope that helps