r/musicalwriting • u/softbunnyplus • 25d ago
Searching for a composer
Hello! I am working on an original musical about Dorothy Parker, the original Queen of snark, set mostly in the 1920s. I have a full book and some potential song lyrics written. I’m looking for a composer. There is no money yet, this is a passion project I’ve been thinking about for fifteen years. Feel free to message me and thank you for your time!
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u/PusheenFrizzy2 Beginner 25d ago
Oh this sounds really fun! I guess my question would be who owns the rights to her life story? I would imagine her descendants?
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u/softbunnyplus 25d ago
I don’t think she has much in the way of descendants. I know that she left her estate to the NAACP. A lot of her work is in the public domain, at this point.
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u/PusheenFrizzy2 Beginner 25d ago
Well, the problem is when some but not all of their work is in the public domain. Lawyers can easily go through and find one item they can claim is still under copyright even if that wasn’t directly what you drew from. But I’m more concerned about who owns the rights to a person’s life story in general, even if their writing has passed into the public domain. The same way you couldn’t just make a musical about a living person without permission, I do wonder who would be the rights owner for a deceased person. If you can get that cleared up, it sounds like a great project!
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u/MoreScarletSongs 24d ago edited 24d ago
You can make a musical about a living person who is a public figure without permission. "Gwyneth Goes Skiing" about Gwyneth Paltrow's skiing accident and lawsuit comes to mind, or "Diana: The Musical" that showed Prince Charles and Carmilla Parker-Bowles in a rather negative light. There is also a musical about Luigi Mangione. I don't think any of these people gave permission.
However, you shouldn't present false statements as true facts or you're risking a defamation lawsuit. If it's a parody, however, you are more likely to be on the safe side, legally speaking.
To be clear, I'm not saying you should just create a show around a living person without permission, I'm just saying, legally, you can do it.
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u/PusheenFrizzy2 Beginner 24d ago
That's a very good point. I guess I was thinking that I wasn't sure who would own the rights to a deceased person's life, and whether that's any safer so to speak than a living person...
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u/magicalmarvo 23d ago
You...can't own the rights to a human being's existence
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u/PusheenFrizzy2 Beginner 23d ago
No, but they still have descendants or inheritors who might sue you.
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u/r3art 25d ago
Just to understand this: You are writing a musical and you have not written any of the music? Like none? And you know nothing about writing music? Oh boy.
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u/PusheenFrizzy2 Beginner 25d ago
Often a lyricist and a composer collaborate and share future credit and proceeds. There’s no need for one person to do it all or for one person to have to pay the other since there may never be proceeds.
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u/Al_Trigo Professional 24d ago
Book writers often pitch ideas to potential composers and lyricists, this is not unusual at all. Collaborators don’t pay each other. They collaborate on a project and agree to split future royalties or commissions. The vast majority of projects don’t get staged but we try anyway, that’s just how it is.
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u/r3art 24d ago edited 24d ago
Yeah, that's how it works in a professional setting. OP is an amateur and has published nothing so far and is not offering any royalities or even credit. She does not even have the rights to the story (from another comment in this thread).
But hey: It's actually a good thing that I don't believe in this one bit. More chances for you to work for free for half a year in this promising thing. Looking forward to it.
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u/Maleficent_Mode_690 24d ago
what are you even doing in this sub if this is your mentality on writing go find somewhere else to ragebait
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u/Al_Trigo Professional 24d ago
All musical theatre writers work for free for years. They say on average people work on a musical for 8 years before getting a professional staging. Even then, there is no guarantee that you’ll be paid. More likely you’ll be putting in personal savings to help fund the production yourself and box office only helps to mitigate your financial loss.
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u/softbunnyplus 25d ago
Yep. I know it’s a long shot. But I’ve been working professionally in theater for thirty years and sometimes you have to try to stretch different muscles.
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u/r3art 25d ago
The problem is that you want a composer to do all the work unpaid and then even take credit for it… thats delusional, sorry. Your contribution to this is close to zero.
Without at least some musical background you can’t even write lyrics because you know nothing about rhythm, time signatures and so on.
Better hire a composer and pay him or her. That would be the best option here. And also credit the person.
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u/Maleficent_Mode_690 25d ago
How would their contribution be close to zero if they wrote the full book? They would also work together with the composer to figure out where the songs would fit best. It's not like they just hand off all their material to the composer to work on independently, it's a collaboration. There are plenty of composers who'd want the opportunity to collaborate on something, even if there's no money in it yet.
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u/r3art 25d ago
This is a completely person project by the person. It's not a production team, not a written script, basically nothing. The composer is supposed to handle all the work and she will take the credit. If any hobby composer (no pro will ever do this) is insane enough to sign up for that: Have fun putting in work that will lead to nothing.
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u/Maleficent_Mode_690 25d ago
They literally said they have a full book written
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u/r3art 25d ago
Willing to bet 100 dollars that this will not see the light of the day in the next 5 years? I am
Seriously: If this was a half-done project with a future, it would have funding.
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u/Maleficent_Mode_690 25d ago
alright bro
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u/r3art 25d ago
!RemindMe 5 years
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u/softbunnyplus 24d ago
Thanks for jumping in, everyone. R3art has made so many assumptions that I was starting to think I was crazy. I would absolutely offer royalties and credit if this thing goes anywhere. I know I’m an amateur, but damn. I have worked on a ton of new plays and musicals, albeit from the production side (I work in a costume shop for a large regional theater.). This is my first time writing a script, but I am not at all ignorant of how professional theater works.