Hey guys. I was thinking about going on social media and posting me writing my musical, you know, writing processes, behind the scenes, demo making. I've seen other people get a successful audience by letting people into that process, and I was wondering, you guys have any tips for how to get people to engage with your content or care about it? Or do you think it's just like a 50-50 chance thing? Thanks.
This is a follow up to a question I asked a little while ago, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who responded to my couple last post. A lot of the advice genuinely helped me diagnose some major problems with my story. You all helped me realize that my biggest issue wasn’t necessarily my characters it was that they lacked clear stakes. So thank you.
Now I’m stuck on what I think is the next major problem.
I’m writing a sung-through musical that’s an anachronistic retelling of the Gospel, centered on Mary Magdalene and a community of teenage disciples. One of the biggest themes is that community creates revolution, and that no one changes the world alone.
Here’s where I’m stuck:
I’ve realized that an ensemble story needs a communal goal. Not just a theme or an abstract objective, but a tangible goal that everyone is working toward together.
I’ve also realized that the stakes have to be communal too.
The way I’ve started thinking about it is: We want X. If we don’t get X, then Y(a bad thing) happens to all of us.
The reason why X and Y matter can be different for every character, but the goal and the consequence need to be shared.
For example:
In Suffs, everyone wants the vote. If they don’t get it, women remain disenfranchised. Every woman has her own personal reason for caring, but the goal and stakes are communal.
In Into the Woods, the Baker and his Wife need the four items. If they don’t get them, they never have a child. The tangible objective drives the plot.
My problem is finding that engine for my own show.
The disciples believe Jesus is the only person who can help them achieve this goal but Jesus is actually pursuing something different, which eventually leads to the tragedy of Holy Week.
I’m not looking for ideas like “spread hope,” “change the world,” or “build a community.” Those are themes or outcomes, not tangible story engines.
I’m looking for something that satisfies all of these:
A tangible communal goal.
A tangible communal consequence if they fail.
A deadline that forces movement.
Something every disciple can actively work toward together.
Something they believe Jesus is essential to accomplishing.
Does anyone know, how I can find this, or if there's a formula or a specific way to figuring out this type of thing, or any resources or, musicals, movies, books, etc…that I can look to?
This is a follow up question to my last post.
I’m writing an original musical, and beyond introducing my characters one problem I run into is getting an audience (and honestly, myself) emotionally invested in them.
I know these characters inside and out. I know their backstories, personalities, wants, fears, relationships, where they grew up, how they talk, what they wear, what they value, and why they make the decisions they do. They feel like real people to me.
But when I step back and read the story, it sometimes just feels like things are happening. I understand why the events matter, but I don’t always feel them. I’m not always emotionally connected to what the characters are going through, even though I know everything about them.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it just a symptom of being too close to your own work, or is there something craft-wise that I’m missing?
I’m not really looking for advice on character introductions or adding more backstory. I’m trying to understand what actually makes an audience become emotionally invested in a character they’ve just met. What makes them care enough that, when something good or terrible happens, they genuinely feel it?
I’m writing an adaptation of the gospel (about 2 hours), and I’ve hit a wall.
Structurally, I think the story is finally coming together, but now I’m struggling with something more important:
How do I make the audience genuinely care about my characters?
The main characters each have full backstories and emotional arcs:
Mary :Starts hopeless and believes one person can’t change a broken system. She doesn’t believe she’s worthy of love or community. After witnessing hope through Eva’s healing and slowly being welcomed into a new community, she’s publicly accused and almost executed. When the movement stands beside her instead of abandoning her, she finally believes community can change people and systems. She ends Act 1 becoming the one who convinces everyone including Jesus to keep fighting.
Judas : A 16-year-old whose mother died in a riot at one of John the Baptist’s rallies. After her death, his father becomes cold and hyper-religious, creating a huge divide between them. Judas finds belonging among Jesus’ followers and especially bonds with Eva, who becomes like the sister he never had.
Nicodemus : A 20-year-old Pharisee prodigy who desperately wants truth. He begins spying on Jesus out of curiosity but slowly realizes everything he thought would heal the world (tradition, religion, law) may not actually be the answer. He eventually stands with Mary against the Pharisees, creating distance between himself and the institution before ultimately leaving it altogether.
Peter : A teenager who lost his parents to police violence during a raid he channels all of his anger into vengeance. He wants freedom and believes the only way to get it is to fight harder. He’s impulsive, emotional, and has a crush on Naomi. Throughout the story, he slowly learns that anger alone can’t build the future he’s dreaming of.
Naomi : She’s equally angry but channels it into trying to create systemic change instead of revenge. She has feelings for Peter but refuses to let herself think about love because she’s consumed by trying to fix the world. She and Peter eventually admit they just want to wake up one day and not be angry anymore.
Eva :The emotional heart of the group. Her healing is the first thing that cracks Mary’s hopeless worldview, and she becomes like a little sister to Judas. She just wants to encourage and create hope for other who are like her she’s basically the opposite world view of mary
The problem is not that I don’t know who they are.
As you can see, I’ve created a very convoluted complex stories for them. I knew how each of these characters talk. They look like what they like what they think how they move I’m connected to them because I know them.
The problem is that I only have about an hour (Act 1) before Act 2 starts breaking everyone apart.
I feel stuck between two extremes:
If I spend enough time introducing everyone, the plot barely moves.
If I focus on the plot, I worry the audience won’t be emotionally invested enough when tragedy starts happening.
How do musicals, with a lot of characters like rent or ragtime or into the woods make audiences care about an ensemble quickly?
What actually creates emotional attachment?
How do you introduce an ensemble efficiently without making them feel shallow,
or spending the whole of act one working on their introduction😭
I understand the hype for the “Lost boys” is but I don’t understand why people call it good.
Now I’m not one of those people who are just like oh “broadway shouldn’t just be spectacle” I love seeing big, ambitious shows alongside intimate character pieces. Not every musical needs to be Hadestown or Sweeney Todd, and not every musical needs to be a giant spectacle either. Broadway is healthiest when there’s room for everything.
Visually, I actually think The Lost Boys is incredible. The bridge set is gorgeous, the lighting and sound design are fantastic, the atmosphere is immersive, and seeing vampires fly is undeniably exciting. Even if I have issues with the writing, I genuinely appreciate how much creativity went into the production itself.
That said, I came away feeling like the production is carrying a book and score that aren’t doing enough of the heavy lifting witch I feel it should be more than anything.
For example at the beginning of the show in the opening number, Michael sings:
“I’ve been dreaming of this day for years… I’m moving on, no souvenir… No regrets. No more fears.”
That’s a clear emotional statement. He’s hopeful. He’s optimistic. He’s ready for a new beginning.
Then, in literally the next scene, his mom asks him to stay home and help unpack because they’ve just left his father and he’s now expected to help out more around the house.
Immediately after that, Michael launches into lyrics like:
“There’s no space for me here. Too much weight on me here…”
and eventually,
“Man, I’ve had it up to here.”
The problem isn’t that Michael is angry. The problem is that, dramatically, we haven’t experienced what pushed him there.
As an audience, all we’ve seen is that his younger brother is kinda annoying and his mom asked him to move boxes instead of going out.
Those circumstances don’t justify the emotional intensity the score is asking us to believe.
It creates tonal whiplash.
If Michael had started the show frustrated, exhausted, or resentful, this scene would land differently. Or if we had actually witnessed the pressure that’s supposedly been building for years, we’d understand why he’s exploding.
Instead, the audience is asked to fill in emotional gaps that I don’t think the writing earns.
Another issue for me is the score’s lack of motifs.
I don’t think there are many recurring musical or lyrical ideas that actually deepen the storytelling.
A reprise isn’t automatically a motif.
A motif should gain new meaning as the story changes.
One of my favorite examples is Stephen Sondheim’s use of “nice” in Into the Woods. Early in the show we’re taught that “nice is different than good.” Later, when Cinderella describes the prince as “very nice,” we immediately understand she’s deliberately avoiding calling him “good.” That single word carries dramatic meaning because the musical established it earlier.
That’s storytelling through music.
In The Lost Boys, I mostly heard reprises that reminded me of things I’d already heard instead of revealing something new.
The score also didn’t really have much dynamic contrast for me.
Almost every song feels like it’s living at the same emotional volume. Everyone belts. Everyone is singing at maximum intensity almost all the time.
Ironically, despite people calling it a rock musical, I didn’t really hear much rock in the score itself outside of “Have to Have You.” Most of the music sounded much closer to contemporary musical theatre than to rock.
Because everything is operating at such a high level of intensity, the score doesn’t leave itself many places to build.
The lyrics were another sticking point for me.
Some of them felt surprisingly basic.
For example:
“I want to belong to someone, someone make me feel like that.”
Nothing about that lyric tells me something uniquely Michael. It communicates a feeling, but not in a particularly memorable or specific way.
There were also moments where the rhyming felt repetitive (like rhyming “here” with “here” multiple times), and moments where songs seemed to announce themselves rather than emerge naturally from the drama. Star beginning with “This changes everything… this changes everything…” is one example that pulled me out of the story.
From a staging perspective, I also thought some of the biggest moments didn’t fully capitalize on the show’s own strengths.
The flying effects are marketed as one of the production’s signature elements, but they actually happen less often than I expected.
Act One ends with huge music, but comparatively restrained stage action, and the final battle felt surprisingly quick. I kept expecting more airborne choreography or a larger climax, and instead it was over before it really had a chance to escalate.
I also want to push back a little on the argument that “it’s just camp.”
I love camp.
SpongeBob SquarePants and Death Becomes Her are both campy musicals that, in my opinion, still have strong storytelling underneath the spectacle.
Camp and strong dramatic construction aren’t mutually exclusive.
My issue isn’t that The Lost Boys is campy.
It’s that I don’t think the storytelling underneath the spectacle is particularly strong.
If you stripped away the flying, the sound design, the lighting, and the visual effects, I’m not convinced the script and score would stand on their own.
That’s ultimately why the show didn’t work for me.
And to be clear, this isn’t me saying people are wrong for loving it. Theatre is subjective, and if someone had an amazing time, that’s genuinely great.
I’m just approaching musicals primarily as a writer. The first thing I’m looking at is how the story is constructed,how character arcs are built, how songs function dramatically, how motifs develop ideas, and how music tells the story.
For me, that’s where The Lost Boys falls short.
I’m writing a musical retelling of the Gospel through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, and I’ve hit a wall with her central want.
I understand the structure of a musical pretty well. The protagonist needs a clear want in Act 1, they pursue that want through actions and tactics, Act 1 ends with a major setback or false victory, Act 2 introduces new tactics, Hosanna becomes a major hopeful turning point, and then the crucifixion devastates the protagonist because it destroys (or appears to destroy) the thing they were pursuing.
My problem is that I can’t find a want for Mary that satisfies all of those requirements.
For context, Mary is not written as a natural revolutionary. She’s cynical, distrustful, and emotionally guarded. She has experienced trauma, manipulation, and abandonment. She’s the audience surrogate for a generation that often feels disillusioned by institutions, leaders, movements, religion, and promises of change.
Every want I come up with that can logically generate the public action of Hosanna ends up becoming some variation of
Freedom
Revolution
Justice
Political change
Reform
Destroying the system
Creating a better society
The problem is that those wants feel more appropriate for characters like Peter or Judas than for Mary. The second I give Mary a want like that, the show starts feeling like Hamilton, Rent, Suffs, or a traditional revolution musical. Those are great shows, but that’s not the story I’m trying to tell.
I want the audience to leave feeling like Jesus changed the world because he offered hope in grief, healing in suffering, and community in isolation not because he won a political movement.
The challenge is that Hosanna still has to function dramatically. It can’t just be a celebration. It has to be a tactic. The characters must believe that whatever they are doing in Hosanna will help them get closer to what they want.
So my question is:
How do you write a protagonist whose central want is personal, emotional, or relational rather than revolutionary, while still allowing that want to generate large scale public action like Hosanna?
What kind of want could Mary have that
Drives the entire musical,
Creates actionable tactics,
Makes Hosanna feel hopeful and earned,
Is not fundamentally a revolutionary or political objective,
Allows Jesus to become the emotional center of the story,
Makes the crucifixion feel like the destruction of the thing she was pursuing?
I’m writing a musical retelling of the Gospel through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, and I’ve hit a wall with her central want.
I understand the structure of a musical pretty well. The protagonist needs a clear want in Act 1, they pursue that want through actions and tactics, Act 1 ends with a major setback or false victory, Act 2 introduces new tactics, Hosanna becomes a major hopeful turning point, and then the crucifixion devastates the protagonist because it destroys (or appears to destroy) the thing they were pursuing.
My problem is that I can’t find a want for Mary that satisfies all of those requirements.
For context, Mary is not written as a natural revolutionary. She’s cynical, distrustful, and emotionally guarded. She has experienced trauma, manipulation, and abandonment. She’s the audience surrogate for a generation that often feels disillusioned by institutions, leaders, movements, religion, and promises of change.
Every want I come up with that can logically generate the public action of Hosanna ends up becoming some variation of
Freedom
Revolution
Justice
Political change
Reform
Destroying the system
Creating a better society
The problem is that those wants feel more appropriate for characters like Peter or Judas than for Mary. The second I give Mary a want like that, the show starts feeling like Hamilton, Rent, Suffs, or a traditional revolution musical. Those are great shows, but that’s not the story I’m trying to tell.
I want the audience to leave feeling like Jesus changed the world because he offered hope in grief, healing in suffering, and community in isolation not because he won a political movement.
The challenge is that Hosanna still has to function dramatically. It can’t just be a celebration. It has to be a tactic. The characters must believe that whatever they are doing in Hosanna will help them get closer to what they want.
So my question is:
How do you write a protagonist whose central want is personal, emotional, or relational rather than revolutionary, while still allowing that want to generate large scale public action like Hosanna?
What kind of want could Mary have that
Drives the entire musical,
Creates actionable tactics,
Makes Hosanna feel hopeful and earned,
Is not fundamentally a revolutionary or political objective,
Allows Jesus to become the emotional center of the story,
Makes the crucifixion feel like the destruction of the thing she was pursuing?
Hey y’all. So I haven’t talked on here in a min but I’m writing a stage musical adaptation of the gospel right now and I genuinely feel like I’m losing my mind trying to structure it
It’s a reinterpretation of the Gospel story centered mostly around Mary Magdalene and the disciples as teenagers/young adults. The vibe is very found-family, skater culture, youth are f*cked,religious trauma, political commentary,feminist. Think less “traditional biblical epic” and more emotionally intimate community drama under political pressure.
The problem issss
The Gospels are are more like a compilation. They’re not really built like modern plot structures where one action causes another action causes another action. A lot of Jesus adaptations end up feeling like:
“And then Jesus did another thing.”
I REALLY don’t want that.
I want the show to feel alive and constantly moving toward Holy Week, but I also don’t want it to suddenly feel like a YA dystopian revolution movie where everyone becomes tactical rebels 😭
What I’m trying to explore is:
community as salvation in an isolated world
religious trauma in youth
women’s role in movements/revolutions
Youth role in revolution
teen angst and identity
parent/child tension
how vulnerable young people form community under pressure
how that community slowly becomes politically threatening
The disciples in my version are NOT confident revolutionaries. They’re confused kids trying to survive emotionally while following someone who makes them feel seen for the first time.
So I guess my question is
How do you structure an ensemble musical where the emotional/community dynamics ARE the engine of the plot, while still making the story escalate causally toward an inevitable tragedy?
Especially when adapting something as episodic as the Gospels?
Would really love thoughts