If they just do a single song from a musical, do they have to pay anything beyond the normal ASCAP/BMI/SESAC performance fees? My niece performed two Phantom songs in school variety shows.
It’s been going strong all day as I worked in silence except for what was in my head.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland will be doing Pirates of Penzance next year, and they’re usually very good. Don’t know if that’s too far for you.
It should be relatively easy to find productions of the three well-known G&S shows (Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Mikado) if you keep your eyes open for the next few years; those shows (as noted above) are popular because they’re fun and in public domain. The rest of the G&S canon are much more rarely performed, partly because they’re rarely performed-- people don’t know them, and so don’t buy tickets, so they don’t know them… It’s a vicious cycle, and kind of a shame. I’m a G&S fan (a young one, which is kind of rare) and I’ve never seen a stage production of any but the big three.
Single songs are different from the whole show. The show includes things like the book, the orchestral arrangement, etc. Single songs may be licensed through ASCAP/BMI/SESAC but I didn’t find “Phantom of the Opera” in any of their repertoires, so it may be licensed differently. They don’t normally require licenses for things like a variety show. The Performing Rights Organizations(PROs) license their repertory by the hundreds of hours, not by the handfuls of minutes. I’d guess your niece is ok.
Enjoy,
Steven
That wouldn’t have been the Deep Ellum Opera Theater, would it? I was in one of their other G&S productions (of The Mikado and I remember seeing a review of their starship-based version of Pinafore.
It was in the UK back in 1985 or so. Probably not a Dallas based Theater.