Songs From
Can I use songs from musicals in a play I’m writing without purchasing royalties for each song?
I’m planning on creating a play using villians from various plays and musicals coming together and I would like to use songs from some shows (ie Sweeney Todd). My production budget is pretty slim, as in, whatever i can afford and I just want to know what i’m getting myself into royalties wise.
There’s no quick answer here. If you plan to make a profit from the play, you must observe the copyright. If your play is strictly educational, that’s more of a grey area, although music publishers are hard to get around even when you claim fair use. You might only be able to include small portions of the songs.
As far as royalties go, some playwrights handle them personally to some degree, and others belong to organizations that do it for them. Some provide a sliding scale, depending on how many seats you plan to fill, the venue’s location, etc. (It wouldn’t make sense to charge a community theater the same as one on Broadway.) They may also require that you adhere to certain conditions, down to printing programs a certain way. They have to guard their property, which includes protecting how the public perceives the work. (Interestingly, you’re allowed to use the work without permission if you’re doing a parody of it, as fair use includes criticism. People couldn’t make fun of things if they had to get permission to do so. On the other hand, this is also a grey area, and artists are constantly in litigation over it.)
Regarding the characters, you’d also have to get permission for those, unless they’re older than copyright law or old enough to have entered the public domain, which is generally ninety-five years. (It varies from country to country, and there are some exceptions.) “Sweeney Todd” (the character and basic story) is free to use as far as I know.
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