What musicals do kids do in high school these days?

The Addams Family appears to be the current most produced musical in US high schools.

Our town HS did Urinetown this year and Legally Blonde last year

The high schools in my town over the past ten years have done In The Heights, Addams Family, Singing in the Rain, Pajama Game, West Side Story, Seussical, Head Over Heels, Putnam County Spelling Bee, and SpongeBob.

We didn’t do musicals at my school - I think we knew our limitations.

Did you guys have the school orchestra back you? Or was it just a piano? Please don’t tell me you sang along to the album.

Apparently they love Mamma Mia these days. And Mean Girls.

[quote]Did you guys have the school orchestra back you? Or was it just a piano? Please don’t tell me you sang along to the album.

Our school had an orchestra.

And The Addams Family and Mean Girls — of course. Kid and crowd pleasers.

Addams Family, Mean Girls, Les Miz, Into the Woods, Mamma Mia, Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, and Legally Blonde are the most often done around here...

Most high schoolers wouldn't know Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, or Jerry Herman if they bit them on their asses. I recently directed a youth production of The Sound of Music and only two cast members knew any of the songs.

I second mama mia. All the schools around me here are doing that one this year

Local high school here is doing "Anything Goes".

I sat through a lot of those at my old school. The absolute worst was the Putnam County Spelling Bee. I thought it would never fucking end. Pure torture.

Ours once did “Annie Get Your Gun”. The revised 1999 version. I doubt you could even get away with that one today.

"Floradora"

"The Red Mill"

"Naughty Marietta"

I'm willing to fully underwrite any all-boys school that puts on "Oh! Calcutta!"

AWe did oliver

Do schools even do "Godspell" any more? Is all the rainbow suspenders and clown makeup just embarrassingly dated, or would a musical about Jesus be a no-no in a public school?

Of course high schools would be doing more recent musicals in 2025.

Many of the songs for many of the great old shows my high school did back in the 80s ("The Music Man," "Guys and Dolls," and "Carnival") absolutely did not date (well, most of the songs in "Carnival" dated), but the books seemed moldy even then. Even back in the early 80s I remember the kids at my high school were mystified by Ethel Toffelmeier referring to herself as "the pianola girl," or by Nathan Detroit's references to "the Whitney colors." Why would those references seem anything other than even less relevant by 2025? I don't blame kids today for being more excited to do shows like "Legally Blonde" or "Addams family"--the songs are not nearly as good as those by Meredith Willson or Frank Loesser, but the kids would understand the shows' contents better.

"Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, or Jerry Herman if they bit them on their asses."

Pix, please.

TIA!

We never did musicals when I was in high school in the mid-90s; our director and the music department had some feud going on. Our director Looked, sounded, and acted like Gloria Stivic Bunker, I loved all the plays she chose for us to do: Death Takes a Holiday, The Game of Gold, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Don't Drink the Water. Now its stupid shit I think the current director writes himself, Like Zombie beach party.

I’m going to see a high school version of Hadestown in a couple of weeks. I’m having trouble picturing it..

Surprised no one mentioned Grease

Public schools should have no problem with Godspell -it's a classic show. No one does the suspenders and clown face stuff anymore -just general "hippie" costumes. If anyone does complain about the content, it's usually the far right, who feel the show is not reverent enough. Same thing with Jesus Christ Superstar. I'm an atheist and no problem with either show (as written). They are dramatically-sound pieces that tell a story from a point of view, and do it with a certain amount of creativity and entertainment.

Both Grease and Cabaret continue to get raunchier and raunchier with every new incarnation, but the right doesn't seem to complain about that...

Agree, R10. I absolutely hated it. The kids I saw did a good job—it was the musical itself that was awful.

[quote]r16 I don't blame kids today for being more excited to do shows like "Legally Blonde" or "Addams family"--the songs are not nearly as good as those by Meredith Willson or Frank Loesser, but the kids would understand the shows' contents better.

Well, maybe we should just let them read their marvel comix in class instead of the true classics like JANE EYRE and THE GREAT GATSBY!

Is that what you're saying? If so, your reasoning is ridiculous. I'm sorry but it is.

The Addams Family is a very solid show -well-written and with a fun, tuneful score. It's an audience pleaser, too. It's ideal for students, analogous to Arsenic and Old Lace. School musicals really do count on selling tickets to keep their programs running, so they have to consider what will get butts in seats as much as any other factor. Kids can study Shakespeare in class without having to put on Titus Andronicus as the spring show. They can, and should, learn about classic musicals and scores as part of their classroom work.

I agree, R23. Teachers should explain the references the students don't understand. Teachable moments. If you're teaching Hamlet, you'd probably have to explain what a doublet is.

You pervs go to see high school musicals? Doesn't that violate your parole? Austin used to do the same thing.

We did The King and I with lots of Max Factor Light Egyptian and Black Nestle spray. It was the 70s.

It is telling and frightening how upset people get at Jesus being depicted as black. Would they care if a Chinese person played him?

FOLLIES!

Wicked

[quote]Well, maybe we should just let them read their marvel comix in class instead of the true classics like JANE EYRE

How about a compromise, r23?

R8 that’s so very sad. Jukebox shows on a high school stage?

R29 none of those kids actually had fun in in high school

[quote] Well, maybe we should just let them read their marvel comix in class instead of the true classics like JANE EYRE and THE GREAT GATSBY!

[quote]Is that what you're saying? If so, your reasoning is ridiculous. I'm sorry but it is.

.Jesus H. Christ.

Stand down, you histrionic elderly queen. I did not say the new shows were better than the new ones (which for some reason you seem to be assuming I said); if you'll look at what I wrote, all I said was that high school kids would be more excited mounting the newer than they would be doing the older shows because the newer shows have books they understand better, and I stand by that observation.

If they wanted to perform in the older shows, the high schools would indeed still be mounting only the older shows. And I am not disputing that the older shows have better songs.

I think Thoroughly Modern Millie is popular with high schools

[quote]r34 all I said was that high school kids would be more excited mounting the newer than they would be doing the older shows

Oh! And from that I'm to infer the high school "kids" would be more excited mounting the newer hookers on the boulevard, instead of we "classic" models who've staked out a hardscrabble turf? Well, I won't clear out so readily - there's a lot of life left in this mussy!

A local high school just did How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. It was okay. In the last few years in our county (4 high schools) we've had The Addams Family, School of Rock, Grease, Something Rotten, and The Little Mermaid.

Last year's musical at my local high was Chicago. Prior to that they did The Phantom of the Opera, The Drowsy Chaperone, and Legally Blonde. I think the Addams Family was the one done the year before the pandemic.

The ones done recently around here (NE Wisconsin)-

Newsies

Anastasia

Seussical

Addams Family

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

A Chorus Line (Tits and Ass was changed to This and That)

Cinderella

Guys and Dolls

Sister Act

Annie

The Little Mermaid

Little Shop of Horrors

Footloose

I saw my friend’s son was in Heathers. I thought that was pretty edgy for high school, but he goes to a progressive private school.

The high school in my suburban neighborhood advertises widely, so I am amused by their offerings (which I really don’t want to see). Hadestown, Crazy for You, Mary Poppins. High School Musical, Matilda. They’ve done Les Miz twice since I moved here. Our next door neighbor’s son, who is now a working actor, held singalong cast parties in their adjoining back yard.

"I saw my friend’s son was in Heathers. I thought that was pretty edgy for high school, but he goes to a progressive private school."

Progressive, that is to say, crank school.

[quote]Most high schoolers wouldn't know Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, or Jerry Herman if they bit them on their asses.

No matter how much Jerry might enjoy it.

Stealth Sad last days thread

I really don’t see how a public high school could have the budget and talent to pull off Phantom, Les Miz, or Wicked.

We did lots of operettas and folk song musicals. I assume they were cheaper

During Covid lockdown, I for some reason got in the habit of watching high school musicals on YouTube. At first, I would watch the whole thing, but then I started just watching key scenes to see how certain things are handled. Now, of course, the algorithm has decided that all I want to do is watch them. Could be true. I feel sort of mean about it sometimes.

The overwhelming difference between the number of girls and boys onstage sometimes leads to hilarious decisions. There are quite a few "Little Shop of Horrors" out there with "MRS. Mushniks" and apparent armies of Chrystal, Chiffon and Ronettes so every girl gets a little line to sing.

"Pippin" was popular for a while there. Some of them use the newer "circus" staging and many get visual ques from the filmed Ben Vereen version.

The one that surprises me the most is "A Chorus Line." There are quite a few of them out there. It shocks me (in a good way) how many of them leave in "adult" language and situations (Most Moraleses get to say "bullshit" in "Nothing," but some have to say "whole thing" instead.) "Dance Ten, Looks Three" becomes a song about "This and That" instead of "Tits and Ass." Whatever the changes, good on those theater teachers for choosing something thematically challenging.

The biggest one clogging up my feed of late is "Mamma Mia." None of them are good, mostly because the show itself is bad. However, there is something hilarious about watching a girl in heels vamp around singing "Does Your Mother Know" while fighting off the advances of an obviously gay, scrawny, shirtless freshman.

Two things I have noticed...

1) Someone is teaching kids to sing through their noses.

1) Most of these things are obviously choreographed by the JV wrestling cheerleading coach. A lot of Pointer Sister shit.

Now something called the "junior" version of "Rent" is showing up. I have to admit I am curious.

These three titles are some popular musicals that are getting mounted annually by high schools across the country:

OKLAHOMA! (I think the popularity of Western shows like YELLOWSTONE and its spin-offs have contributed to this)

SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (set in the 1920s about how "talking pictures" revolutionized Hollywood, it's become relevant to the 2020s with the advent of AI and its affect on Hollywood)

BONNIE & CLYDE (Frank Wildhorn's musical has had quite the successful afterlife after flopping on Broadway in 2011; it's not just US high schools but also the UK, Canada, and Australia).

I was really impressed by this WIZARD OF OZ production by Carlynton High School in Pennsylvania.

They even made the witches and wizard fly!

[quote] Lerner and Lowe

Oh, dear.

I'm surprised that a high school could get the rights to do a fairly current show like "Hadestown." I haven't even seen any regional theaters mounting that one yet.

A few years ago I saw a high school production of "Curtains." The school was in a predominantly Asian area of LA County; the male lead was played by a very overweight, tall gayling of Chinese descent.

Aren't there Bowdlerized versions of a lot of shows that are available specifically for school productions?

The kids at my suburban high school did spring awakening a few years ago and when I saw the hand made sign I just had to go to experience it. 😂

I am fairly sure I was the only non-family person in the audience. It was bizarre to say the least. The kids clearly didn’t understand the material because it was a relic from a century ago, and the kids of Wedekind’s era might as well have been cave-teens angry that they’ve been asked to help skin the mammoth.

In 1979, Steve completed a rough draft – almost a pop fantasia – of “Aldo”, based on the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro. I saw the first performance of ALDO – a rehearsal actually – at Lincoln High School of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The show never proceeded beyond this first rehearsal. The 11:00 p.m. number, “Renault 4”, felt tacked on and Steve could not find a more satisfactory way to conclude ALDO. But over the years, he workshopped and revised ALDO until it became more famously produced as ASSASSINS, which had some of the same problems with the book as ALDO. After the show, we collected at the home of Jerry Pierkowski, LHS’s theater director and the night descended into a cocaine-fueled orgy.

My point is this: that is the last high school musical that I attended. If you don’t know of the show, then you are not a TRUE FAN of American musical theater and that says more about you than you think. I do have the original cast recording on eight track, but there is no point in sharing it here. Pearls before swine and what not.

Yes, Hadestown has been officially licensed for high schools to perform. A special "Teen Edition" of the musical, modified for high school audiences, is available for licensing by schools and youth groups through Concord Theatricals.

......online AI info

I was curious by postings above...apparently versions for high school are made available much sooner than in years past.

it helps bring audiences to professional productions playing in NYC and beyond.?

it creates an awareness of the show for those that don't read Datalounge?

And they give high school drama queens the chance to be FABULOUS on the way to working at the local Speedway Service Station/Coffee Shop.

Or going to college and suddenly being thrust into a group of fifty other high school "stars."

R55 this cynicism is why I despise liberals now.

They're so hateful and always angry and such killjoys.

Oh Calcutta! used to be popular in the 70s and 80s - now it's like it has fallen off the earth.

[quote]Now something called the "junior" version of "Rent" is showing up.

In the junior version everyone has measles.

It's funny how you can bash liberals in *any* thread. r56

r56, you're blocked forever.

Its gimmick had run its course, r57. People weren't going for the book or score.

The Black Crook

FOLLIES!

Interesting lists. Apparently "Hairspray" is already old hat in today's high schools, and I'm surprised. It has great roles for kids (black, white, anywhere in between), lots of silly costumes and hair, catchy songs, fun dancing, two great villain roles, and the chance to let a fat girl and a teen queen get lots of applause.

Awhile back someone at MTI realized that there was a market out there for chopped down shows for high schoolers and church groups. And so the "Junior" versions were born. The shows are cut down for length, and "objectionable" language and adult content is removed. Supposedly with the consent of the authors and rights holders. There is a Sweeney Todd Junior, where I suppose Sweeney gives his customers a shaving rash and Mrs. Lovett disposes of the swept-up hair in her pies... (I've never been able to bring myself to read the junior version.) Song keys are adjusted for younger singers, and vocal arrangements are simplified. The Juniors are marketed in kits which include rehearsal and performance tracks, poster art, etc. so the shows are super easy to produce. No worries about orchestras and rehearsal pianists.

Sunset Blvd

.......

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My niece recently starred in her Maplewood NJ's high school production of The Prom.

I know the movie sucked, but it was pretty edgy to have the annual play be about a lesbian girl wanting to take another girl to the prom.

Maplewood is a pretty progressive town.

At my high school the most modern piece we did was BAREFOOT IN THE PARK.

Otherwise it was THE CRUCIBLE, THE LITTLE FOXES, A THURBER CARNIVAL, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, CHARLEY'S AUNT, YOU CANT'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.... and this was the 1980s!

In hindsight, I don't know why we never did anything even vaguely contemporary.

My elementary school had a tradition: the sixth grade class performed in a musical prior to graduation. The year I graduated, the teachers chose Carousel — in my opinion, one of the darkest musicals of its period. I wonder if they now put on kiddie versions of Assassins and Passion.

In the 1970s we usually did classic shows from the '30's to the '50's. Kaufman and Hart, Our Town, The Diary of Anne Frank, Auntie Mame. All the high schools were doing that stuff. We did Shakespeare, too. We never even did anything as contemporary as Neil Simon. We didn't do musicals at the time, then we started. I have to say the stright plays were much better than the musicals. Today I don 't think high schools do a lot of straight plays, but they should. It's asking a lot for kids to act, sing and dance, rather than just act.

*Not to mention it's much easier to successfully stage a play vs a musical, in general, but esp. on a limited budget .

[quote]R72 In the 1970s we usually did classic shows from the '30's to the '50's. Kaufman and Hart, Our Town, The Diary of Anne Frank, Auntie Mame. All the high schools were doing that stuff.

Looking back, I suppose those plays were popular with certain schools for sooooooo long because there was no sex and no off-color language.

No parent was going to complain about those shows to the school board.

I'm obsessed with youtube videos of high school students performing in completely inappropriate musicals for their age and/or for their era.

This is a favorite of mine--"Backstage Babble" from a high school's production of "Applause." It qualifies as both.

^^^Whoops, here's the clip from "Applause."

[quote] Today I don 't think high schools do a lot of straight plays, but they should. It's asking a lot for kids to act, sing and dance, rather than just act.

That's true, but all the same, it's incredibly fun to be in musicals, especially when you're that age.

I was considered the best actor for my year in my high school, and I got to play leading roles in Shakespeare and Moliere. On the other hand, I'm a mediocre singer even by high school standards, so i only got chorus parts or small parts in the musicals. But I had much more fun in the musicals.

Every year we did a comedy, a drama and a musical.

"No parent was going to complain about those shows to the school board."

Given how often The Diary of Anne Frank is banned (or challenged) in school libraries I wouldn't bet on that, R74.

Th high schools where I live do straight plays more frequently than musicals. They are modern and tackle timely issues like depression/suicide, sexuality, race, poverty, etc. Only the musicals are outdated, but fun.

from 2016

...most recent list I believe