Author Topic: Short Rant: Why Can't You Number things Consistently in Your Script?!  (Read 4350 times)

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Branden

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I'm working on a scenic breakdown for The Wizard of Oz.

And the libretto has no consistent way of numbering anything. There is no musical No 7, and there are two No 23s.

Also, there are two No 14s, both 'We're off to See The Wizard', but the happen about ten pages apart, and are slightly different musically.

It kills me, because it's clearly noted in the script. Right before musical No 8, it reads "*Note: There is no musical Number 7". And after the second No 23, it reads "*Note: There are two musical Number 23s."

It's awful, and frustrates me. Just wanted to share.

*Rant OVER*
Branden Scott Stewart

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MatthewShiner

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wait until you work on putting a new musical together from scratch . . . and the you will understand the horrors and challenges there are.

most likely, there is no financial impetuous for the publisher to clean up the numbering.

you can go ahead and renumber them if you want during pre-production, with the approval of your creative team.

but, don't get too frustrated about the small stuff, and most of it is the small stuff.
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babens

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Having workshopped several musicals now I can attest that even though the end product may seem to have no rhyme or reason the numbering made sense to the original team.  Basically it boils down to the fact that as you cut and add songs/scenes you don't want to throw off everything else that came after so you get things like "there is no Number Whatever," "this number is repeated," "this page intentionally left blank," etc, etc.

Matthew is right that the eventual publishers/licensing agencies want to get their stuff out cheaply and quickly, hence those numbers and notes becoming forevermore a part of that script/score.

MatthewShiner

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For example, there would be a charge to a copyist to change the numbering, which, in the end, would not result in any additional revenue.

And, most likely, the repeated numbers were originally the same piece of music, and changes came later.

And song 7 probably existed at one point, and the team just didn't want t back and fill in that number . . . because all the paperwork for songs 8 and above would be thrown off,

End of the day, it's a miracle a new musical ever gets off the ground . . . let alone having musical pieces numbered correctly . . .


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Branden

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I can imagine it's crazy to get a new musical off the ground.

I've never worked on an original musical, so I probably can't complain. However, this musical is the Wizard of Oz, which should somewhat already have a setup to it, or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, I've reformatted it slightly, so that number 23 is split up via 'A' and 'B'. As far as number 7, I'll just trust people can remember that it's missing.

I would love to work on an original musical one day...that sounds like an awesome challenge.
Branden Scott Stewart

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-The West Wing

BayAreaSM

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I will echo what others have said in regards to working on a new musical. Sometimes I have taken the time, after a workshop musical has closed, to work on updating the script and fixing the pagination for the Creatives. Unfortunately I don't have the software on my personal computer to edit the score to correct the numbers on the songs/lyrics, so those items sometimes get left out. On my most recent project, the best I could do was to get the Composer to update any lyric changes in her score. To try to renumber was just about impossible. If the Musical Director and I would agree on a new numbering and he updated the files, there was no guarantee that the Composer would stick to them when she made revisions. It's just the luck of the draw. And when the Creatives decide to entirely scrap Act 2 and make a new one - well, it's all fair game, especially when they decide to start the pagination of Act 2 back at 1.

And yes, Wizard of Oz has been around forever, but as Matthew said, what monetary benefit is there for the publisher to renumber songs? Who knows - perhaps not renumbering the rest of the score after #7 was cut became a sweet reminder to the original team who worked on the piece. Just a thought.

Also - if you were working on a new piece, and had over 20 songs in your show, and you cut #7, would you really want to go through everything and renumber it all? Or would you turn to the company and say, "Hey everyone, #7 is cut. Please make a note of it."
« Last Edit: Feb 15, 2014, 03:38 am by BayAreaSM »

BARussell

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I'm laughing, cause I just spoke to composer of a new show I worked on last year after he presented a new song from the show. I saw the sheet music and saw #3 and I asked him if he replaced old number #3 and he said "no." Then I asked where the song fit into the show, and it is definitely not where old/current #3 is, but I didn't tell him that. During production we had a music assistant, but now who knows whats going to happen. There were already enough A,B,C,Ds in the show to begin with...
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Joshua S.

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I could rant and rave for days about materials you receive from musical theatre companies, but look at it from their perspective.  You want to (legally) do the Wizard of Oz, then you have no choice but to rent the material from tams-witmark music library.  So if there is no competition, why should they spend the time and money cleaning up or redoing the materials they license.  All of the rental companies are bad about this to some extent, but tams is probably the worst.  They however pretty much own the market on classic musicals, so as long as people continue to want to produce these shows, why should they change?

MatthewShiner

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Pride in the material is the only reason
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Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.