Traverse City Central and West Navigate the Changing Economics of Musical Theatre Productions

As with anything else, the cost of mounting a full-scale high school musical theatre production has skyrocketed in the past 20 years. What was once a key fundraiser for school music departments has become an exercise in simply breaking even. While the economics and even the enthusiasm of local audiences have changed, though, educators say one thing hasn’t: the electrical passion their students have for the experience. That electricity is running especially high this year, as both Traverse City Central and Traverse City West prepare to perform musicals never before produced in northern Michigan.

Starting this coming Thursday, November 12 and running through November 22, Central High School will present the Michigan premiere of Wonderland, a contemporary take on Alice in Wonderland that remixes the beloved story’s heroes and villains in a manner comparable to the Broadway smash Wicked. Then, in March, West Senior High will perform the musical adaptation of the 2004 teen comedy classic film Mean Girls.

The relative newness of both shows, combined with the affection for their respective source material, has generated substantial excitement among students. Duncan Cooper, West’s new choral director, says the school was initially slated to perform Disney’s Beauty and the Beast as its 2027 musical. While reliably popular, that show is also extremely well-worn in local theatre circles, having been produced once by West, twice by Central, and twice by Old Town Playhouse.

But with Beauty and the Beast headed back to Broadway for its 30th anniversary, Cooper found himself needing to pick a new show. He landed on Mean Girls, seeing it as an opportunity to do something that “feels uniquely authentic to high schoolers.” When Cooper announced the pick late last month, he says the reaction from his students was “pure exuberance.” Thanks to the musical adaptation – and the fact that it was adapted into its own feature film in 2024 – Cooper says Mean Girls has a rare cross-generational appeal.

“When the new movie came out, you had millennial parents taking their Gen Z or Gen Alpha kids to the theaters to go see it,” he says. “It was similar to when my dad took me to see the re-release of Star Wars in 1997. Because of that, the students really connect with this show, but the parents also connect with it.”

Wonderland, which had a brief Broadway run in 2011, is less of a known commodity. But according to Brett Nichols, who is directing Central’s production, the opportunity to present something that will feel wholly new to most community members resonated with his students in an exciting way.

“Audiences often come to familiar musicals with very specific expectations about how a show should look and sound,” Nichols explains. “With Wonderland, there isn't a history of local productions or widely recognized versions for people to compare it to. That gave us the freedom to approach the material with fresh eyes and create our own interpretation, rather than trying to recreate someone else's. And for our students, that has been both exciting and empowering. They have had the chance to help shape a production that feels original and discover these characters and songs together as a company.”

For Charlotte Furlong, who is playing the Mad Hatter in Wonderland, that sense of discovery has been thrilling. The show, she says, “takes the well-known characters from the original Alice in Wonderland and puts them into an entirely new plot and dynamic,” including a particularly radical change for the Mad Hatter that Furlong doesn’t want to spoil.

Of course, there’s another appeal to performing newer shows: a potential boost for ticket sales. According to Central Choral Director Tamara Williams, interest in high school musical theatre productions has sadly waned in her 20 years with the program.

“While social media has made marketing and raising awareness much easier, it has also created a far more crowded landscape, with countless events competing for attention at the same time,” Williams says.

At the same time, the cost of putting on a high school musical has skyrocketed. Per Williams, “obtaining an amateur performance license – which covers the performance rights along with script and musical score rentals – typically costs between $7,000 and $11,000 upfront.” Add in other expenses – hiring directors, building sets, sourcing costumes, printing programs, and feeding the cast during “tech week” rehearsals that run late into the night – and Williams says a high school musical “generally requires a total budget of $30,000 to $40,000 each year.” Those costs, she adds, “have increased by roughly $15,000” in the past two decades.

In the process, what was once a core fundraiser for Central and West’s music programs has become a situation where ticket sales are “simply aimed simply at breaking even,” Williams tells The Ticker. The shows still do break even, mind you: In the past five years, Williams says Central’s musicals have netted between $1,000 and $5,000 per year, “after all the costs are considered and ticket sales factored in.” But compared to what used to be a five-figure windfall, those profits are modest.

With the economics no longer penciling out like they once did, both Williams and Cooper are cognizant of the fact that some community members would likely call for cutting the musicals altogether. Doing so, both say, would be a grave mistake.

“In terms of the student experience, it’s absolutely formative for them,” Cooper says. “Learning to work really hard towards a goal – we’re talking hours, hours, and hours a week after school –  I think it teaches skills similar to athletics. Which, for the record, are also more expensive than they used to be. It gives kids ownership, it shows them what it means to work hard. And I think that pays dividends for our students, regardless of whether they go to college, or trade school, or straight into the workforce.”

“Musical theatre stands out as one of the single best training grounds for life,” Williams agrees. “Being part of a production teaches essential human skills – empathy, collaboration, decision-making, self-awareness, and critical thinking – while also helping students overcome performance anxiety and build true confidence. There’s a reason these students often become some of our most positively impactful contributors to society, post high school.”

Pictured: The Mad Hatter (played by Charlotte Furlong) welcomes Alice (played by Kaiya Biggs) to Wonderland in a scene from Central High School's musical production.