I’m only 14 but I have always wanted to make a musical. I decided i am going to write one even though at this age it probably will never see the light of day. I got time on my hands so I might as well use it! I couldn’t believe the like count, you are so underrated! Thanks so much.
I love this! That's a great age to start getting your hands into this, even if it doesn't see the light of day. Like anything, the more reps, the better. Thank you for sharing and for your kinds words!
My friend and I are writing a musical that honestly started off as a joke and then we felt like for fun, we should write it and see what happens and the title of our show is Kroger: The Musical and it’s basically the story of how Kroger became a thing and about the guy who founded it, but with a couple of interesting and fun twists
As a poet and short story writer now taking an MA in screenwriting and working in features, I’ve always wanted to develop musical concepts I’ve had but, knowing nothing of this particular craft, assumed it was all tied together and honestly didn’t know of the book/librettist element. I’ve recently had my eyes opened to the wonderful behind the scenes and am excited to develop notes that could form a book. However, no idea where to begin looking for collaborators. Still, good to be reminded nothing is out of reach
That's fantastic! We've got a TON of resources available in the MT Writing Collective, which is also a lovely place to meet some potential collaborators. You're of course very welcome if that sounds of interest to you!
Amazing video! I’m a high school student, and during our annual school musical, a few friends and I pondered the idea: “What if we were the characters?” I think we were sick of always getting casted as ensemble year after year 😂 Regardless, what seemed like a goofy idea shortly came to life. I took on the role of creating it, and casted my friends and myself as ourselves in the musical about some fictional lore about our school. Eventually, to make it interesting, I added a murder mystery element to make it even more enticing. The plus was it was extremely easy to design the characters because, well, everyone was themselves! The hard part was making a complete plot from scratch. Making a murder mystery was a completely new endeavor for me… the rational evidence and slow suspense was extremely hard to execute. I still don’t know if I did it right, but I made a rough draft! It’s around a 60 page one act musical, and I’m going to film it after school sometime with my friends (we even convinced a few of my teachers to be in it, which i find absolutely hilarious) Right now, I’m done with the rough draft of the script and have completed 6/9 songs. All of this is to say is that your video helped start it all for me when I began my extensive research, frantically googling, “how do I write a musical.” Thank you so much!!
I love this so much!!! What a fantastic way to choose to dive into writing a musical - congratulations on having the draft and songs! I'm honored to be included in your journey 😄 I hope this goes smoothly and you have an absolute blast!
Im Writing a musical with piano and guitar right now with my friend. Iv tried many times making songs and trying to make musicals. Iv never finished one. Im way better at writing music now. Iv gotten another friend to help with lyrics and dialogue. Planning of just planning songs on a google doc with the guitar chords and then ill try to write a piano vocal score. Very important to do than. Never finished one. But super excited to workshop it.
I'm more so writing a script/songs for a biopic about a fictional dance-pop/rock girl band in the 80's and how they become one of the the most iconic, influential, and biggest selling bands of all time as well as THE number one girl group of all time! The music wouldn't be within the dialogue, like most musicals, but heard and shown as recording sessions, concerts, and music videos! I've been listening to a lot of Michael Jackson, Queen, Prince, Banarama, Duran Duran, Madonna, and Tears For Fears for inspiration of their sound and style! Storywise it kinda goes the route of Amadeus and Bohemian Rhapsody where you see their rise and fall as a group and how the lead singer falls from grace when she becomes insanely jealous of the new girl who joins the group and how she plots to get her kicked out the band. The story would also show the girls in the 90's as solo artists and the problems they face during that time period!
Bro, this helps so much I’m a theater kid/director kid and I’m always directing the musical in my theater club and this helped a lot to write one that was perfect for my friends that are in the club and for the people in the club
I'm writing an indie show right now and I really want to make it a musical kind of show. I have no idea how to make musical numbers (or just music in general) so this really helps me out!! Thanks for the great video!
I'm a 21-yr-old Malaysian gal whose always had an affinity for musical plays and movies since 2017-ish. But I never got around to knowing how to make one cuz I only loved the craft, but I've recently fallen in love with the crafting process itself; the thoughts and feelings that go into making a musical. The state where I'm from (Penang) doesn't really support performing arts, that's more in the capital state, ie KL, which is like the Hollywood + slight Broadway of Malaysia. Maybe when I have the time, I'll utilize this video and see if I can make a banging musical too! Cuz I don't want regions to be a reason why I can't and shouldn't make musicals. This video is extremely helpful, gave a like and subscribed! Looking forward to watch your other stuff to guide me on writing musicals. ❤
Welcome! So glad that you're here! I certainly hope you decide to follow your passion at some point to write that musical, and I'll be here when you do 🙂
Very helpful video! I have been writing this musical for over a year now. I have just released the first song of the musical "Maybe If I Was A Dad" and I would love for everyone to check out! I also have a question, I have the story, the characters, the songs, but I am struggling with the script and making it sound natural. Any advice? And thoughts on the song too!
I'm glad it was useful! And congrats on your song release! Feel free to post the link in the comments for the community to check out. As to making the script sound natural, I'm working on a video about musical theatre dialogue that will drop in 2 weeks, so hopefully that helps. But let me ask: What is currently making it sound UNnatural to you? Is it word choices? Flow of dialogue? Meandering scenes? What are you picking up on?
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy Thank you!! Anyone who wants to hear, please my new musical-song: th-cam.com/video/Bpojj7HXvVM/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared Thank you!! As for the script, I feel the vocabulary and speech structure does not match the characters. So trying to get into the character's heads is hard. I appreciate the help!
@@maxlautner5242 Is there anything that already exists that you can liken the speech to that your aiming for? Another musical, a film, a novel, a TV show? Or specific characters that exist who have a similar speech pattern and vocabulary to what you would like to write? If so, you can gather some resources and study them, and see if you can analyze them for what makes the sound of their speech as specific and effective as it is!
If I was looking to write a musical adaption of a novel I had read, would you advise drafting the musical book first and then finding a way to contact the author, or would you contact the author first to pitch the idea and potentially collaborate on turning the novel into a musical?
My understanding is that whatever you're most comfortable with is probably the best way to go. That being said, going in with a clear concept and plan seems important, and I wouldn't think it would hurt to have a full outlined treatment, some script samples, and some song samples. It helps clarify what your idea is and allows people to have a taste of what the final product might look like!
I was thinking about making one for that book recently! if you ever get serious about this, I'd be down to collab! I can't compose but I can write lyrics and a book
Having a series of musicals isn't the norm, so it would more likely be one musical. Write it all out, and then trim it down to just what you need for the story!
I’m doing things in reverse. Over the years I have written a number of songs and now I have retired from live performances, I took another look at my work and realised that I can create a story around my songs. I just need a script writer who can work with my songs and how I envisage them driving the storyline. Wish me luck.
I’m at an arts school for theater right now. I have to take the required theater classes right now so no playwrighting yet and I can cross into the music conservatory until im a junior but I would love to be a playwright and composer someday
Is there any specific program you would recommend for audio/editing the music (preferably something free)? I'm just writing one musical-style song, rather than a full musical.
Surely! If you're looking to write in a sheet-music type software, I recommend MuseScore. If you're more looking for a DAW solution, I would suggest Garageband. Both will get the job done!
I made a wild idea for a musical with my friends and we've decided to make it come to life, we're all super talented in sewing and designing and writing, even though we're only in 8th grade we've decided to try. I'm the main director and writer for scenes but help out with designing and sewing as well. It's a story about at night the carnivals objects come to life, the ringmaster the only human, making them stay inside the confines of the carnival, they dream about what their life could be, finding love and relationships. They do manage to try and escape but find a firey wasteland beyond, it's actually hell, and though they had pushed what they did In their past lives behind them, they all deserved to be there, it's ends with them dying and the ringmaster sobbing on the floor because she had to kill one of the carnies that she had falllen in love with so they wouldn't escape and cause even more havoc.
quick question, do you think it will make sense to change different style of music through out, im writing based off a book and at the beggining i was thinkking more theatre music like traditionally i think, and then maybe switch to sea shanties for most of it since it takes place on a boat in the ocean for most of it
My instinct would be that if it's serving the story, then it absolutely could work! But it also sounds like the sort of thing that might need some experimentation along the way. And you may not have to fully switch genres, but could begin to introduce different flavors into the show's base sound. I also made a video on genre in musicals a while back. Not sure if it's useful to you, but here's the link just in case! th-cam.com/video/rAr78b4qjfw/w-d-xo.html
I’ve actually been thinking about making a musical about Hamlet by William Shakespeare. I’ve been wanting to do so ever since I played as Hamlet a while back during a school play and this really helped! So if you discover a Hamlet musical a couple years from now, it might be me!
I had recently this idea of hey what if I made my own musical? And then wondered how would be a music about mimes? Still have no idea of the plot , theme, story, scenario, whatever I just wonder how would be a musical about mimes, because of the contrast I guess, I would love to create my own story with this concept and make it a musical, I swear this video will be very helpful for me.
Ok, first, I'm not a fan of musicals... And all my friends are theater kids who tries to make me join and like musicals ... And i find that video in my recommandations ... And well, i take it as a sign of fate to write a musical... Plus there was a project in my school of a musical in writing about greek mythology like cupid/eros who's doing shit with arrows including Persephone, hades and dionysus... ANYWAY... Now... I really wants to write this... Thanks for that video
Hi:) I'm writing a musical script and is in the very, very, early process of writing a script. I want a collaborater who can compose melodies, because I have no musical note literacy. I'll keep the concept basic and not disclose the title until I find a collaborater: A princess who is made of glass goes on a journey with her crush/wheelchair pusher to become more human. Reply if this interests you. Perfect for fans of Once Upon a Mattress or Shrek.
Me and my friend are gonna try and write a musical based on the illad book(I CANT SPELL).EVen though we are only in middle school and have never read it and are stupider then flies
I’m only 14 but I have always wanted to make a musical. I decided i am going to write one even though at this age it probably will never see the light of day. I got time on my hands so I might as well use it! I couldn’t believe the like count, you are so underrated! Thanks so much.
I love this! That's a great age to start getting your hands into this, even if it doesn't see the light of day. Like anything, the more reps, the better. Thank you for sharing and for your kinds words!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy Np I’ve already watched many of your videos and they are helping lots.
I am doing the same. Same age
@@hawkthekaratefighter2584 I LOVE this teen energy and desire to create musicals!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy thanks for the support. My dad thinks it will fail
My friend and I are writing a musical that honestly started off as a joke and then we felt like for fun, we should write it and see what happens and the title of our show is Kroger: The Musical and it’s basically the story of how Kroger became a thing and about the guy who founded it, but with a couple of interesting and fun twists
I love that! I wonder if Kroger might approve and even want to get involved (or provide funding???)
As a poet and short story writer now taking an MA in screenwriting and working in features, I’ve always wanted to develop musical concepts I’ve had but, knowing nothing of this particular craft, assumed it was all tied together and honestly didn’t know of the book/librettist element. I’ve recently had my eyes opened to the wonderful behind the scenes and am excited to develop notes that could form a book. However, no idea where to begin looking for collaborators. Still, good to be reminded nothing is out of reach
That's fantastic! We've got a TON of resources available in the MT Writing Collective, which is also a lovely place to meet some potential collaborators. You're of course very welcome if that sounds of interest to you!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy interest piqued. Where can this be found?
@@robhardingpoetry You can see all the information about it here:
www.michaelradi.com/musical-theatre-writing-collective
wow thanks Steve! Gnomeo and Juliet the Musical is going to take over broadway!
Make sure you acquire the rights you need!
YEEESSSSSSSS
Amazing video! I’m a high school student, and during our annual school musical, a few friends and I pondered the idea: “What if we were the characters?” I think we were sick of always getting casted as ensemble year after year 😂 Regardless, what seemed like a goofy idea shortly came to life. I took on the role of creating it, and casted my friends and myself as ourselves in the musical about some fictional lore about our school. Eventually, to make it interesting, I added a murder mystery element to make it even more enticing. The plus was it was extremely easy to design the characters because, well, everyone was themselves! The hard part was making a complete plot from scratch. Making a murder mystery was a completely new endeavor for me… the rational evidence and slow suspense was extremely hard to execute. I still don’t know if I did it right, but I made a rough draft! It’s around a 60 page one act musical, and I’m going to film it after school sometime with my friends (we even convinced a few of my teachers to be in it, which i find absolutely hilarious) Right now, I’m done with the rough draft of the script and have completed 6/9 songs. All of this is to say is that your video helped start it all for me when I began my extensive research, frantically googling, “how do I write a musical.” Thank you so much!!
I love this so much!!! What a fantastic way to choose to dive into writing a musical - congratulations on having the draft and songs! I'm honored to be included in your journey 😄 I hope this goes smoothly and you have an absolute blast!
Im Writing a musical with piano and guitar right now with my friend. Iv tried many times making songs and trying to make musicals. Iv never finished one. Im way better at writing music now. Iv gotten another friend to help with lyrics and dialogue. Planning of just planning songs on a google doc with the guitar chords and then ill try to write a piano vocal score. Very important to do than. Never finished one. But super excited to workshop it.
Congrats on continuing to work on it and for choosing to learn and improve! Keep us updated as you go along!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy cool! I will!
@@kylerchristensen4509it’s been 7 months how was/is it?!?
I'm more so writing a script/songs for a biopic about a fictional dance-pop/rock girl band in the 80's and how they become one of the the most iconic, influential, and biggest selling bands of all time as well as THE number one girl group of all time! The music wouldn't be within the dialogue, like most musicals, but heard and shown as recording sessions, concerts, and music videos! I've been listening to a lot of Michael Jackson, Queen, Prince, Banarama, Duran Duran, Madonna, and Tears For Fears for inspiration of their sound and style! Storywise it kinda goes the route of Amadeus and Bohemian Rhapsody where you see their rise and fall as a group and how the lead singer falls from grace when she becomes insanely jealous of the new girl who joins the group and how she plots to get her kicked out the band. The story would also show the girls in the 90's as solo artists and the problems they face during that time period!
Bro, this helps so much I’m a theater kid/director kid and I’m always directing the musical in my theater club and this helped a lot to write one that was perfect for my friends that are in the club and for the people in the club
I love this!! I'm thrilled the video was useful, and congrats on devising a musical for your club!
I am currently working on a animated pilot of my original characters and it’s musical based and I’ve been stumped on some things
Thank you!
I love it! So glad this was useful!
I'm writing an indie show right now and I really want to make it a musical kind of show. I have no idea how to make musical numbers (or just music in general) so this really helps me out!! Thanks for the great video!
Happy to have helped!!
I'm a 21-yr-old Malaysian gal whose always had an affinity for musical plays and movies since 2017-ish. But I never got around to knowing how to make one cuz I only loved the craft, but I've recently fallen in love with the crafting process itself; the thoughts and feelings that go into making a musical. The state where I'm from (Penang) doesn't really support performing arts, that's more in the capital state, ie KL, which is like the Hollywood + slight Broadway of Malaysia. Maybe when I have the time, I'll utilize this video and see if I can make a banging musical too! Cuz I don't want regions to be a reason why I can't and shouldn't make musicals.
This video is extremely helpful, gave a like and subscribed! Looking forward to watch your other stuff to guide me on writing musicals. ❤
Welcome! So glad that you're here! I certainly hope you decide to follow your passion at some point to write that musical, and I'll be here when you do 🙂
Thank you! This channel is EXTREMELY underrated, so I wish you only the best!
Thank YOU! I appreciate you being here and these lovely words!!
Very helpful video! I have been writing this musical for over a year now. I have just released the first song of the musical "Maybe If I Was A Dad" and I would love for everyone to check out!
I also have a question, I have the story, the characters, the songs, but I am struggling with the script and making it sound natural. Any advice? And thoughts on the song too!
I'm glad it was useful! And congrats on your song release! Feel free to post the link in the comments for the community to check out.
As to making the script sound natural, I'm working on a video about musical theatre dialogue that will drop in 2 weeks, so hopefully that helps. But let me ask: What is currently making it sound UNnatural to you? Is it word choices? Flow of dialogue? Meandering scenes? What are you picking up on?
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy Thank you!! Anyone who wants to hear, please my new musical-song: th-cam.com/video/Bpojj7HXvVM/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared Thank you!!
As for the script, I feel the vocabulary and speech structure does not match the characters. So trying to get into the character's heads is hard. I appreciate the help!
Just for some clarity for anyone who wants to hear! "Maybe If I Was A Dad" at: th-cam.com/video/Bpojj7HXvVM/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
@@maxlautner5242 Is there anything that already exists that you can liken the speech to that your aiming for? Another musical, a film, a novel, a TV show? Or specific characters that exist who have a similar speech pattern and vocabulary to what you would like to write? If so, you can gather some resources and study them, and see if you can analyze them for what makes the sound of their speech as specific and effective as it is!
Oh that makes a lot of sense!! I can definitely do that.@musicaltheatrewriterguy Thank you so much for the help!!
If I was looking to write a musical adaption of a novel I had read, would you advise drafting the musical book first and then finding a way to contact the author, or would you contact the author first to pitch the idea and potentially collaborate on turning the novel into a musical?
My understanding is that whatever you're most comfortable with is probably the best way to go. That being said, going in with a clear concept and plan seems important, and I wouldn't think it would hurt to have a full outlined treatment, some script samples, and some song samples. It helps clarify what your idea is and allows people to have a taste of what the final product might look like!
I just casually want to make a musical for the book Song of Achilles😃
*Just chilling over here, casual-like...writing a musical* Love it!
I was thinking about making one for that book recently! if you ever get serious about this, I'd be down to collab! I can't compose but I can write lyrics and a book
@@unpoetica Cool! I might be doing something over the summer, but it's undecided yet. If I don't contact you again, I mostly likely have not done it.
@@gnabnxhc What's this? Collaboration potentially coming from the comments section?? I LOVE it!
Im writing a musical about an autumn festival and it has a lot to it so would I make more than one or have a lot of songs like 15 so far (0)
Having a series of musicals isn't the norm, so it would more likely be one musical. Write it all out, and then trim it down to just what you need for the story!
I’m doing things in reverse. Over the years I have written a number of songs and now I have retired from live performances, I took another look at my work and realised that I can create a story around my songs. I just need a script writer who can work with my songs and how I envisage them driving the storyline. Wish me luck.
I do wish you luck! I hope you find the person you're looking for!
This is such an amazing channel! This video helped me so much! Im writing a musical about 2 explorers ( vivo and Ian) and it is going REALLY WELL!!!😄
I'm *thrilled* the channel has been such a big help! And I can't wait to hear more about the musical!! 😃
is there a any video about how to write the song (lyrics and music) for musicals??!!
Many many! I have an entire playlist about Songwriting on the channel!
I’m at an arts school for theater right now. I have to take the required theater classes right now so no playwrighting yet and I can cross into the music conservatory until im a junior but I would love to be a playwright and composer someday
Keep that fire lit and remember that you can always supplement your knowledge on your own!
I gotta make a musical start to finish in five days
Wow - That's a big task! Is this for a program of some kind?
Is there any specific program you would recommend for audio/editing the music (preferably something free)? I'm just writing one musical-style song, rather than a full musical.
Surely! If you're looking to write in a sheet-music type software, I recommend MuseScore. If you're more looking for a DAW solution, I would suggest Garageband. Both will get the job done!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy Alright, thank you!
I made a wild idea for a musical with my friends and we've decided to make it come to life, we're all super talented in sewing and designing and writing, even though we're only in 8th grade we've decided to try. I'm the main director and writer for scenes but help out with designing and sewing as well. It's a story about at night the carnivals objects come to life, the ringmaster the only human, making them stay inside the confines of the carnival, they dream about what their life could be, finding love and relationships. They do manage to try and escape but find a firey wasteland beyond, it's actually hell, and though they had pushed what they did In their past lives behind them, they all deserved to be there, it's ends with them dying and the ringmaster sobbing on the floor because she had to kill one of the carnies that she had falllen in love with so they wouldn't escape and cause even more havoc.
Oh wow! What a story! I look forward to hearing how it goes putting this together. Good for all of you for deciding to dive on in - keep going!
quick question, do you think it will make sense to change different style of music through out, im writing based off a book and at the beggining i was thinkking more theatre music like traditionally i think, and then maybe switch to sea shanties for most of it since it takes place on a boat in the ocean for most of it
My instinct would be that if it's serving the story, then it absolutely could work! But it also sounds like the sort of thing that might need some experimentation along the way. And you may not have to fully switch genres, but could begin to introduce different flavors into the show's base sound.
I also made a video on genre in musicals a while back. Not sure if it's useful to you, but here's the link just in case! th-cam.com/video/rAr78b4qjfw/w-d-xo.html
I’ve actually been thinking about making a musical about Hamlet by William Shakespeare. I’ve been wanting to do so ever since I played as Hamlet a while back during a school play and this really helped! So if you discover a Hamlet musical a couple years from now, it might be me!
The world isn't ready for the When Burgers Attack musical
Or are we???
My nine year old sister told me to show her this video. I did because she is an amazing writer .
I love that!! More young writers!
I had recently this idea of hey what if I made my own musical? And then wondered how would be a music about mimes? Still have no idea of the plot , theme, story, scenario, whatever I just wonder how would be a musical about mimes, because of the contrast I guess, I would love to create my own story with this concept and make it a musical, I swear this video will be very helpful for me.
What a fun idea! I'm excited to hear more when you get into it!
Ok, first, I'm not a fan of musicals... And all my friends are theater kids who tries to make me join and like musicals ... And i find that video in my recommandations ... And well, i take it as a sign of fate to write a musical... Plus there was a project in my school of a musical in writing about greek mythology like cupid/eros who's doing shit with arrows including Persephone, hades and dionysus... ANYWAY... Now... I really wants to write this... Thanks for that video
Welcome to the dark(?) side!
I’m 11 but I really want to become a musical creator!!!
It's never too early to begin! I started writing music early too 🙂
@ 😁😁😁😁
Thanks for the video !
My absolute pleasure! Glad you found it!
I Hope it works out for me😊
As do I!
Hi:) I'm writing a musical script and is in the very, very, early process of writing a script. I want a collaborater who can compose melodies, because I have no musical note literacy.
I'll keep the concept basic and not disclose the title until I find a collaborater: A princess who is made of glass goes on a journey with her crush/wheelchair pusher to become more human.
Reply if this interests you.
Perfect for fans of Once Upon a Mattress or Shrek.
I'm about to do something absolutely horrific with the power noew vested in me
...will it have jazz hands?
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy The classic joker will always have jazz hands
rusrev musical gonna go crazy 🤑
One day.
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THE BURNING AGES
the musical
About the witch burnings
I look forward to learning more about it as you write it!
gonna bring the turkish representation i want into the musical community myself
Always a fan of more representation!
I started making a musical with my bestie at 11 im 12 now with a cast of 8 kids only pls wish me luck
I wish you the BEST of luck! Rooting for you!
Stop using pops. its a cop out.
?
Me and my friend are gonna try and write a musical based on the illad book(I CANT SPELL).EVen though we are only in middle school and have never read it and are stupider then flies