So, our company's youth just got done performing "Grease" to a sell-out crowd 2 weeks in a row.  It was one of the best plays we have ever put on.  It was also the highest grossing play ever for our company.  Anyway...we have no clue what to do now.  We need a play with many characters that is very well known.  I know we will probably never do as good as "Grease", because, how can you? We were thinking "Westside Story", among others.  Is that a good one.  Does anyone have any surefire, people will love it, awesome plays? 

We just did "Cinderella" and had STO for all performances. (this was a high school performance)

For this year's musical we are doing Bye Bye Birdie.

I agree with Castme, you can never "top" a show, you can only make each show the best it can be. Have fun no matter what!

Aimee

It takes a lot of really good dancers to put on West Side Story effectively.  Do it only if you are up for the challenge.  As another poster said, Guys and Dolls would make a great followup to Grease, as it doesn't require that much vocally or choreography wise, but is essentially the most recognizable name to audiences not nessecerally familiar with Musical Theatre.

We have a couple of titles in our catalog that might be suitable for your group. Both have large casts, excellent music and interesting storylines, but are as different as chalk and cheese!

Arabian Nights (18m, 9f, 11m/f)
The story of the beautiful queen Sheherezade, and her ability to tell captivating stories to her cruel husband, King Sharyar. Five stories are played out in song and dance, and, in their telling Sheherezade neatly leads the King's mind away from his reason for being heartless and cruel, ensuring her own future as queen is secure. Large cast, superb music ... great fun.

The Razzle Dazzle Man (8m, 10f)
The story is based loosely on the parable of The Prodigal Son coupled with Faustian soul-selling. A young man, bored with life on the farm, travels to the big city, only to be drawn into the underworld of Lew Cifer. Lew and his band of female sinners lead him into crime, but he is drawn back to the straight and narrow by his girlfriend and a mysterious old woman. With its fast-paced modern style and full complement of rock 'n roll songs, love songs and superb dance possibilities, 'The Razzle Dazzle Man' is a terrific musical show, with an underlying moral theme that it tells without preaching.

Our website provides a lot more details under the 'Youth/Student' menu, and all rehearsal material and licencing can be securely paid for online. There are downloadable preview scripts and song clips there too.

best regards

David
www.playsandmusicals.co.uk

This requires a little more work but we did a partially improvised spoof of American Idol with a mix of good singers and purposely awful talent. Open it up to any talent, improvise the host and judges comments, and then in our case we let the audience vote, had a short intermission and brought back three finalists to perform again. We got a great response, and because of the voting, it was different every night.