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Editor's Notes
How many people have ever seen a musical theatre performance of any kind? How many have seen one at a professional level? How many have ever worked on or been a part of a musical theatre production in any way? Broadway musicals, one of the country’s most beloved forms of entertainment, delight a broad range of audiences with intricate sets, fancy costumes, and flashy dance numbers. But what is behind all the fancy glamour?
The answer to that question is a lot of hard work. Behind the scenes there is an unimaginable amount of labor and dedication put into producing and performing any musical, especially one at a Broadway scale. All of the creative and technical elements must come together in order for the show to be a success. Many business and artistic essentials are needed to produce a successful musical, including purchasing the rights, budgeting, and finding the right people to fill the necessary roles and jobs.
For my project, Maggie Schweppe and I decided we wanted to produce a musical of our own and perform it at school. After researching different shows we decided You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown would be the perfect musical for us to take on because of its small cast and relatively simple musical numbers. It was quite a journey getting to where we are now, but each step in the process helped me understand all the different aspects of the musical theatre world, fulfilling my goal for this project. It certainly was not an easy process. It involved many steps.
Before someone decides they want to produce a musical, there has to be a foundation, the idea that the musical comes from. In order to write a musical one must have a librettist, a composer, and a lyricist. The composer and lyricist are the people who write the music and lyrics, and are often the same person but not always. The librettist writes the book, or script, of the show. Sometimes the librettist becomes the composer and the lyricist, like in musicals where there is almost no dialogue, just music, like in shows such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables .
After the script and story are finished and developed, the producer takes over. The first step a producer takes is to find and purchase the rights to a story. Whether it is a brand new, original story or well know musical, obtaining the rights is the necessary first step because without them you cannot produce the show. The rights prove that the producer has permission to promote and perform the show. This is done by contacting the playwright, and or composer, and negotiating a settlement allowing the producer to be in control of the rights of the show. The producer has many jobs because they are in charge of the overall product.
In order for Maggie and I to be able to perform Charlie Brown we needed to purchase the rights from Tams-Witmark Music Library, INC. They were very particular about what we were and were not allowed to do. Since purchasing the rights for the entire play was far out of our budget range, we settled on cutting scenes and musical numbers and set a limit to how many tickets we were allowed to sell, bringing the price way down.
Then the producer must form a talented creative team. Each individual member of the creative team has an extremely important job. The first is the director. The director is responsible for the creative and artistic decisions and making sure the show looks like one unified production.
Pictured here is the Maggie Schweppe, our show’s director, and Stephen Pileggi (Charlie Brown) running lines and working character. The director works with the cast as a whole while blocking or staging the show, but individually the director can work with the actor and help them find their own character.
The musical director deals with the musical numbers or the score in the show. In addition to teaching the songs to the cast members, the musical director must make sure the cast keeps up with their musical parts and rehearses with them up till the performance. Both Maggie and I took on roles as musical director, but since neither of us were very good at playing the piano we asked Sue Waddington to play our music parts for us at rehearsals.
The choreographer creates and teaches the dance numbers in the musical and often takes on the role of director for dance numbers and scenes that have songs but no dancing.
I became our show’s choreographer and created dances for all 6 musical numbers. I really enjoyed this challenge because dance is one of my favorite aspect of musical theatre and I have never had the opportunity to choreograph all of the dance numbers for a show before
The lighting and sound designers create appropriate lighting and sound cues for the specific show and direct these cues during the performance in the technical booth.
Specific sound and lighting effects can really set the mood or tone of the play.
The set design is the visual space that tells where the show takes place and the set designer is the person who develops and builds those sets.
The costume designer designs what each individual actor wears onstage. The designer must make sure that the costumes is a good representation of the character and sticks with the theme or mood of the play. This is scene from Beauty and the Beast where most of the cast is dressed as inanimate objects, which can be a challenge for the costume designer.
The makeup designer designs the makeup that each character wears. Like the costume, the actor’s makeup must reflect their character.
After the producer has their creative team, they must cast their show. For Charlie Brown we cast Stephen Pileggi, Sean Vermeire, Corsair Layton, and James Gordon as Charlie Brown, Linus, Schroeder, and Snoopy respectively. Maggie played Lucy and I took on the role of Sally. We also had many other students helping backstage and throughout the rehearsal process.
For musicals you have to be sure you organize enough rehearsals for dancing, singing, and acting because musicals are harder learn than straight plays. Most rehearsal periods begin with a read through. This is when the entire cast and crew gets together and reads the show for the first time.
Then the cast moves into blocking rehearsals, then retrace rehearsals, interpretation rehearsals, run through rehearsals, tech rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and some directors even have a preview performance before opening night.
The next step is publicizing the show. There are many different types of advertising, like print advertising, which consist of flyers and window cards, radio, and television.
The person who is usually in charge of publicity for the show is the theatre manager. The theatre manager must oversee the budget for a production and handle the financial outcome. They also manage the staff including the box office workers and backstage help. It is the theater manager's job to bring all the different elements of a production (onstage, backstage, and the front of the house) together.
We sold our tickets at 5 dollars each and gave all profits to Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids. In total we ended up making over $1,000 and will be able to give over $700 dollars to BCEFA.
Once all of these creative elements come together, they form a top notch musical. Every step is needed in order for the performance to be a success. Performing a musical may seem to be fun and easy, but in actuality it takes a lot of hard work and dedication from a large number of people. Never take the glitz and glamour for granted, because behind that is sweat and determination.
Our Charlie Brown performance was a huge success. Here is a clip from our show.
