NPR: Just three days from opening night, the task at hand is to figure out how to break a glass slipper onstage, or at least make it look like it's broken, since having a bunch of shards on the floor for a student theater production is probably a little too dangerous.
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This article touches on something very important within the theatrical industry, yet gets overlooked very often; the licensing of shows for educational theatre. Not only does the show’s legacy gain a new meaning but also its financial investment can recoup significantly. I have heard of many shows that did not do to well on Broadway but have regained it's investment via licensing. This example of the Britney Spears musical, Once Upon a One More Time, which I must admit I did not know of, is wonderful. The time the team put into the musical will not die with its short run but will instead live on through the young population. This show is especially suited for educational theatre as it combines songs that most kids know as well as a classic fairytale story. I also liked the anecdote about the show having twenty-five female characters and two male characters, it made me chuckle.
It doesn’t just give broadway flops a second chance. It gives producers and investors more money, yayy! MTI and the producers of said show, typically the writer as well, gets money every time a show gets licensed. So, if Hamilton ever gets licensed, Lin will be getting a ton of money daily from the rights being sold temporarily to schools across the country. I do imagine that is an even greater push for producers to license shows then out of the kindness of their hearts, spend more time and money with the flop that lost them money just so schools can have the honor of performing that piece. Another thing that can promote producers doing this is if a piece like Newsies ever comes back, because every school and their mother schools(?) has done that piece in the past, everyone will know about it. So, when they are picking their show to spend $400 as a family to see during their NYC trip, newsies will come straight to their mind! It’s a win win for producers, make money both in the short and long term.
Educational theatre in general is so important, as it introduces young people to the world of theatre often for the first time. Working in high school theatre gives students an opportunity to sample what theatre can really be, while working in a safe environment where they are able to, most importantly, fail. The point about high school theatre giving shows a second life is so interesting to me, as I hadn’t ever really considered that shows got a second life after Broadway. That proposition also seems to ring true, as I never would have heard of shows like The Addams Family and Seussical, which have died somewhere in the realm of mediocrity, if not for high school theatre. I think it also allows for the students to have a little more creative freedom on the technical side, as for a show like Les Mis, there is very significant precedent for a student designer to follow.
I think that the importance of educational theater is often overlooked. There are so so so many shows just like this that are popular purely because they are often preformed in schools. In fact licensing of shows for schools makes up a significant amount of the revenue for licensing companies and writers. for some reason schools like to do the same handful of shows and everyone knows this fact. This last year literally everyone did hadestown. i thought the point in the article about this specific show where they mentioned that this show has only 2 male characters and a lot of female characters was quite interesting because it’s so true that that’s an advantage this show has with theater departments that are mostly female. having the right show for the size and makeup of your theater department is crucial and when schools don’t pay enough attention to that, for example when a school does Six: teen edition, a show that only has six (all female) roles but does it with a huge ensemble it’s far less successful.
There are countless examples of “Broadway flops” being turned into some of the most frequently produced educational theatre productions. Sometimes it takes years, for others, the moment a play becomes licensable it sparks popularity within the educational theatrical community. One particular production, which isn’t actually mentioned in this article, that comes to mind is “Almost, Maine”. From being engrossed in the show my freshman year of high school, I remember finding it absolutely baffling that it had extremely mixed reviews from its very short Broadway run, given its popularity now. I came to learn that this phenomenon isn’t actually unique to “Almost, Maine”, and it emphasizes both the importance and distinct difference between the Broadway and educational theatre world. There’s a reason as to why these shows have become so popular among the educational theatrical community, and it’s a fact that shouldn’t go ignored. Despite what the critics claim as to what the true value of theatre is, the only thing that should matter in the educational realm is that it brings people together to appreciate and experience the art form.
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