Let's Make A Musical Podcast, Podcast
Episode 10: Deus Ex Machina (say what?) – LMM Podcast
Click here to subscribe in iTunes. Click here to subscribe in Stitcher. New episodes every Tuesday.
SHOW NOTES
Listen to a draft of the new opening number, discover how Denver and Brian deal with the deus ex machina (contrived plot device), find out how our video game chararacters struggle in staying relevant and help pick the show’s title.
WRITER’S BLOCK Which title do you like better: “Press Start” or “Play On”? Leave your comment below! ABOUT THE PODCAST Want an inside look at how musicals are written? Join Denver and Brian on this weekly podcast that documents the creation of a 45-minute musical from scratch. If you’re a teacher, actor, director, writer, or just a fan of Broadway musical theatre – subscribe and join the fun! Produced by Beat by Beat Press, the world’s fastest growing publisher of new musicals for young actors. [feature_box style=”30″ only_advanced=”There%20are%20no%20title%20options%20for%20the%20choosen%20style” content_font_size=”10″ content_font_font=”Arial” content_font_style=”normal” content_font_spacing=”1″ alignment=”center”]All comments, remarks, suggestions, ideas or other information that you communicate to Beat by Beat Press through this site becomes and remains our property. This means: we don’t treat any submission as confidential, you can’t sue us for using the ideas you submit, if we use your suggestions — or anything like them — we don’t have to compensate you for them.
[/feature_box]
Mandi Broadfoot got me hooked on this podcast, and we rehash the episodes each week and talk about the story. (We’ve been working on a musical together too.)
PacMan as the “bad” guy is a great idea — a real villain/obstacle (as opposed to the villains who work WITh the heroes and have the same goal) helps heighten the stakes at the climax.
I think it’s a good idea to save ring collection to the very end but still a little confused about the rules about the rings. Why do they have to have another act? Why does Toadstool HAVE to dance? As opposed to them just running around and collecting the rings from the audience? (Clearly it makes for a more fun musical to have another act, but why MUST they do that to achieve their goal?)
If the rules of rings are that “You must EARN a ring” (do something to get it), then that needs to be clearly stated …
So maybe, Link could say something like, “Quick, collect the rings from the audience before it’s too late” and PacMan could say, “You know you have to EARN a ring and you’re all out of acts. It looks like it’s T-shirts and lunch boxes for you.” EVIL LAUGH! (We like evil laughs.)
Then Toadstool saves the day. Or something like that…
Names: Of the two, my vote is for “Play On.” It encapsulates the primary motivation of all the characters in two words. “Press Start” is speaking to the imaginary player — and they really don’t figure into the story (at least, not thus far).
Or — and this is just a left-field suggestion, what about “Tilt: The Musical?”
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071025170334AA0qMBh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_(arcade)
My vote would be for ‘Play On’ it really is the motivation for the show. (I must say that I do love Press Start, but it’s not the theme of the show).