Live Performance Ideas You're Sure Only You Would Like

^^ Are lady baritones allowed?

RE My Immortal musical: THAT IS AN AWESOME IDEA.

RE "No tenors": And no sopranos/high mezzos either.

Wait, I thought that if we were banning the higher-pitched males, we would want to ban the lower-pitched females. ...?

Doesn't matter. Show would just be called "No Tenors." And the young handsome guy who's the romantic lead is also the lowest bass.

I think it'd be like a heist story.

I can totally see that. Make it happen.

I'm thinking the main antagonist is the next-lowest bass, but any other characters opposing the hero are baritones.

This obviously isn't your idea, but how about a show inverting Evil Sounds Deep, so there are tenors, it's just that the higher you get, the more unpleasant, unlikeable, and evil you get, and the lower you get, the more pleasant, likeable, and good you get?

Well, there are only six major voice types (or five, as contralto and mezzo-soprano are generally viewed as interchangeable) and musical theatre doesn't really pay attention to fach, that kinda thing would be somewhat limited. The Magic Flute does something like that - Queen of the Night (high soprano) is the villain, while Sarastro (low bass) is the wise priest.

The score for this musical would be fucking EPIC.

A musical about anthropomorphized atoms who want their valence shells full. Features stuck-up noble gases, a dangerously unstable hydrogen atom, at least one romantic duet about a chemical bond, and the depiction of large molecules as orgies.

edited 13th Oct '11 4:46:23 PM by PDown

^ omg perfection

I know! And I hate it! I'm a contralto and ever since I've been focusing on my lower range as well as my higher I've been able to sing almost all of the tenor roles I've tried, and I'm not talking about a barely-audible throat growl. Mezzos got nothing on that.

...wait, Contralto and Mezzo Soprano are even close? I thought that Contralto was the lowest female range and Mezzo Soprano was one of the higher ones?

Order goes soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto. In practice, there are very few roles in opera that are designated as "contralto," and the few that are tend to be played by mezzos a lot anyway.

I mean, if you look at The Mikado, the vocal ranges and tessituras of Pitti-Sing (mezzo-soprano) and Katisha (contralto) are virtually identical.

And then I've found that some contralto roles, mainly those in the Menotti operas The Medium and The Consul go surprisingly high for what's supposed to be the lowest female voice - both of those contralto roles go up to an A-flat.

edited 13th Oct '11 10:14:01 PM by Pannic

How I learned it, even a low mezzo-soprano would be much lighter and less dramatic than a proper contralto—I was mistaken to be a contralto for a straight year because my voice happens to be very dramatic, and my tessitura is mostly in my lower range.

Fucked me up big time.

...wait, is alto short for contralto?

Yes and no. Contralto is the solo voice type, whereas alto refers to the lower female part in choral music. At least according to wikipedia, but I've never looked in an opera score and seen a role designated as "alto."

edited 20th Oct '11 9:21:16 PM by Pannic

^ Pannic's got it right. I think it may be a bit more complicated, but to the best of my knowledge basically alto is the choral part and contralto is the voice type. Though since most people are more familiar with choir than opera, a lot of people use alto to define their voice type anyway.

That's weird. I was always told that contralto meant a female voice with a tenor range (countertenor being the opposite). I don't think I've ever heard it used interchangeably with alto.

/clueless inexperienced choral singer

Anyways, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival does really cool stuff with Shakespeare. They turned Twelfth Night into a rock musical and had a slow-motion battle scene in Richard III, which somehow got me thinking about The Mighty Ducks done as a Rock Opera.

A wacky musical comedy set during the Black Plague, with a running gag of the characters constantly coming up with the wrong reasons for the plague, even while prop rats move across the stage.

That would actually be really funny. And it could involve som black humor.

edited 23rd Oct '11 4:04:11 PM by cheeseypoofs

The funny thing is that its not hard to come up with a cast of characters.

-The young clergyman in way over his head because all the older, high ranking ones have died off.

-The Cloudcuckoolander doctor trying to figure out the plague and getting all the wrong conclusions.

-A street smart feudal serf tricking the empty headed feudal lord into giving more land to compensate for the lack of other serfs.

-Some wangsty artist/painter more concerned about how to express the plague in art than all the people kicking the bucket.

-Finally the town gravedigger/collector of the dead just a bit too happy about all the business he's getting.

edited 23rd Oct '11 10:24:09 PM by BorneAgain

For something that actually likely fits with the title of the thread:

A musical taking place at a high school dance, entirely in real time, except maybe for an intermission. Actual pop music is playing in the background, and is occasionally focused on, but the main focus is the characters singing their internal monologues, unaware of the other character's internal monologues. Despite the actual-pop background music, it's not a Jukebox Musical: The singing is not necessarily to the same tune as the background music, but it would be designed to fit with the background music. Furthermore - and the most original part - the lyrics would be designed such that they're clever enough to be entertaining, but not so clever that you can't imagine them being made up on the spot (as a consequence, they very often do not rhyme or rhyme poorly).

A musical about high-schoolers putting on a musical. Different from High School Musical in that it would actually take place on a stage, and all the scenes would take place during rehearsals.

The opening number would look like it could be the opening number to a normal musical, except the actors would be dressed in casual wear. But halfway through, the "director" would come out in front of the stage to say she needs to change the choreography again, to the stifled annoyance of the actors. Also, there would be a number about stage hands.

Ooh, and there should be a thing with the crew and tech team about how glad they are they're not dealing with the pressure of actually being on stage!

And set/wardrobe/tech malfunctions! The mikes should be shitty and either be too loud/soft or stop working for random stretches of time, the costume measurements are off or the actors have a shit time in their first dress rehearsal, and set pieces have to fall the fuck apart and get repaired with duct tape three hours before opening night!

And the actors could be bitching about the casting, especially who was cast as the lead. Also, the pit doesn't show up until the second act.

Have a number about obnoxious, school-enforced censorship - nay, a running plotline. Gives a good villain. :D