Choosing Your Next Round of Shows

Selecting your next show or full season, is an exciting, inspiring time for your whole organization. Careful consideration of a title’s audience appeal, technical and design requirements, casting challenges and other concerns make choosing shows an art unto itself.

While the need to consistently achieve high ticket sales is a common theme, artistic directors and producers try to select titles that will connect with their communities as well. Considering stories that will take their communities on new musical adventures together. In the educational and community theatre arena, the experience of the student or volunteer actors and techies is as important as the outcome of the show.

We’ve selected nine Broadway musicals, available for licensing for 2015-16, that can help inform your choice.

TRW Announces Acquisition of Jersey Boys

Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) President and CEO Steve Spiegel announced today the acquisition of exclusive representation for stage performance rights to Broadway’s Tony Award®-winning Best Musical, JERSEY BOYS. “I’m happy to announce the signing of a long-term agreement for the Stock and Amateur rights to Jersey Boys. I’m proud to be the home of this truly great Broadway show,” Spiegel said, shortly after closing the deal, from his office in TRW’s Times Square headquarters.

JERSEY BOYS joins TRW’s major licensing assets MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT, MEMPHIS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE COLOR PURPLE, ALL SHOOK UP, GHOST THE MUSICAL, BIG FISH, RING OF FIRE, CURTAINS, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, and a select group of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) and Off Broadway and Regional Theatre musicals.

Video Sells Tickets: Introducing CINEVATIVE

When it’s all said and sung, selling tickets is a top priority for all theatre organizations. Cutting-edge marketing that really works to sell your show relies on top-quality video promos for social networks, your website and broadcast. When you post a high quality video on your website and Facebook, Twitter, et al…you get results. Video engages your target audience with the visual excitement they seek to become motivated ticket buyers. And your boards of directors, school administrators and corporate donors will take notice that you know how to market your shows effectively and professionally on a tight budget.

Producing high quality video can be expensive and very time consuming. That’s where Cinevative comes in with VME (Video Marketing Essentials).

ROCS is Here! The Next Generation of Accompaniment Products

Show|Ready™ allows you to play a customizable rehearsal track of your show, complete with individual vocal parts, on a Mac, PC, or iOS device. With an intuitive interface, Show|Ready™ gives you complete control over which parts you hear, and lets you modify the key or tempo and cut, vamp, or repeat measures as you please. With Show|Ready™, songs aren’t just categorized by show order, but may also be sorted by cast member, ensemble, or dance number. All shows include the Piano/Conductor, bass, drum, and individual and ensemble vocal parts. Show|Ready™ makes it easy for music directors to communicate with their casts, as the edits made are saved locally and distributed via the internet to cast members. This enables your entire cast to rehearse correctly from the beginning, saving you valuable time.

RING OF FIRE SMALL CAST EDITION is Now Available from TRW!

Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) is proud to announce the release of the new RING OF FIRE SMALL CAST EDITION. RING OF FIRE has had a remarkable journey from Broadway to theaters across the world. Recently, the show received a new, re-defining production at the Milwaukee Rep by original ROF creator Richard Maltby, Jr. The new, streamlined song showcase features a cast of five actor/musicians. The remarkable story of Johnny Cash and his music is searing and arcs with an exhilarating concert experience that is unforgettable.

The five-piece version of RING OF FIRE is a more intimate edition of the original Broadway show. The five cast members can be the band as well, or theatre groups can put together a cast that fits their ensemble’s unique talents.

Script Changes? Just Ask!

The majority of the musicals in our catalogue were written for the Broadway stage, to be performed by professional actors in front of audiences expecting and accepting of a heightened level of language, nuance, subject matter and presentation. In essence, the Broadway production is a “destination experience” for those who attend.

Your school, community or regional theatre production is a “foundation experience,” and, no two foundations are built the same when factors including the age of the performers, the region of the country or the demography of the audience are considered. No successful theatre program can be built or survive without a solid foundation. We understand this and support it.

So how does the destination experience of the Broadway musical assimilate to the foundation experience at your theatre?

Des Moines Community Playhouse Opens RING OF FIRE Tonight!

The Des Moines Community Playhouse is widely recognized as one of the top community theatres in the nation. Leaders in the true spirit of creating a theatre for the community, their latest show, RING OF FIRE: THE MUSIC OF JOHNNY CASH celebrates the Man in Black, his times and his amazing music. Born a poor Arkansas boy, he picked cotton on the family farm before embarking on a 50 year career in music that includes more than 1,000 songs, 17 Grammys, and more than 90 million in album sales. Johnny Cash is still one of the most popular entertainers of all-time. The Broadway bio-musical tells Cash’s story of faith, family, passion, redemption, and salvation. A gifted cast of singers and musicians presents 30 of the gifted artist’s hits including “Daddy Sang Bass,” “Jackson,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “I Walk the Line,” and, of course, “Ring of Fire.”

Johnny Cash’s 80th Birthday Highlight His Permanent Cool Status

That Johnny Cash remains a superstar almost ten years after his death in 2003 is proof-positive that he has achieved a level of ‘cool’ that is nearly unmatched in the history of popular music. He is revered by artists from across the spectrum of musical styles. On what would have been his 80th birthday, February 26, 2012, there were scores of musical celebrations around the world to mark this milestone of the Man in Black. From Brooklyn to Bakersfield and beyond, thousands of Country & Western fans, hipsters, rockabilly hepcats and musical theatre fans gathered to honor one of the greatest recording and performing musicians of all time.

Way out west, to honor the legend who’d ‘been everywhere, man,’ the Fender Guitar museum in Corona, CA, at the Fender® Center, presented an exceptional, one-of-a-kind exhibit…

TRW is Proud to Announce the Release of THE COLOR PURPLE

Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) is proud to announce the immediate availability of Stock & Amateur rights for THE COLOR PURPLE. TRW is the exclusive representative of The Color Purple’s musical adaptation, which was nominated for eleven Tony® Awards and played 910 performances in its two and a half year run on Broadway.

Now, theatre organizations, schools, choirs and performing arts groups of all kinds can present this inspiring family saga that tells the unforgettable story of a woman who—through love—finds the strength to triumph over adversity and discover her unique voice in the world.

After a hugely successful four year national tour, this glorious musical journey is poised to change the landscape of school and community theatre forever.

A New Addition to Our TYA Collection: HOW I BECAME A PIRATE!

HOW I BECAME A PIRATE is now available for licensing! Based on Melinda Long’s hugely popular children’s book of the same name, this magnificent tale is a musical treasure chest that brings to the stage the tale of young Jeremy Jacob’s high seas adventure. Jeremy meets Captain Braid Beard and his mates one day, and is recruited to help find the perfect digging spot for their treasure!

With book, music and lyrics by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman, HOW I BECAME A PIRATE is ideal for theatre organizations that are looking for an easy to cast and stage musical that will do big biz at the box office!

HOW I BECAME A PIRATE connects with young audiences by capturing their sense of imagination and letting it soar as they come to know and love Jeremy and each and every endearingly crusty pirate…