Musicals are a great part of high school tradition. Whether it's Oklahoma or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, musicals have grown into big business.
This is the time of year in many schools when music and drama departments come together to produce the annual school musical. While in many schools the productions tend to be 'low-key' affairs, there is a growing trend for bigger, better, and more detailed musical performances. Simply painting a backdrop and throwing together a few moving props seems boring in most schools as larger, more detailed, and much more expensive set pieces begin to show up on school stages. Having been involved with many different levels of high school musical performance I have seen and directed the gamut from shoestring budgets to big bucks productions. In retrospect I can honestly say that while my students always seemed to enjoy the show, the ones where the effort was made to make 'over the top' set pieces, special effects, and high quality costumes are definately the most memorable. In addition, such marvelous spectacles served to get the buzz going in the community about the upcoming performance. This in turn sold more tickets and allowed us to have an even bigger budget for the next year's musical.
In this day and age where bigger is often equated with better we should not be surprised at the direction the high school musical has gone in. The nice thing is that in this respect bigger and better often goes along with more participation and more excitement among the cast and crew (including those musicians in the pit ensemble). All these things go together to create a memorable and exciting high school musical event that will be remembered by everyone for years to come. If you have the chance, find out when your local school is holding their next performance and go check it out. You might be surprised at just how good it can be.
