I would love to try and write a musical, I just have no idea where to begin! Do you write the score while writing the script, or do you just focus on the words of the songs and add the music later? I just have no idea where to start and would love some advice!

Thanks ^_^

I'm not sure how much help I'll be, but I'll give it a try!

I always write the score after I write the lyrics and I've finished the first draft of the script, but that is completely up to you.
Truth is, the writing of musicals is a fairly subjective medium, so the writer can choose how they want to write. There is no set "formula" for writing a musical, it's almost completely up to the writer. There are only a few things that are considered "standard":

1) The opening is almost always the first thing an audience hears in the show, save for the Overture. Some shows have the opening number after a page or so of dialogue. If you decide to go ahead and write the dialogue before the opening number, just make sure it fits with the show and your opening doesn't lose any of that in your face element that opens the show. Always remember that the things the audience remembers most are the opening number and the finale.

2) The end of the first act isn't the "climax" of the show. The climax almost always comes about halfway through Act Two. The act one finale is usually a pivotal moment in the plot, something that sets everything up for act two.

I think that's pretty much it. Like I said, it's a very subjective art. A lot of the musical's format is up to you.

Good luck with you Screnzy endeavors!

I'm a songwriter who happened to write a musical for my kids high school. I attempted to clarify the why's and how's here if your interestd in reading my little diatribe.
-Jim

http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/reason.html

I'm not sure I would pick Screnzy to write a libretto - but then again, why not? Of the handful of ideas I'm contemplating for my hundred pages, a couple of them could be musicals. I'm not a composer, just words only, so if I want to write something to appeal to a composer I'll hope for scenes that lead to a song-like moment, and a story that "sings". Yeah, that's vague, I know.

I've had six musicals professionally produced, including in NY, and the only good advice I can give is: Mine a story from your songs, mine songs from your story. Well, I can think of other things like, variety, variety, variety; three ballads to an act, tops; use a chorus; where does the story dance?; serious is easy, fun is hard; and so forth.

Anyway, have fun. I will!

AJ

Thanks for the Tips guys! Some of that will definetly come in handy ^_^

I've been tentatively plotting this musical out in my head since... well, almost a year now! Not sure how well it'll go, but it's good to know I'm not alone. ;)

When I'm not writing, I'm at rehearsal. (When I'm not at rehearsal, I'm writing, I should say...) I write music when I think to do it or when something pops into my head. I'll sketch out ideas and random words as they come, and write if I have music in my head, but mainly I flipflop around.

[Random q: does it count as cheating to have a few songs in advance? I have basically an entire number written in my head... the first one, actually. xD]

It doesn't count as cheating if they're only in your head and you haven't written them down. Good luck on all your musicals, guys! I would never be brave enough to try to write music as well as a story.

Go with your strength. If you're not a composer, dont try to be. Use a simple placeholder tune when working out your lyrics and then let someone else provide the music. If you're not a lyricist either, there's nothing wrong with writing something to the effect of "insert song here" and indicate what it's supposed to accomplish at the moment. Several professional bookwriters do this for their first drafts before the composer/lyricist team come on board.

Recommended book: MUSICAL THEATRE by Tom Jones (of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt fame, authors of THE FANTASTICKS and 110 IN THE SHADE, among many others). Great little handbook that basically says there are no set rules to writing this genre.

I'm not *actually* writing any music to go with the lyrics, so am I cheating? I don't actually plan to use the script ever- it's a musical about the Easter Bunny with a chorus of showgirls in pastel outfits, there's not much you can really do with that.

Are you kidding? There's lots to be done with that -- the Easter Bunny as the darker side of Santa Claus, with showgirls instead of elves? I love it!

I suppose you should play to your strengths. If you are better at writing music do that first to get the atmosphere and tone of the play. If not, write the lyrics and add music later. I'm doing the script first and then leaving myself a note 'insert song here' as I'm not sure of the framework of the story yet so i want to nail that first

I will be inserting lyrics as I go, to be later revised as needed. Remember, fenzies, that not all songs need rhyme and meter. I personally know of several songs in musicals where there isn't much rhyming.
Just go with the flow, and don't kill yourself over the songs. Let the emotion of the characters take over no matter how hokie it sounds, because the emotion and the tune is what the audience will remember.
When in doubt, repeat phrases for impact. It works in Cats.
Another trick that can get you through another page is the Reprise.
Hope it helps!

I disagree, JRB. Craft rules musicals. Which means meter, scansion and rhyme when it's needed, repeat phrases to anchor the song, and reprise when new information would be overload. But screnzy is about getting that draft out, and you're right, going with the flow is the only way to do that. Wright on!

...repeat phrases to anchor the song. check.

...reprise when new information would be overload. check.

Any other suggestions? Things that are second-nature to those who've done this before?

How to know when the characters break into song? Emphasizing/giving insight into what's happened or advancing the action? Who sings together and who doesn't? When NOT to sing?

Anything else at all?

BTW, I found this helpful: how to write a musical

Just a few observations about librettos that playwrights seldom notice.
First, it seems that in every good libretto the plot is moving towards an event, often a party, a ball, a clambake, a dance...some occasion...generally this happens in the 2nd act.
One of the things that music can accomplish that isn't accomplished in a play is that it is quite acceptable and natural that characters can be singing (talking, communicating) at the same time, even running scenes together can be made sensible with music.
From a musicians point of view, a librettist should with a cold eye, plot out a varied musical program. Don't follow one type of song with another, or the same character singing a song one after another. Construct your scenes so that different groupings of people are singing different types of songs.
Finally, don't reserve songs exclusively as little puddles of actionless reflection. Make scenes and actions and plot happen in your musical planning.
Don't have songs just sit there as a pause. Give the singer something meaningfully dramatic to be doing during the music, a reason to be singing.
The best models are the classics: My Fair Lady, Carousel, The King and I, Kiss me, Kate...and NOT the movie versions.
Oh, and one other thing. For characters to sing is a stylized form of theatre.
Realism is sometimes overrated. We take for granted the convention of intimately watching actors with the fourth wall removed and sometimes with orchestral underscoring in a film and think nothing of the fact that we have accepted this convention with hardly a question and never accuse this form of being unrealistic. The Greeks never questioned a large speaking chorus that commented on the action and on occasion interacted as well. Musical theatre is just another, and thrilling form of theatre.

This thread was a great find. It's good to see that others are coming to the aid of budding musical writers.
As for myself, I've spent two years trying to write a musical plot with no luck. I have a collaborator who I work well with and we can knock of songs and dialogue very easily, but when our plot fell apart we spent a lot of time rethinking again and again. I just don't know how to come up with a unique plotline anymore that fits the msucial style we'd like.
To be honest I'd really love to do a musical version of Harvey,(There's so much untapped potential in them hills) and while one awnser would be to alter a classic, what the heck could possibly be an alternative mcguffin to a eight foot invisible rabbit, XD?