Play Suggestions: "Chicago" royalties

"Chicago" royalties

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Topic: "Chicago" royalties

Posted By: timmytoons
Subject: "Chicago" royalties
Date Posted: 5/03/10 at 11:30am

How do i go about getting the rights for CHicago? I konw that there is a lot of red tape one must cross in order to get them, because of all the tours and such. Has anyone done it and can offer some advice?

Thanks

Replies:

Posted By: jtonner
Date Posted: 5/03/10 at 1:26pm

We have been trying for four years and have not been able to get the rights. If it is at all close to you, the rights will be denied. And, it has taken three to four months for us to get an answer each time we applied.

John

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John

Posted By: Amos Hart
Date Posted: 5/13/10 at 11:05am

Posted By: Verdier
Date Posted: 6/17/10 at 9:16am

My group is also about to embark on this production. Persistence is definitely key! We are in Canada, and it still took us a few years of trying before we were finally granted the rights. We also took to contacting Sam French every few weeks to get an update on the progress of our request, and made sure we stayed on the radar without being too pushy. Our production is finally slated to perform in November.

Posted By: Amos Hart
Date Posted: 6/20/10 at 10:51am

Patience. You need patience.

Our production closes today. Pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1242788985&aid=2069551 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1242788985&aid=2069551

Give yourself plenty of breathing room; apply for the rights WELL ahead of your audition dates, because getting a reply can take months. It's not Samuel French's fault. The Broadway production company has to sign off on every production in the country and they take their own sweet time about it. If you say, "Could you please let me know now -- we need to advertise our season," they'll say, "Ok. Here's your answer: no."

What we did was this: the theater applied for the rights. After about a month, the producer called the amateur rights department at Samuel French and asked how it was going. He then called like clockwork, once every two weeks. Enough to politely keep after them, but not enough to piss them off.

After about five months, we were granted the rights. If we had put "Chicago" in the September slot, we would have been screwed. The May/June slot was perfect.

So allow yourself a minimum of six months for notification and mix persistence with patience.