Thanks. This is interesting because I got the same answer, repeatedly, when I checked over successive years in the early-to-mid-'90s with the then major license companies of musicals.
The musical director of the small college I was teaching at liked the scores of these old shows -- especially the ones from the 30s -- and kept digging them out. But when we looked at the books, she was appalled. So I'd get a script from her with all kinds of scribble marks, and I'd get on the phone and call the companies and ask questions about permissible changes, line-by-line, and that perhaps-unofficial 10% guide kept coming into play.
Maybe they were just trying to politely get me off the phone and make me think for myself, or maybe you're right: all the changes were allowed because this was an "off the record" conversation, and we were a tiny Midwestern college offering to pay royalties on shows few people ever produced. The other interesting thing is that when these musicals have been produced more recently, in more visible, commercial productions, the books have always been rewritten.
In any case, thanks. I'd have to start calling around again, with the same types of situations, to see how the rules have changed. Of course, with the revised scripts now often available, those situations might not occur. |
