2018 EdTA High School Play Survey

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST; Almost, Maine; and Check Please clinched top billing for most produced musical, full-length play, and short play, respectively. As usual, the annual survey of high school theatre productions largely confirmed each category’s recent main contenders, but there were some notable shifts. Beauty and the Beast upset The Addams Family’s three-year hold atop the musicals list, and Peter and the Starcatcher soared to number three after making its top-ten debut last year on the full-length play list. Meanwhile, Jonathan Rand wrote two of the top three short plays, as Check Please: Take 2 shot up to third (from 10th last year).

Memorial High School’s 2009 production of Beauty and the Beast. Photo by R. Bruhn.

FULL-LENGTH MUSICALS

1. Beauty and the Beast (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Linda Woolverton), MTI
2. The Addams Family (Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice), TRW
3. The Little Mermaid (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Glenn Slater, Doug Wright), MTI
4. Into the Woods (Stephen Sondheim, James Lapine), MTI
5. Cinderella (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Douglas Carter Beane), Rodgers & Hammerstein
6. Shrek (David Lindsay-Abaire, Jeanine Tesori), MTI
7. Seussical (Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens), MTI
8. Little Shop of Horrors (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman), MTI
9. The Wizard of Oz (various)
10. Annie (Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin, Thomas Meehan), MTI

FULL-LENGTH PLAYS

1. Almost, Maine (John Cariani), Dramatists Play Service
2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (William Shakespeare), public domain
3. Peter and the Starcatcher (Wayne Barker, Rick Elice), MTI
4. Alice in Wonderland (various)
5. Our Town (Thornton Wilder), Samuel French
6. 12 Angry Jurors (Reginald Rose), Dramatic Publishing
7. The Crucible (Arthur Miller), Dramatists Play Service
8. Arsenic and Old Lace (Joseph Kesselring), Dramatists Play Service
9. A Christmas Carol (various)
10. Radium Girls (D.W. Gregory), Dramatic Publishing

SHORT PLAYS

1. Check Please (Jonathan Rand), Playscripts
2. 10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse (Don Zolidis), Playscripts
3. Check Please: Take 2 (Jonathan Rand), Playscripts
4. This Is a Test (Stephen Gregg), Dramatic Publishing
5. All in the Timing (David Ives), Dramatists Play Service
6. The Actor’s Nightmare (Christopher Durang), Dramatists Play Service
7. The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet (Peter Bloedel), Playscripts
8. 15 Reasons Not to Be in a Play (Alan Haehnel), Playscripts
9. Aladdin (various)
10. A Sure Thing (David Ives), Dramatists Play Service