Open Forum

Hello,

The music director at my school and I are strongly looking at Big Fish for our musical this year.  Has anyone directed this show and have any comments, positive or cautionary, about it?  I don't think our audience is very familiar with it, but we really like the music and the storyline.  I look forward to any responses.

Thank you,

Ken Robinson

Hi,

We did the show last Spring and the students (and directors) enjoyed it immensely. No cautions as such but it does move through time frequently (Edward is in present day and at the change of a light cue is now in the past). Perhaps not difficult for the cast but may be difficult for the audience to follow. 

Best Wishes,

Dana

Hello,

The music director at my school and I are strongly looking at Big Fish for our musical this year.  Has anyone directed this show and have any comments, positive or cautionary, about it?  I don't think our audience is very familiar with it, but we really like the music and the storyline.  I look forward to any responses.

Thank you,

Ken Robinson

Hello,

The music director at my school and I are strongly looking at Big Fish for our musical this year.  Has anyone directed this show and have any comments, positive or cautionary, about it?  I don't think our audience is very familiar with it, but we really like the music and the storyline.  I look forward to any responses.

Thank you,

Ken Robinson

I directed Big Fish a couple of years ago.  It is a great show.  You need some killer tenors to play both father and son.  The mother is mezzo (amazing song in the second act for her).  The witch has great number in the first act. There is room for a very large chorus if you want to expand.  Good characters, heart felt moments.  I have never had an audience be so moved and so emotional as when watching this performance.  Music is a little tricky.  Lots of costumes and the set locations move rapidly from place to place.  We used a stationary structure with large short throw projector. Beautiful look.  Check out our web-site for pictures: poteetpirateplayers.weebly.com

Break a leg!

Hello,

The music director at my school and I are strongly looking at Big Fish for our musical this year.  Has anyone directed this show and have any comments, positive or cautionary, about it?  I don't think our audience is very familiar with it, but we really like the music and the storyline.  I look forward to any responses.

Thank you,

Ken Robinson

Hello,

The music director at my school and I are strongly looking at Big Fish for our musical this year.  Has anyone directed this show and have any comments, positive or cautionary, about it?  I don't think our audience is very familiar with it, but we really like the music and the storyline.  I look forward to any responses.

Thank you,

Ken Robinson

We did it last spring and it was a big hit! Most of our student body had not heard of it either & that did impact ticket sales, but after opening night word spread quickly that it was a great show & sales picked up. However, one advantage of that is that there is no way to really compare it to past shows or other schools, so the nay-sayers were at a minimum.

One small controversy I had to deal with was parents that disapproved of Will & Josephine having a baby before they were married & I had to change a bit of language to appease my very conservative, religious community.

We had a cast of 50, so there are lots of possible cast expansions, like we had 12 witches & 24 USO dancers. One challenge was that the leads are male & most HS programs are (as is mine) are loaded with girls. We resolved in a few ways. 1. Expand the cast - we cast 9 lambs - 3 different ones each night. On the night they weren't lambs, they were ensemble. 2. Get creative with the ensemble - circus, Ashton, U of A, etc are all areas to be able to add individual characters with staging, costuming & relationships. For example, we had a bearded lady that had a crush on Edward & kept trying to get his attention during circus number. 3. We focused on dance quite a bit. It's a big dance show, so we hired a great choreographer & kids got to learn clogging, tap, ballroom & western swing. 

It's a great show & I highly recommend it. People who had seen the movie said the musical was actually easier to follow & understand because we focused on the relationships- father/son, husband/wife, man/friendships/ society. Not a dry eye in the house at curtain. One email I received from a teacher after opening night said "It was a visual dream. There was so much going on that I never knew where to look & I didn't want to miss a thing. Every scene took my breath away & I never wanted it to end." Break legs!

Hello,

The music director at my school and I are strongly looking at Big Fish for our musical this year.  Has anyone directed this show and have any comments, positive or cautionary, about it?  I don't think our audience is very familiar with it, but we really like the music and the storyline.  I look forward to any responses.

Thank you,

Ken Robinson