Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Musicals

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   Last summer our community theatre put on a musical with a new director who had the "midi" files. (I was not on the board at the time.)  Next summer we would like to stage a musical again, but I am finding R&H and Samuel French require live music.  I know I have seen many musicals put on without live music.  How is this accomplished legally?  A professional dinner theatre in my town even does it, but I can't get them to return my calls.  Any advice?

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Nigel Walk-On Joined: 8/15/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Topic: Musicals Posted: 8/15/09 at 5:57pm
	Last summer our community theatre put on a musical with a new director who had the "midi" files. (I was not on the board at the time.) Next summer we would like to stage a musical again, but I am finding R&H and Samuel French require live music. I know I have seen many musicals put on without live music. How is this accomplished legally? A professional dinner theatre in my town even does it, but I can't get them to return my calls. Any advice?
	Nigel

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lparks Star Joined: 1/12/10 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 58	Posted: 1/12/10 at 5:40am
	R&H Theatricals as well as MTI offer whats called "orchestra enhancement systems". They are ment to be used in collaberation with an actual orchestra (to cut the size down from 15 members to 3 or 4), but you are certainly not required to do so. Biggest problem with this is that not all shows have this available. You need to check their websites under "Materials" or "Resources". Some houses like Pioneer Drama offer pre-recorded CD's of the music for all of their musicals. Your biggest issue on this front is with the smaller broadway shows.
	Landon Parks, Producing Artistic Director, Bloomington Repertory Theatre Co
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StgMgrGary Walk-On Joined: 2/17/10 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 2/18/10 at 2:01pm
	We have done smaller mucicals from MTI with "Canned Music" - all of the MTI Junior stuff we have done, High School Musical, Fiddler on the Roof, The Little Mermaid have all been canned. If you call MTI they can give you a list of shows that this option if available for and I believe the same is true for Tams-Whitmark. I have never used R&H Theatricals. Hope this helps.
	J. Gary Walden Executive Director Theatrikos Theatre Company Flagstaff, AZ www.theatrikos.com
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musikman1 Lead Joined: 4/06/08 Online Status: Offline Posts: 35	Posted: 2/21/10 at 8:20am
	Take a peek at http://www.bway2.com , Broadwa\y II Productions. Audio tracks provided are professional quality, and if you have any local talent, they can open up the book from NYC and play along. They provide a technical cue sheet for the operator, so he only has to read English (not music) to operationally cue the show. You can peek at http://bway2.com/track for thsier list of available titles.
	Rick http://www.bway2.com/tracks
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Topic: Musicals( Topic Closed)