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I'm looking for a good musical for my high school. We have a pretty new theater program and have never done a musical before. I'm looking for something that is simple and with a small cast. I would really appreciate any suggestions you might have.

Hi Peter,

You should check out Godspell and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. I did both of these musicals when I had a smaller program. They worked really well for us and the students and audience loved them. Both of these shows can be done with a minimal set.

Godspell is great because it is a super flexible cast and has moments where you can feature strong singers and strong actors separately if need be and the cast size can be whatever you want it to be.  For this show you only have to have 2 males (for Jesus and Judas/John the Baptist) after that you can cast roles however it works best for your cast. Plus it gives a lot of opportunity for students to help in the creation of how to act out the various parables. I utilized this opportunity as a type of improv workshop as one actor would tell a story and the other actors would improv the action. Of course I had the final say in what worked well and what didn't but it really gave the actors a sense of pride, freedom and ownership to help in the creative process. They were incredibly invested in the process and learned a lot in doing so.

Charlie Brown is another good one. It's kind of written like a bunch of comic strips strung together, which makes it unique and fun. The kids had a blast researching Charles Shultz and the characters of his comic strip to really bring these characters to life. I also added some additional Peanuts characters as chorus members in some scenes.

Good Luck!

I'm looking for a good musical for my high school. We have a pretty new theater program and have never done a musical before. I'm looking for something that is simple and with a small cast. I would really appreciate any suggestions you might have.