# The Top 10 Most Performed Plays & Musicals in High Schools



## derekleffew

From PRODUCER :

> *Top 10 Plays*
> 1) _Almost, Maine_
> 2) _A Midsummer Night's Dream_
> 3) _You Can't Take It With You_
> 4) _Noises Off_
> 5) _Twelve Angry Men_
> 6) _Alice in Wonderland_ (various adaptations)
> 7) _The Crucible_
> 8) _Our Town_
> 9) Neil Simon’s _Fools_
> 10) _A Christmas Carol_ (various adaptations)
> 
> 
> *Top 10 Musicals*
> 1)  _Disney's Beauty and the Beast_
> 2) _Seussical_
> 3) _Grease_
> 4) _Into the Woods_
> 5) _Footloose_
> 6) _The Wizard of Oz_ (multiple adaptations)
> 7) _You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown_
> 8) _The Music Man_
> 9) _Once Upon a Mattress_
> 10) _Thoroughly Modern Millie_



Now my high school didn't do a single one of these (of course, many hadn't been written yet), but I have worked on eight (five plays, three musicals) of the twenty since.

Done to death or ripe for a new generation? Discuss.


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## sk8rsdad

Toss in _Anne of Green Gables_ in all its adaptations and that probably sums up English-speaking Canada too. 

I'm a bit surprised that none of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals made the list (South Pacific, Oklahoma, etc.).I guess they are out of fashion at the moment what with MTI dominating the market these days.


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## DuckJordan

sk8rsdad said:


> Toss in _Anne of Green Gables_ in all its adaptations and that probably sums up English-speaking Canada too.
> 
> I'm a bit surprised that none of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals made the list (South Pacific, Oklahoma, etc.).I guess they are out of fashion at the moment what with MTI dominating the market these days.


 

The high school i went to has only done 2 of these, they are about to make that 3 with The Crucible. Personally, I think they are still great shows, with a few exceptions, Wizard of Oz seems to have been beat to death. and so has Beauty and the Beast. Personally I would rather do a show no one has heard of and teach them something new than the standard, "fairy tales" with the exception of The Crucible. Since the Crucible is taught at a freshman level in our English classes it helps to see a different adaptation of it as well as what is on the film.


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## sstolnack

My high school has done a few of the musicals, but it was before I went there. I think they are good shows, but it does get sort of annoying to the audience when so many schools do them, you want to go see stuff, but you've already seen or worked on it. In the last few years, my school has been doing some slightly different stuff, like Cats, and Curtains, and this year we're doing Metamorphoses as our winter play and Titanic as our spring musical. Its a lot more fun for us students when we get to work on stuff that has either never been widely heard of, or is considered hard for a high school to do.


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## Grog12

derekleffew said:


> Now my high school didn't do a single one of these (of course, many hadn't been written yet),.



Not all of us got to see the original production of _A Midsummer's Nights Dream_ **ducks**


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## cprted

_Thoroughly Modern Millie_ is done more often than _The Sound of Music_? I would have never guessed.


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## LXPlot

I've done 4 of those in the last two seasons...my school district has done eleven of the twenty in the past three years. 

And just saying, other than Fools and Crucible, I hate all of those shows...why can't the Producers or Sweeney Todd get overdone?


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## zmb

My high school is doing _Seussical_ in the spring and the other high school that I'm welcomed to help out at is doing _SeussOdyssey _(neat show, btw) in January and both will be in the same venue. Everyone I've talked to thinks that this is odd.

Within the last couple years between three schools and four directors, there has been _YCTIWY, Alice in Wonderland, Our Town, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Footloose, YAGMCB, The Music Man, and The Wiz _(in the spring).

Surprised that _Fiddler_ didn't make the list and that _Christmas Carol_ is on the list.


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## ruinexplorer

We, too, had only done one of those (Christmas Carol) during the time I was in HS. And of course, not all of them were written yet, but I'm also surprised that Sound of Music wasn't on the list. I was (ahem) fortunate enough to do that in HS, college, and as a Broadway revival.


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## masterelectrician2112

That's surprising that 12 Angry Men made the list. My drama department doesn't even have 12 men. I guess you could switch around the genders, but that seems to void the title.


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## dvsDave

I've seen _12 Angry Men_ done several times with varying degree's of success with a mixed gender cast. (from incredible to horrible)

In fact, the best performance I saw had an incredible actress as the lead juror. She was so good, that I didn't even realize she was a she until I referenced the playbill and realized that I knew the actress in real life!


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## briancon7

I have done five of the top ten musicals in the last 3 years...


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## Sayen

I've seen a couple of _12 Angry Jurors_, to solve the casting issue.

Schools wouldn't keep doing the same shows, particularly musicals, if there was more variety available on the market for school friendly, balanced casts. I read plays and review scripts constantly for each season, and the reject pile is much higher than the "possibly" pile, which dwarfs the "oh yes, this is a good script to produce pile." Do you hear me playwrights? Turn out quality HS scripts!

Other than in small towns, I don't notice a shared audience with other schools, so the repetition doesn't bother me. It is, as Derek pointed out for me once, important for each generation to be exposed to the shows, even if those of us who have been in theater for a while feel burned out on some of these. For example, as a director, I chose to do Crucible one year because I had a (relatively) unique idea for it, and I was able to tie it in to our sophomore English curriculum. While it might be a tired show, it was new to those students.


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## Anonymous067

I've done 7/20 at our venue.


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## Darby

My school does not do many plays but we have done 7 of the 10 musicals since our auditorium opened. Our extent of plays has been limited to Arsenic and Old Lace, Pillow Talk, Up the Down Staircase, and a couple more.
Speaking of plays, Almost, Maine is one of the best written plays I have ever read/worked on. It is so cleverly written so I can see why it is #1 on the list.


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## gafftapegreenia

Well my high school has done at least two of those, and I have only worked on 1 in the list. Don't have the archive in my head but I bet my college has done most of those at some point.


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## patlienemann

My high school did perform a few of these but I would have to say shows that should go on that list
_Death By Chocolate
Harvey_
and
_South Pacific
West Side Story
Anything Goes
Guys and Dolls_
the reason I say these is because when I was in high school/part of college (2000-2006ish) there were a large amount of high schools in my area that did these shows. I saw Anything Goes three years in a row lol.


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## Grog12

Something not mentioned 2 years ago was the fact that this list doesn't include any works that aren't under copyright such as Romeo and Juliet ect.


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## josh88

Grog12 said:


> Something not mentioned 2 years ago was the fact that this list doesn't include any works that aren't under copyright such as Romeo and Juliet ect.



it included Midsummer, that wouldn't be under copyright.


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## gafftapegreenia

I want to see the expanded list, I wonder where Guys n Dolls and Arsenic and Old Lace rank. I bet High School Musical was at the top of a few yearly rankings.


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## Grog12

josh88 said:


> it included Midsummer, that wouldn't be under copyright.



Actually it would if it was their edited version.


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## josh88

Grog12 said:


> Actually it would if it was their edited version.




that's the problem they specified adaptations for some, and not whether midsummer was the original or an edit. I suppose you're right about the rest being in copyright so that's probably the right assumption then.


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## misterm

we've only done 2 of those, but the problem is like someone said, there's just too much crap getting written out there and its getting harder to find well-written plays for high schoolers. i know we've had this debate before, but a lot of schools are much more limited by local censorship as to what they can produce. but around here (small town, not a lot of theatre exposure), doing any of those would be acceptable without people complaining of it being overdone. so it depends on who and where you are.


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