First I wanted to say I have been poking around here for a while and finally have something to say. (:

We are putting on a show in August but are having trouble deciding on the order of things.

It comprises of music from Lion King, Wicked, Grease and Rent. We are not coming to a conclusion on which order we should be performing. Each show has between 5 to 7 songs that kind of tell a fast forwarded version of each stories.

We have decided to start with Lion King and then close out the first act with Wicked. However the second act is kind of unstable. The co-director and I have a difference in opinion on it. The audience at the arts society (342 seat theater) tends to be 50 and older on most things. However, due to Rent being involved, we are expecting a bit of a younger crowd as well.

My thoughts are that we start with Grease to open the second act (Summer Nights, Greased Lightning, Hopelessly Devoted To You, You're The One That I Want, We Go Together). After the set change when we go into Rent (Tune Up, Rent, Tune Up, Glory, Candle, What You Own, Out Tonight, Another Day, Will I, Finale B). Then we would close the show with Seasons Of Love being started by the Rent cast across the stage and then having the rest of the show come from behind the curtain during the Collins solo and everyone sing the rest of it together. (Note: With Rent we are focusing just on the Mimi and Roger storyline due to time/licensing/money constraints). That was my idea for the second act.

Her thoughts are that not a lot of people might know Rent so she wants to open the second act with Rent and end it with Finale B. Then after the brief set switchover we go into the Grease songs and end the show with We Go Together. She said that everyone knows Grease and they would want that to close the show instead of Rent which they don't really know too well. It would eliminate the Seasons Of Love number and ending with the entire production cast closing the show. Nobody performing Grease is in Rent and vice versa and all the big voices are in Rent.

Which would you feel is the best route for what we are doing? Rent times out at 32:41 and Grease at 14:03

Comments/Suggestions??

Be careful about show rights. Your plan may run foul of copyright restrictions on the material. Usually you can only perform a few songs from any given show (less than 3 is a typical number) in a cabaret format. Outside of this type of format you are required to perform the shows in their entirety as written. I also don't think that rights to some of the shows are even available yet - Lion King & Wicked come to mind.