Top Ten Plays and Musicals Repeatedly Performed by High Schools in the US (2008-09)

Brought to you by the Educational Theater Association:

Musicals:

1. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, and Linda Woolverton (MTI)
2. Little Shop of Horrors, by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (MTI)
3. Thoroughly Modern Millie, by Jeanine Tesori, Dick Scanlon, and Richard Morris (MTI)
4. Grease, by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey (Samuel French)
5. (tie) Guys and Dolls, by Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows, and Jo Swerling (MTI)
5. (tie) Once Upon a Mattress, by Mary Rodgers, Marshall Barer, Jay Thompson, and Dean Fuller (Rodgers and Hammerstein)
7. (tie) Seussical, by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (MTI)
8. (tie) You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, by Clark Gesner (Tams-Witmark)
8. (tie) Into the Woods, by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine (MTI).
10. The Music Man, by Meredith Willson (MTI) 1

Plays
1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare (public domain)
2. Rumors, by Neil Simon (Samuel French)
3. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller (Dramatists Play Service)
4. (tie) You Can’t Take It with You, by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (Dramatists Play Service)
4. (tie) Arsenic and Old Lace, by Joseph Kesselring (Dramatists Play Service)
4. (tie) The Curious Savage, by John Patrick (Dramatists Play Service)
7. (tie) Noises Off, by Michael Frayn (Samuel French)
7. (tie) Alice in Wonderland (various adaptations of the Lewis Carroll book)
7. (tie) Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose (Dramatic Publishing Co.)
10. (tie) Harvey, by Mary Chase (Dramatists Play Service)
10. (tie) The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson (Samuel French)
10. (tie) Our Town, by Thornton Wilder (Samuel French)

Short Plays
1. Check Please, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
2. Bang, Bang, You’re Dead, by William Mastrosimone (bangbangyouredead.com)
3. Check Please: Take 2, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
4. 15 Reasons Not to Be in a Play, by Alan Haehnel (Playscripts, Inc.)
5. This Is a Test, by Stephen Gregg (Dramatic Publishing Co.)
6. (tie) The Actor’s Nightmare, by Christopher Durang (Dramatists Play Service)
6. (tie) Check Please: Take 3, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
6. (tie) Hard Candy, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)
6. (tie) The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet, by Peter Bloedel (Playscripts, Inc.)
10. (tie) Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon, by Don Zolidis (Playscripts, Inc.)
10. (tie) Dinner with the MacGuffins, by Chris Sheppard and Jeff Grove (Playscripts, Inc.)
10. (tie) The Least Offensive Play in the Whole DarnWorld, by Jonathan Rand (Playscripts, Inc.)

A lot of ties, namely because the wide variety of stuff one will usually see in high school theater means that it doesn't take too many stagings to break into the top ten.

I'm surprised to find that "Romeo and Juliet" is not the Shakespeare representative to high school theater here. I guess the mixture of crazy American teenager hormones and the play's pro teenage sex and suicide stance would be a potent mix no school administrator wants on her hands. 

Personally, what I found surprising was the mentioning of High School Musical as a top ten in a previous survey.

Irony is dead.

Any UA&P student org up for the millionth rendition of "Guys and Dolls"?