A mill town loses its whistle, and nobody knows when to start or stop anything.Cast: three leads, mill hands, shopkeepers. Sings when: the baker's daughter whistles and the street moves.
A teenager with a summer job in a toll booth collects one sentence from every driver.Cast: teenager, three who play all the drivers. Sings when: a driver brings back last week's sentence.
Three siblings drive a moving van across the country and argue about who chooses the radio station.Cast: three. Sings when: the radio dies in the desert and somebody has to fill the quiet.
A beekeeper's three grown children come home to decide what happens to the hives.Cast: three, and a neighbor. Sings when: the bees swarm and someone must call them the way Dad did.
A boy writes letters for his grandmother, who never learned to read, and one day a reply comes.Cast: boy, grandmother, mail carrier. Sings when: he must read aloud what he was not meant to see.
A brother and sister inherit a rowboat and one oar each.Cast: two. Sings when: they are in the middle of the lake, going in a circle.
A clockmaker's apprentice learns the town clock has been five minutes slow on purpose for forty years.Cast: apprentice, clockmaker, mayor. Sings when: the clockmaker says whose five minutes they were.
A crossing guard on her last day decides to stop all the traffic for one minute.Cast: guard, a child, a driver. Sings when: the street falls silent, and the minute is hers.
A father and daughter run a failing mini golf course and disagree about the windmill.Cast: two, and one customer. Sings when: the season's last customer asks about hole nine.
A girl and her imaginary friend agree that this is their last summer.Cast: girl, friend, mother. Sings when: the friend packs a suitcase only one of them can see.
A grandfather teaches his granddaughter to drive the week before he gives up his own license.Cast: two. Sings when: she takes her first corner alone, and he lets go of the dashboard.
A hotel night clerk, a stranded bridesmaid and a salesman wait out a flood in the lobby.Cast: three. Sings when: the lights go, and the lobby piano is the only thing anyone can find.
A lighthouse keeper has one week to train the boy who will replace him.Cast: keeper, boy, a voice on the radio. Sings when: the keeper hands over the logbook.
A piano mover and his daughter have one flight of stairs left and a piano that will not turn the corner.Cast: two, and a woman on the landing. Sings when: they set it down, and she asks for one tune.
A retired magician's assistant is asked, forty years on, how the famous trick was done.Cast: assistant, reporter. Sings when: she decides the answer is hers to keep.
A shy substitute teacher has one hour with the loudest detention in the school.Cast: teacher, four students. Sings when: she stops asking for quiet and asks a question.
A stand-in learns a whole show in one afternoon because the star is stuck on a train.Cast: stand-in, director, dresser. Sings when: the star telephones to say she has arrived.
A teenager with a summer job in a toll booth collects one sentence from every driver.Cast: teenager, three who play all the drivers. Sings when: a driver brings back last week's sentence.
A translator snowed in with two diplomats starts changing what each one says.Cast: three. Sings when: one diplomat goes silent, and she has to translate the silence.
An old songwriter with one hit teaches a class of one.Cast: songwriter, student. Sings when: the student asks why the hit has no second verse.
Four night cleaners in an office tower each have a floor, and one of them is leaving.Cast: four. Sings when: the elevator stops at each floor for a goodbye.
Three siblings drive a moving van across the country and argue about who chooses the radio station.Cast: three. Sings when: the radio dies in the desert and somebody has to fill the quiet.
Two astronauts on a long flight have run out of things to say to each other.Cast: two, and a voice from the ground. Sings when: the radio delay grows too long for talk.
Two best friends record a time capsule the night before one of them moves away.Cast: two. Sings when: the recorder is switched off and one of them keeps talking.
Two campers get lost on purpose to avoid the camp talent show.Cast: two campers, a counselor. Sings when: they hear the show begin without them, across the lake.
Two neighbors share a wall, with a piano on one side and a new baby on the other.Cast: two, and a landlord. Sings when: the lullaby comes through the wall from the wrong side.
Two rival buskers share one street corner because neither will move.Cast: two buskers, a traffic warden. Sings when: their two songs collide and turn out to fit.
Two sisters clear out their mother's sewing shop and find a dress order she never finished.Cast: two sisters, one customer. Sings when: the customer comes to collect, and neither can say it.
Medium cast 25
A detention room becomes a band because the music room is flooded.Cast: seven students, a teacher. Sings when: the teacher takes away a drumstick and taps it once.
A fire station that has had no fire in ten years is about to be closed.Cast: eight firefighters, an inspector. Sings when: the inspector asks what they do all day.
A hotel's staff prepare for a famous guest who never arrives.Cast: a manager, eight staff. Sings when: they sit down and eat the welcome dinner themselves.
A jury of twelve has to decide who owns a stray dog.Cast: twelve jurors, a dog. Sings when: the dog is let into the room to choose.
A night bus takes the same ten people home every Friday, and tonight the driver turns the wrong way on purpose.Cast: a driver, ten riders. Sings when: the bus stops at the sea.
A night class in beginners' English has nine students from nine countries.Cast: nine students, a teacher. Sings when: the word of the week is home, and nobody can define it.
A ninetieth birthday brings together four branches of a family who do not speak.Cast: twelve relatives. Sings when: she asks for the family song, and each branch knows a different verse.
A rained-out baseball team waits in the dugout and tells the truth for once.Cast: nine players, a coach. Sings when: the cover goes over the field and the benchwarmer speaks first.
A river barge crew must carry a town's new bell upstream before the water drops.Cast: six crew, a bell founder. Sings when: the bell is struck by accident and the valley answers.
A roadside diner learns at midnight that the highway is being moved.Cast: a cook, a waitress, six regulars. Sings when: each regular orders the usual for the last time.
A small-town radio station has one hour to prove that anybody is listening.Cast: a host, an engineer, callers. Sings when: the telephone finally rings.
A street market is given one last Saturday before the square becomes a parking lot.Cast: nine stallholders. Sings when: each calls a price for the last time, and the calls become a round.
A train station's lost-property office decides to return everything in one day.Cast: three clerks, six owners. Sings when: one owner does not want the thing back.
A traveling troupe plays a town that has never seen a play and takes every word as true.Cast: eight players, a constable. Sings when: the villain is booed for real and answers as himself.
A village choir of eleven must find a twelfth singer before the county competition.Cast: the choir, one stranger. Sings when: the twelfth auditions and cannot hold a note.
A volunteer lifeboat crew waits out a storm that never quite arrives.Cast: nine volunteers. Sings when: the call comes at last, and it is the mayor's dog on a sandbank.
A wedding band plays its thousandth wedding, and the singer means to quit tonight.Cast: five players, some guests. Sings when: a guest requests the one song she wrote herself.
An apartment building shares one washing machine and a sign-up sheet full of grudges.Cast: ten tenants. Sings when: the machine stops mid-cycle with everyone's clothes in it.
An island's ferry stops running, and its ten households must share one small boat.Cast: ten islanders. Sings when: they draw up the rota and nobody wants Tuesdays.
Eight science fair finalists wait backstage in a power cut, and nothing they built will switch on.Cast: eight finalists, a judge. Sings when: they explain their projects to each other in the dark.
One summer camp cabin is the only cabin never to have won the canoe race.Cast: eight campers, a counselor. Sings when: they vote on whether to try.
Seven retired teachers meet to grade one last stack of papers found in an attic.Cast: seven teachers, a caterer. Sings when: one essay turns out to be the caterer's.
The staff of a small-town newspaper put out its final edition.Cast: an editor, eight staff. Sings when: nobody will write the last headline.
Three generations of a family restaurant cannot agree on changing one dish.Cast: nine cooks and relatives. Sings when: Grandmother tastes the new one and says nothing.
The workers of a button factory learn it has been sold to a zipper company.Cast: ten workers, an owner. Sings when: the last box of buttons comes down the line.
Large cast 25
A beehive must choose a new home, and the scouts come back with different answers.Cast: scouts, workers, a queen. Sings when: each scout dances a direction and the hive picks a side.
A circus spends the winter in a farm village that has never liked strangers.Cast: performers and villagers, two choruses. Sings when: the first snow shuts the one road out.
A city block throws a party for a street light that has finally been fixed.Cast: a whole block. Sings when: the light comes on and shows everyone who came.
A factory town's brass band needs every worker in the plant to make up the numbers.Cast: a band, workers, a conductor. Sings when: the foreman is handed the triangle.
A fairground packs up at dawn, and one ride refuses to stop.Cast: fairground hands, the last riders. Sings when: the carousel plays on with the power off.
A festival's fireworks barge drifts off downriver with the fireworks still aboard.Cast: a festival crowd, two bargemen. Sings when: the crowd follows along the bank, counting down.
A fishing fleet's families wait on the quay for one late boat.Cast: families, crews. Sings when: its lamp shows round the point and the whole quay breathes out.
A flooded town holds its Saturday market in rowboats.Cast: boat owners, shoppers. Sings when: the water starts to drop, and nobody is sure they want it to.
A harvest must come in before a storm, and the two biggest farms are not speaking.Cast: two families, hired hands. Sings when: thunder is heard, and one farm rings its bell for help.
A mill town loses its whistle, and nobody knows when to start or stop anything.Cast: three leads, mill hands, shopkeepers. Sings when: the baker's daughter whistles and the street moves.
A mountain village holds its yearly echo contest, and this year the echo does not answer.Cast: villagers, three contestants. Sings when: the whole village calls together and waits.
A new mayor promises the town one quiet Sunday, and every noise in town has a defender.Cast: mayor, bell ringers, dog owners, a brass band. Sings when: each noise pleads its case.
A power cut leaves a city without screens for an evening, and one block has to entertain itself.Cast: a city block. Sings when: the first candle is lit on a fire escape.
A princess refuses to be crowned until somebody explains what a queen is for.Cast: princess, court, townsfolk. Sings when: she asks from the balcony and gets a hundred answers.
A seaside town's pier is to be pulled down at the end of the season.Cast: pier workers, vacationers, a council. Sings when: the pier lights go on for the last night.
A town votes on whether to sell its only bridge.Cast: a mayor, two families, the town. Sings when: the meeting runs out of speakers and the hall takes over.
A train is stopped by snow, and three classes of carriage must share one stove.Cast: passengers by carriage, a conductor. Sings when: the conductor collects coal and stories.
A village must move uphill before the new reservoir fills its valley.Cast: villagers of all ages, engineers. Sings when: they carry the school bell past the old houses.
A village school will close unless it finds five more students by Monday.Cast: students, parents, a teacher. Sings when: the roll is called and the answers are counted.
A week after everyone arrived, a gold rush town learns there was never any gold.Cast: prospectors, shopkeepers, a surveyor. Sings when: the surveyor reads the report aloud.
An airport is fogged in overnight, and strangers from six flights share one gate.Cast: travelers, ground crew. Sings when: the departure board goes blank.
The animals of a forest hold a council about the new road.Cast: animals by kind. Sings when: the smallest creature is finally allowed to speak.
Passengers and crew of an ocean liner put on a show because the ship's band is seasick.Cast: three decks of chorus. Sings when: the engine room crew come up to audition.
The staff of a department store run the last day of its closing sale.Cast: clerks by department, shoppers. Sings when: the elevator operator calls the floors a last time.
Two schools are merged, and there is one mascot costume between them.Cast: two student bodies. Sings when: the first joint assembly is told to sing the school song.
Whole school 25
A flock of geese practices flying in a V, and nobody wants the back.Cast: a flock of any size. Sings when: the leader tires and the back row must come forward.
A forest decides what to do about the one tree that will not drop its leaves.Cast: trees by grade, one evergreen. Sings when: the first snow lands on bare branches.
A kingdom of shoes waits by the front door to learn which pair goes out today.Cast: pairs. Sings when: the rain boots hear thunder.
A parade loses its route, and every float believes it is at the front.Cast: floats and marchers, any number. Sings when: the parade meets itself coming the other way.
A river runs from the mountain to the sea and picks up a new class at every bend.Cast: the school, joining stream by stream. Sings when: the river meets the sea with everyone on stage.
A school bus breaks down, and each row of seats explains how it would save the day.Cast: rows of riders, a driver. Sings when: the smallest rider points at the fuel gauge.
A school's lost-property box comes to life the night before it is emptied.Cast: gloves, lunchboxes, one odd shoe, any number. Sings when: each thing remembers who left it.
A town's weather is made by its children, and each street is in charge of one kind.Cast: streets of rain, wind, sun and fog. Sings when: Fog Street is invited to the picnic.
A vegetable garden learns that the gardener will enter only one of them in the fair.Cast: rows of vegetables. Sings when: the pumpkin, too big to hide, says sorry.
A village of snow people has until the thaw to finish one thing each.Cast: any number. Sings when: the first drip is heard.
A zoo's animals swap enclosures for one night to see how the others live.Cast: a class for each animal. Sings when: the penguins meet the heat lamp.
The dishes after a feast wait at the sink, each sure it had the best of the meal.Cast: plates, cups and spoons. Sings when: the gravy boat tells what it overheard.
Every clock in a school shows a different time, and each class lives by its own.Cast: classes by clock. Sings when: two classes try to meet for lunch.
The hours of the school day compete to be the favorite, and Recess is winning.Cast: a group for each hour. Sings when: the Last Hour of Friday makes its entrance.
In a library after closing, every shelf is a town, and the returns cart brings the news.Cast: a class for each shelf. Sings when: a book comes home after forty years away.
In a market of sounds, each stall sells one noise, and the Silence stall has no customers.Cast: stallholders and shoppers. Sings when: the whole market stops at once to listen.
The instruments in a school music cupboard each believe they carry the tune.Cast: sections by instrument. Sings when: the triangle gets its one note.
The kites at a spring festival each claim the wind as their own.Cast: a class for each kite, one child as the wind. Sings when: the wind drops, and every kite comes down together.
The letters of the alphabet line up for a class photo, and the vowels want the front row.Cast: twenty-six, or groups. Sings when: the consonants try a song without them.
The months of the year argue over which of them gets the extra day.Cast: twelve groups. Sings when: February states its case.
The numbers one to nine throw a party and forget to invite Zero.Cast: nine groups and one child. Sings when: they try to count the guests past nine.
The planets hold an election for which of them the humans should visit next.Cast: planets, with moons as the chorus. Sings when: the moons demand a vote of their own.
The rooms of a house argue over which of them the family really lives in.Cast: a class for each room. Sings when: the lights go out and everybody ends up in the kitchen.
The stars each want to be the one that gets wished on.Cast: constellations by class. Sings when: a cloud covers all but the smallest.
The toys in a classroom vote on who goes home with the child who is moving away.Cast: toys by shelf. Sings when: the oldest bear takes itself out of the vote.
How it works
These musical story ideas are 100 plots for a musical: stories to be sung on a stage, not stories about music. Under each is the cast and the moment when talking stops being enough and somebody sings.
Read the full guide
Sorted by cast size
Small cast needs two to five singers and no chorus. Medium cast adds one group: a jury, a night bus, a kitchen. Large cast puts a town or a ship's company behind the leads. Whole school has a part for every class: months, planets, a flock of geese.
Why each plot says when it sings
A song needs a cause. Here a town meeting runs out of speakers, a lighthouse keeper hands over the logbook, and a van's radio dies in the desert. That moment is the first song to write. The plot is what leads up to it and away.
Write the song moment as a plain speech first. Where the speech starts to repeat itself, the song begins.
Short of singers, or with too many? A chorus of bees, snow people or shoes takes any number.
Questions and answers
What makes a good story for a musical?
One with moments too big for talk. In a musical the moments of greatest dramatic intensity are often performed in song. The proverb runs: when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing.
What is the story of a musical called?
The book. It means the story, the character development and the dramatic shape, with the spoken lines and the stage directions. The music and lyrics together are the score.
Which musical story ideas suit a school or a youth theater?
The group Whole school. Each plot has parts for any number, so nobody is cut: the letters of the alphabet line up for a class photo, and the months argue over which of them gets the extra day.
Are these stories about music?
No. A few have buskers, a choir or a wedding band in them, but each is a plot to be performed with songs, whatever it is about. For a plot with no songs, see story ideas for plays.