Style/Specific types of releases/Theatre

Status: This page describes an active style guideline proposal and is not official.

Proposal number: RFC-28 Champion: BrianFreud Current status: In development Trac ticket # 2146

A "theatre" release is a recording of a work for the theatre involving music, songs, and/or spoken dialogue, occasionally also including dance. Typically these works are of a musical nature, but they may also be dramatic or comedic.

Applicability

This guideline specifically applies only to non-opera theatre releases. Opera, non-musical theatre film and television soundtracks, and video game soundtracks are covered by different style guidelines. Depending on the release, classical style or audiobook style also may be more appropriate. A modified form of Live Bootleg Style may also apply, in addition to this guideline.

Examples

Applies:

• Oklahoma! (1998 London Cast)

Studio recording of a musical theatre work

• Godspell (1973 Film Cast)

Recording of a filmed musical theatre work. Theatre soundtrack style overrides soundtrack style.

• Chess (1984 Demo Cast)

Demo cast recording for a musical theatre work. Note that "Demo" is proper-cased, not lower-cased.

• The Little Mermaid (2007-07-26 Denver Cast)

Live bootleg of a theatre cast with a known performance date.

• Exclude the colon that Live Bootleg Style would normally require.
• If the city is easily identifiable (e.g. Toronto, London, Paris, New York, etc.), other location information may be excluded.

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (2005 Encores! Cast)

Live bootleg of a theatre cast with an unknown performance date, where only the performance season is known.

• Barnum (1980 Original Broadway Cast)
• Pacific Overtures (2004 Broadway Revival Cast)
• Zorba (1983 Broadway Revival Cast)

• Original and revival casts, where the same show has been performed (and theoretically recorded) multiple times in the same location.

• Note that "Broadway Revival Cast" is correct, not "New Broadway Cast", as the 2004 Broadway cast is only the "new" cast until the next "newer" cast performs that same show in the same location.

Does not apply:

This guideline does not apply to compilations of songs from different shows being sung by a one or more performers, unless the songs are compiled as part of a theatrical revue.

Basic Guidelines

• The release type should be Soundtrack.
• The release, release group, and track artist should be the composer(s), not the performer(s), lyricist(s), and/or librettist(s).
  • Performer(s), lyricist(s), and/or librettist(s) should be indicated using advanced relationships.
• The release and release group titles should exclude extra title information information such as "Original Soundtrack", "Music from," etc., except that:
  • The performance cast (with year) should be used in the release title to distinguish the release from other versions of the soundtrack.

    Example: Carousel (1956 Film Cast)

{{{note}}}

Guess Case lowercases the word "original" within parenthesis, which is incorrect for this guideline: Incorrect: Allegro (1947 original Broadway Cast) Correct:    Allegro (1947 Original Broadway Cast)