Writing a Musical: Tips and Resources | Page 12 of 14

I Want Songs in Context

Sep 24, 2018 | 2 |

One way writers can avoid musical muddle is to write a good I Want piece. The audience needs to know the longings of the central character by having him or her sing about what’s missing in their life. Since we tend to root for a character to get what they want, we become engaged.

What Makes A Great Musical

Sep 17, 2018 | 0 |

Great musicals all grab something inside us by elaborating on and shedding a bit of light on the human condition. It is why we are able to be transported, charmed, moved, and involved when the lights go down, and why we walk out of the theater exhilirated, thrilled, delighted, and, at times, devastated. We may all differ on which musicals do that to us, but we can agree that there is nothing like the impact of great musical theater.

Another Show, Another Opening Number!

Aug 6, 2018 | 0 |

Most writers know they have to tackle certain structural must-haves, but there is one in particular that tends to be the most elusive: The Opening Number.

EUREKA! YOU JUST HAD AN EPIPHANY!

Aug 6, 2018 | 0 |

In order to keep an audience on its toes, most writers will lead the protagonist (and the audience) toward certain assumptions and conclusions, only to turn the tables, revealing that those assumptions and conclusions are invalid or untrue or counter expectation. Such twists frequently lead to “Aha!” moments of understanding. Most of these can be thought of as epiphanies. This is no less true for musicals than for any other kind of storytelling.

Bonnie Gleicher on Developing Addy & Uno

Jun 28, 2018 | 0 |

A little over a year after writing the first song for Addy & Uno, the musical opened off-Broadway on 42nd Street. What started out in a college classroom was now in the Theater District, and this feel-good musical is in its ninth month running Off-Broadway and one of the top-rated shows in New York. Bonnie’s advice? “Write the shows that excite you so extraordinarily to write. The ones you’d go to the ends of the earth to get in front of people. The musicals you wouldn’t be okay leaving behind unseen.”