Style/Specific types of releases/Theatre

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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

Note: This proposal would also rename this guideline from "Musical Soundtrack Style" to "Theatre Style".

The RFC will also include a post-NGS provision to allow "track" here to be replaced with "recording and work", post-NGS, without the need for additional RFC.


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, video game soundtracks, non-musical theatre other types of soundtracks are covered by different style guidelines. Depending on the release, it may be more appropriate to instead apply classical style or audiobook style.

Guidelines

1. The release type should be Soundtrack, even for live cast recordings.

2. 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.
  • For non-musical theatre releases, the author of the work should be used as the artist.

3. The release and release group titles should exclude extra title information information such as "Original Soundtrack", "Music from," etc., except that:

3a. The performance cast, with year, should be used (with two exceptions; see #5 below) in the release title and release group title.
Examples:
3b. "Broadway revival cast" is correct, not "new Broadway cast", as the 2004 Broadway cast is only the "new" cast until the next "newer" cast at some point in the future performs that same show in the same location. "Revival" should only be used within the cast information if "revival" or "new" appears on the liner; it should not be otherwise assumed.

4. For compilations of songs from different shows not compiled as part of a theatrical revue, or where the songs are performed by different casts of artists, do not include the cast information in the release and release group titles (unless it already is part of the title of the release). For these excluded compilation releases, if the release is not an Album release type, the cast information should be appended to each track's title. This should only be done for these compilations.

Cast information should be appended to each track title:
Cast should not be appended to each track title:
Note: The intent of this guideline is to avoid the creation of "Cast of (some show)" artists whenever possible. If it makes more sense to handle a special case differently, such as Glee Cast, differently, then common sense should overrule this guideline. Such exceptions where a "cast of" artist would be created should be approved by the style council.

5. Within the cast information, only proper nouns (e.g. 'London', 'Broadway', 'Senator Theatre') should be capitalized. All other words (e.g. 'cast', 'original', 'demo', 'revival') should be lower-cased.

Incorrect: Allegro (1947 Original Broadway Cast)
Correct:    Allegro (1947 original Broadway cast)

6. For the release type, and for interpreting guideline #4, 'compilation' should only be used for a true compilation. The presence of multiple complete or nearly-complete shows (whether different shows, or the same, as in the State Fair example in guideline #3) on the same release does not make the release type compilation.

7. For a live cast recording, two minor differences from normal Live Bootleg Style apply:

a. Exclude the colon after the date.
b. If the city is easily identifiable (e.g. Toronto, London, Paris, New York, etc.), other location information may be excluded.

Examples

Theatre Style applies:
Studio recording of a musical theatre work
Recording of a filmed musical theatre work. Theatre Style overrides the generic Soundtrack Style.
Demo cast recording for a musical theatre work.
Non-musical theatre release, using the author, William Shakespeare, as the artist.
  • Note that this example overlaps with Audiobook Style. There is no cast information included in the title, as there is a single reader, rather than a dramatic performing cast.
Live bootleg of a theatre cast with a known performance date.
Live bootleg of a theatre cast with an unknown performance date, where only the performance season is known.
  • Original and revival casts.
Theatre Style does not apply:
These are operas, thus Opera Track Style, not Theatre Style, would apply.
A musical theater-themed album is not automatically considered a 'theatre release'.