A couple of weeks ago two show announcements came on the same day that would have had the writers of Forbidden Broadway rubbing their hands together with glee. In a West End market currently saturated with revivals, and original productions of 1980s ‘mega-musicals,’ it was revealed that Evita (1978) and Cats (1981), both hits by British […]
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Since my old pal Kait Kerrigan did such a great guest post for me, about show writing and collaborative work in general, I thought for NMT I would point to some specific ways that my work as a librettist and lyricist has informed my subsequent career writing fiction. I definitely learned how to write dialog, just […]
The post Ben H. Winters: Fiction Writing and the “I Want” Song appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Welcome to What We’re Reading, in which we’ll share with you some of our favorite articles about theater and performance from all around the internet this week. Leighton Meester’s article in the Huffington Post, “I’m Not a Tart: The Feminist Subtext of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men” is a fascinating look at the book, the play […]
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In this series of blog posts, I’m focusing on the musical theatre BFA: thoughts from a variety of people about the state of actor training today. This week, I talked with Brent Wagner, chair of the Musical Theatre program at the University of Michigan. (The list of alumni from the University of Michigan is fairly […]
The post “Thrown in the air while you’re singing the high note”: Brent Wagner from the University of Michigan (Part 1) appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Hello, readers! So if you’ve been following my posts, you’ll know that I love to tackle tips for writers – from how to write a stellar song cycle to the need to secure rights to your source material. But this week, I want to talk about something that’s been on my mind a lot recently. […]
The post Unpopular Opinion: It’s Okay to Have an Unpopular Opinion appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
From my last posts here you might have gotten the impression that in Germany we don’t really value contemporary musical theatre as in ‘new musicals.’ And for the most people from the academic theatre studies field it might be true. I earned my Bachelor’s degree in theatre studies last fall (my minors were as amazing […]
The post How We Do It in Germany: (New) Musical Theatre in Suburbia appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
You’ve got your cast, and now it’s time for rehearsals. I hinted last time that we’d talk about schedules, but in fact, I’d like to move in a different direction. In brief, to sum up scheduling, you’ll need dedicated periods for learning music, choreography, blocking, and then for a sitz probe (sing-through with the band) […]
The post So You Think You Can Produce, Part 3: The Press appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
If your only theatre experience is from school, or if you have no experience at all, at what point can you start to call yourself an actor? A director? A designer? A dramaturg? A producer? With other professions, the answer is simple: When you finish medical school, you are a doctor. When you pass the […]
The post Own What You Do, Even Before You’re Doing It appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Musical theater is full of great love stories. It’s a great genre for that because with big feelings come big voices and epic high notes. But big feelings aren’t exclusively reserved for soulmates, right? Or, to put it another way, there’s more than one kind of love. These songs are for everyone who wants to […]
The post 10 New Musical Theatre Songs about Friendship appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
One of the greatest problems in constructing a musical is the structure. Despite having the topic, plot and characters all in place, the hardest decision seems to be in what order to let it unravel. Traditional musical theatre post-Oklahoma! developed a fairly rigid structure that few book writers strayed from – the reason mainly being, […]
The post Interval Issues: A show of two halves appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Last week, in an attempt to make small talk, a visiting friend of my parents’ announced to me that as of this week, there would be no straight plays running on Broadway. Sounds crazy, right? First of all, it’s not so crazy. It has happened before, at least once in my lifetime and more than […]
The post No Plays on Broadway?: Why The Lack of Plays is Bad News for Musicals appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
In this series of blog posts, I’ve been having conversations with a variety of people about the musical theater BFA — both with faculty members, and with some graduates of programs. In this installment, for a moment I’ll share my own thoughts — as a writer/composer/lyricist, as an educator who works with musical theater writers, […]
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Today I’m writing from the rehearsal studio of Red Ladder Theatre Company, where I’m currently working as Assistant Director on Boff Whalley’s new musical We’re Not Going Back. The show charts a year in the lives of three women during the miners strike of 1984/85 and incorporates a folk-influenced score, scheduled for a UK tour […]
The post Across the Pond: Working on a New British Piece (Diary of an Assistant Director) appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Welcome to the Green Room’s newest series, What We’re Reading, in which we’ll share with you some of our favorite articles about theater and performance from all around the internet this week. “YouTubesicals” by Suzy Evans for American Theatre is very relevant to your interests, I promise. Evans spoke with writers and other theater professionals, including Pasek […]
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Happy Independence Day, America! All across the USA, people are preparing for barbecues and fireworks, unless you’re also in the Hurricane Arthur zone in which case, stay safe. In my book, there’s no better way to celebrate any holiday than to do so with musical theater. Behold: NMT’s 4th of July playlist! (Special thanks to Margaret for […]
The post 12 Musical Theater Songs to Celebrate the 4th of July appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Hey all! Last time you heard from me, we took a look at why you need to get the rights to copyrighted source material when writing a musical. But what if you’re dying to adapt something but can’t deal with copyright? Well, you’re in luck! There are so many great stories out there in the […]
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