Okay, I'm now, sort of, writing a musical. Or rather, I'm writing the songs for it. The thing is, how in the world does one write a musical? Seriously, how? I mean, I guess it would be like a normal script with songs thrown in but... something tells me there is more to it than that. Also, how would one go about publishing a musical? I REALLY doubt this would ever get published or whatever, but it's interesting to think over. I'm just wondering what I should do with it if I ever finish writing it. Sorry if the latter should be in a different thread from this. With all of that in mind, I do have a song from it. And it worked out pretty well actually, but definitely feels like it's part of a larger whole. So, hope you guys can help.
When you write a musical, that is actually a theatre production, so it's not really a book, its more of a script. So that may be how you would want to write it, rather than thinking of it as a book. That way you can include the lyrics and it wont be strange. But for a script you would typically have a story planned before you write the music, that way you can write lyrics that tell a bit of the story or explain the emotions being felt for that part of it. If you think of novels like the Phantom of the Opera, it was an old novel but theatre adopted the lyrics.
Ah. Interesting considering I never thought I would write anything for theatre. What's interesting is that I've written songs that make a story, but none of the in between parts. So, I'm doing it in reverse order I guess. Wonder if musicals have been written that way before...
If the reverse order works for you go ahead and write it that way but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the music pieces have to change. I must say I never knew anyone who wrote a musical but it takes a special sort of talent to pull it off. Good luck with it.
I believe a musical would be written as a script, but the musical pieces would be written and copyrighted separately (as lyrics and as musical scores). However, script writing really isn't my thing, so I'm not absolutely certain.
Yeah, I haven't either. It may actually be pretty unique, however I have no idea how this would work on stage. The plot is made up of two plots that occasionally intercede. The first is of teenage boy dying of an STD, yes he got it that way, and the hallucinations that haunt him until death. The second is of said kid's family collapsing from his death, the father's abusive nature, and various other pressures occurring.
i've written a musical and can help you if you want... just drop me a line anytime... first of all, the narrative component of the musical that may or may not include spoken dialog is called the 'book' or 'libretto' [italian for 'little book']... the script is like any theater script, but includes the song lyrics and dance numbers... http://www.musicals101.com/book.htm http://www.musicals101.com/write.htm [this includes a link to 'how to get your musical produced] hope this helps some... love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
