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NPR Ed
The Most Popular High School Plays And Musicals
Elissa Nadworny
July 31, 2019
NPR Ed published the first-ever database of the most popular high
school plays and musicals in the U.S. in July 2015. Today, the 2019
numbers are out, so we've updated our original story.
Annie is out and Mamma Mia! is in, according to the new high school
theater rankings from the Educational Theatre Association. The top spot
for musicals went to The Addams Family, a show that's been hanging
around the top 10 list for the last decade. Mamma Mia! was the second
most-popular, making its first appearance on the list (the rights for
schools recently became available). Newsies is also new to the top 10
list — making its debut at number 6.
For full-length plays, Almost, Maine, again, topped the list. That's
not a surprise: The collection of two-person scenes by John Cariani has
been the most popular production for high schools this decade. This
year is the play's fifth year in the No. 1 spot.
It's appealing to high schools because it's adaptable, says Rebecca
Skrypeck, the theater director who oversaw a production of the play at
Springfield High School in Springfield, Vt.
The new data didn't have a big impact on our decade leaders, but the order of popularity shifted slightly.
The back story
Even though I myself did not bask in the glow of the high school stage,
I do have fond memories of working behind the scenes, as stage crew.
Dressed in black, I rushed the bed onstage for Tevye's dream sequence
in Fiddler on the Roof.
I've also spoken with many people who weren't involved in theater at
all but can still — for some reason — remember the shows their schools
performed.
There's just something about the high school stage.
All of this got me wondering: What are the most popular high school plays and musicals?
As it turns out, the answer is in Dramatics — the monthly magazine for
theater students and teachers. It's been publishing an annual ranking
of the most popular high school plays and musicals since 1938.
No one had ever compiled the data. The information wasn't even
digitized. So in the winter of 2014, Don Corathers, the magazine's
editor, began digging through the archives for hard copies of each
original issue — nearly 100 pages in all.
During the process, he wrote to explain a delay: "What's taking so
long, other than the distraction of publishing a magazine, is that we
have to locate the articles in bound copies in order to scan them."
Eventually, he found them all, made copies — a huge stack — and mailed
them to the NPR Ed team here in Washington, D.C. And last year, NPR Ed
compiled the data. Today, we've updated the collection.
The plays
Over the past 78 years, the most popular plays have consistently been
Our Town and You Can't Take It with You, according to our analysis.
Why, you ask?
"Most high school teachers need a big cast, lots of female roles, and
something that won't scare your grandma," says Corathers, who has been
with Dramatics since 1979.
Most popular by decade, and more – Click here
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