Hey all.

Quick question, purely hypothetical!  I was listening to some b'way tunes on an internet radio station, and a thought struck me... way back when I was in HS I was in a musical revue at a local theatre... but it wasn't scripted, the director basically just cast good performers and then we each chose what we wanted to perform out of a selection of scores.   Now, it was a long time ago, but I seem to remember hearing that we'd paid a licensing fee to be able to create a revue out of any of the songs in this particular catalog, but looking back I'm not so sure who we would have paid that to.  I did "Kiss of the Spider Woman", which is a Samuel French show, and I distinctly remember a West Side Story piece in there, which is MTI. 

Anyway, if MTI or Samuel French's musical division has a blanket "revue" license, I can't find it...  Does ASCAP or BMI cover showtunes like this?   Or was I just in a sneaky "under the radar" revue?  it's possible... I never really gave it much thought at the time; in HS I just wanted to sing! :)

It was a great show, and a labour of love for the cast since we were able to do songs we really loved, so it'd be a fun thing to try, and would be a great fundraiser - if we can do it legally without *too* much red tape.

There are some exceptions where an organization could do this without paying royalties. But in general, if you have an audience and you're charging them, you need to pay licensing fees.

Marty

We did a revue this spring, and yes, admin had a heck of a time getting permissions for all the songs chosen for the revue.  Apparently the Disney rights were the most difficult, and would have dropped over 30 minutes from the show with the number of songs pulled from the Disney songbook in our revue.  ASCAP and BMI covered most everything else, I believe.  (secondary knowledge as the wife of the TD)