Creating Stories for Musicals: Screen and Stage

Creating Stories for Musicals: Screen and Stage

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ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Musicals are among the most popular and beloved forms of entertainment around the world. Something magical happens when an unforgettable story is told through powerful songs, high-energy performances, and brilliant sets, lights, and costumes. Whether on a Broadway stage or the silver screen, audiences can’t get enough of wonderful music and lyrics and all that showy razzmatazz.

The sentiment has long been that when an audience loves a musical they leave the theater humming the tunes, but when they hate the show they blame the book writer. Crafting the story for a musical is, perhaps, among the most difficult writing challenges of all. Getting a musical tale to work well requires a deep understanding of narrative storytelling, character and plot development, subtextual scenes and dialogue, how and where to place the emotions best expressed through song, how to tell a story economically, and the patience to weather what is typically a long and arduous development process. It often takes top pros years to produce a draft of a musical worthy of production – and even longer to see it reach those pinnacles of musical presentation, Broadway, London’s West End, and Hollywood.

Creating Stories for Musicals: Stage and Screen will include an examination of various facets of what makes a musical a musical. Among the topics to be discussed are: adapting existing underlying source material, structure, plot points, opening and closing moments, character development, lyrics and subtext, song and dance spotting, writing a song versus saying it in dialogue, and the importance of staged readings and “out of town” tryouts. This webinar will also include a dissection of the structure of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” to examine the differences between the stage show and its movie adaptation.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

  • Where most story ideas for musicals can be found.
  • Musical genres.
  • How to structure a winning musical story, including plot points, opening and closing moments, and where to place an intermission.
  • How to develop unforgettable 3-dimensional characters.
  • Why write a song when you can say it in dialogue?
  • Subtext in dialogue and lyrics.
  • Song and dance spotting.
  • Writing an economical book.
  • The importance of staged readings and “out of town” tryouts.
  • The challenges of finding a producer.
  • The structural differences between the stage and screen versions of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

  • Writers, composers, and lyricists with a great idea for a musical.
  • Writers, composers, and lyricists seeking to develop and write a musical.
  • Writers, composers, and lyricists of existing musicals looking for ways to make their work more sellable.
  • Writers, composers, and lyricists seeking inspiration and tools to supercharge their musical theatre writing.

The Writers Store does not offer any refunds for the webinar. All sales are final.