From the MTI website, which handles Godspell's rights: When you are granted a performance license, by law the show you license must be performed "as is." You should not make any changes unless you have obtained prior written permission from us to do so. Otherwise, any changes violate the authors' rights under federal copyright law. Contact us - it's always safest to ask."
While the meaning of "as is" can be debated I see no harm in simply checking if casting against race and/or gender types is acceptable to the author. After all, if I'm presenting someone else's creation I wouldn't want to risk doing something he or she would disapprove of.
Godspell is a bit of a different matter, however, since Tebelak has been pretty open about encouraging companies to improvise and make changes in his book pretty much at will. There may even be note about that in the text. However, I don't know if Schwartz allows the same freedom with his score.
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Date: 2008-08-11 08:53 pm (UTC)While the meaning of "as is" can be debated I see no harm in simply checking if casting against race and/or gender types is acceptable to the author. After all, if I'm presenting someone else's creation I wouldn't want to risk doing something he or she would disapprove of.
Godspell is a bit of a different matter, however, since Tebelak has been pretty open about encouraging companies to improvise and make changes in his book pretty much at will. There may even be note about that in the text. However, I don't know if Schwartz allows the same freedom with his score.