Hey;

My wife (a professional flute player) and her friend (a very talented composer) want to persue writing a broadway style musical. I don't know ANYTHING about it, outside of playing a Native American wiseguy in Annie Get Your Gun back in HS...Can anyone recommend a good book on the topic? (It'll be a comedy about a porn starlet who wrecks havoc in a backwards European kingdom- Replace Groucho Marx for Jenna Jameson in Duck Soup, that's the idea)...Thanks in advance....

Joe

I can't vouch for them since I only found them through a simple google search, but something like these may be what you're looking for.

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Musical-Theater-Steven-Rosenhaus/dp/1403963959

http://www.amazon.com/Musical-Theatre-Writers-Survival-Guide/dp/0325007861

Thanks, Mike...I'm leaning towards the Survival Guide one...

Oh my gosh! I was just about to post something like this. My boyfriend and I are writing one ourselves and I was going to ask how it would be received here if I posted it.

To answer your question, from my years of being an audience member, the only thing I can tell you is that the book is more abstract than just words on a page. The book is what joins the lyrics and music. It's how it flows through the piece.

Musicals like CATS or Les Mis don't have a book, but yet those two shows won the Tony for best book. That's because they story is perfect. The balance of music and lyrics and story were all there.

If you're going to do a more traditional Rodgers and Hammerstein show, write the scenes like you would any other. Your characters still want something. Musicals and plays are dialogue-driven, so someone better be good at writing dialogue.

Good luck.