Student Blog: After “Musical Season”

Hello!

This is around the time when the school year starts coming to a close. Most theatrical productions have been put on, putting an end to the year's "play season" or "musical season".

Between productions, I still love to get my theatre content. I enjoy learning about different shows and getting into new fandoms. I imagine many of you reading this feel the same way. Here are some of my favorite ways to discover new shows, or to learn more about my current favorites.

Documentaries and Biographies

There are some great documentaries out there that detail the creation of different shows. You might be able to find a documentary about your favorite musical, or one of your favorite composers. A recent favorite of mine is Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, about the making of Merrily We Roll Along. There are lots of books as well, if you want to learn about some of the big names in theatre history.

Original Source Material

Many musicals are based off of a pre-existing work, such as a play, a book, or a movie. If you can get your hands on a piece of media that inspired a musical you like, it's a lot of fun to analyze the similarities and differences between the two. You will find themes that were added in, themes that were left out, or new characters who were created for the stage. 

There are some musicals that have multiple pieces of work preceding them. Many of my favorite musicals were based off of movies, which were based off of books. Feel free to watch or read as many different versions as you want of one IP. I love that when multiple adaptations are made of something, you get so many different interpretations of the same character. There are many different aspects of story telling to dig through!

TV Tropes

Tv Tropes is a website where you can find information on your favorite movies, shows, artists, and yes, musicals! It is the perfect place to read up on the narrative devices used in different works. If I discover a show that is new to me, or I finish a production of a show at school, I'll usually look it up on this website. You will not only get a list of tropes related to that show, but you can also find bits of trivia or fan theories!

everynoise.com

This website contains a map of hundreds of different genres of music, with a song to represent each one. When you click on a genre, it leads to a map of artists who make that kind of music, with one song for each artist. You can then click on an artist to discover more of their works. Unfortunately, the website does not seem to be updating anymore as of this year, but you can still interact with all the different maps on there.

Of course, you can use this to explore all kinds of music styles, but for the purpose of this article, I recommend the "Broadway" and "Vintage Broadway" genres. You will probably see many of your favorite performers on there!

Watch Proshots!

There are plenty of proshots or concert stagings of musicals out there! If you are someone who is interested in directing, watching these can teach you a lot. I like to pick out scenes and try to figure out why certain directing choices were made, or if I would have done something differently. I also just love proshots because they are a way of making live theatre more accessible!

I am constantly trying to discover plays and musicals that are new to me. My feelings on all of them may vary, but they all have a unique place in theatre history. For anyone who enjoys doing the same, I hope your new favorite show is just around the corner!

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