(a series of articles about how new musicals come to pass)
Preproduction: the period of time during which work is done on a show prior to the first rehearsal.
Where do the ideas come from? Where do authors, composers and lyricists get their ideas for musicals? Sometimes, as discussed in an earlier article, they are commissioned. In other words, a writer or team is approached by someone or some organization to write a show about or based on a certain subject. (This can be a great thing if the authors have an affinity for the subject matter. It can be a very frustrating and grueling experience if the authors end up just doing it for the commission but have no real feeling for the subject.)
Most common, is the adaptation of a novel, play , short story, movie or even poetry collections (e.g., Cats, Polly Pen's Goblin Market based on a poem by Christina Rossetti). A property is discovered that the author(s) feels would make a wonderful musical. And so the process begins.
The one thing that authors must be acutely aware of before they begin adapting material is the availability of the rights to the original material -- rights meaning permission to use copyrighted work. There are countless horror stories of authors who have done a substantial amount of writing -- or even finished writing -- only to discover that the rights are unavailable, or are too exorbitant for their means.
If the musical has been commissioned, the rights situation is usually ironed out by the commissioning individual or organization. When Garth Drabinsky got the idea to musicalize E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime, he undoubtedly secured the rights before he had the adapters begin writing. For struggling unknown authors and composers with no well-known producing organization behind them, getting rights to property can be difficult. Track record is often considered, so if the writing team is unknown they may be turned down solely based on their "inexperience." The rights holder may request a sample of what the adaptors believe the musical adaptation may become. Even if they are considered for approval, they may have to come up with thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars (which most struggling writers do not have) to purchase the rights to use the work for a limited amount of time (which they may have a lot of).
Obtaining rights is not impossible, however. Sometimes a letter or phone call directly to the author of the original material can do it. Deals can be struck and if the author of the original is particularly taken with the musical concept, adaptors may suddenly find themselves with another collaborator.
