I just received the librettos for Grand Night for Singing and Some Enchanted Evening.

I tried to find a cast CD for Some Enchanted, but the CDs I'm finding under that name is more a compilation of songs with full orchestration as opposed to being from the stage show.

GN looks to me to be MUCH better than SEE.  SE looks like it has mostly solos (which can be good), but very dumbed down ... short and choppy. 

Grand Night's arrangements look just awsome.

So ... can anyone tell me the approx. running time of the show?

Also ... did you utilize a lot of dance?  Other than Shall We Dance I don't believe that I saw any actual dance breaks written into the show.

I know that it's going to need "some" and that there will be a lot of choreographed movement, etc., but while I can find really good vocalists ... our area is not known for great dancers.

How about the orchestra needs?  I've got a good accompanist, can probably get a bass and percussion.  I "might" even be able to get a lady that plays the harp.  But ... could I get by with just piano and bass if I had to?

If you've done this show and can help with those questions it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks ...

Hi Scott,

I'm directing "A Grand Night For Singing"  for the second time, as we speak. I'm three weeks into rehearsal with an amazing cast of five.  I believe that the running time is just over two hours with the intermission.  I think you are correct about the assessment of the two shows "Grand night" is a much better ensemble show. The five part harmonies are tight and brilliant to listen too. At last night's rehearsal they all agreed that they could sing close harmonies like that everyday. It is magically beautiful.

We just finished producing Some Enchanted Evening. The music is beautiful. The script is not much so our director made a story. She also increased the cast size to 13 instead of the 5 it called for. Our director has performed in Grand Night as well.  Difference is Some Enchanted Evening is more classic where Grand Night updates a bit. This is the best way I can describe this.  The audience loved Some Enchanted Evening. Just a note the vocal score is really hard to read. It is hand written and some parts are very faint and hard to read all together so you need to use the liberatto to double check some of the words. SEE calls for two piano players and we only used one.  Also you said SEE looked like it solo's and choppy with our cast expanded it was not.  For example Puzzlement was sung by 5 men set in today's world.  Our second act of the show was a Garden party as the show-as I said the director made more of a story from the songs.  At one point the men all left their jackets and other items laying around and the women came in shaking their heads at the mess and then went into Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair. We had 3 men singing the son about My Boy Bill each and different solos and then sung together as well. One of the men sang about he may be President of the United States...on the other side of the stage we had a young man being this boy Bill.  It worked very well.

There is no CD or video of SEE available.

Renee