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Pageant

Like no beauty pageant you’ve seen before! Six hilarious contestants vie for the title of “Miss Glamouresse”! With judges selected from the audience, the winner is anyone’s guess!

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Description

  • Full Length Musical
  • Comedy
  • 90 minutes

  • Time Period: Present Day, Contemporary
  • Target Audience: Adult
  • Cautions: Mild Adult Themes

  • Performance Group:
  • Dinner Theatre, College Theatre / Student

  • Accolades:
  • Nominee! Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Musical (2015)
    Nominee! Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival of a Musical (2015)
Pageant is a hilarious pageant, played out in real time. Judges selected from the audience actually vote and determine the winner who, therefore, may be different at each performance. The show takes its shots not by mocking the proceedings from the outside, but by being an authentic pageant itself.

The six contestants compete for the title of Miss Glamouresse (named for a fictional cosmetics company). Miss Deep South, Miss West Coast, Miss Great Plains, Miss Bible Belt, Miss Industrial Northeast and Miss Texas compete in evening gown, talent, swimwear and spokesmodeling events, and the finalists answer actual calls from the Glamouresse Beauty Crisis Hotline. A campy and uproarious take on a uniquely American concept, Pageant is 90 minutes of non-stop fun.
REVIEWS:

"Screamingly funny!"

 The New York Times

"Hilarious! Incredible! 90 minutes of the kind of laughter that makes tears run down your face."

 Gannett Newspapers

"So funny I thought I was going to die."

 Susan Powell, former Miss America

Premiere Production: Pageant premiered off-Broadway at the Blue Angel on May 2, 1991. Conceived, directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom, the production featured Randl Ash, J.T. Cromwell, David Drake, Russell Garrett, Joe Joyce, John Salvatore and Dick Scanlan.

Characters

  • Casting: 7M
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, All Male
  • Casting Notes: It is the authors’ intent that these female contestants are all played by men. All actors need to sing, move well and have strong comedy skills. The actors playing the CONTESTANTS should at the very least look presentable as female beauty pageant contestants. The idea is to present male actors as female characters – not over-the-top drag queens.

  • MISS BIBLE BELT/RUTH ANN RUTH - Believes that she plus God equals a majority in any situation. She sees even the cheesiest part of the Glamouresse Beauty Regimen as part of His Plan. This gives her a righteous attitude which is unshakable, but she also has the manic cheerfulness of the newly saved. Big belter voice, strongest singer in the cast.

  • MISS DEEP SOUTH/LAURINDA SUMMERFORD - The Blonde in the show; even though others may have blonde hair, only she knows how to work it. At the same time she is The Lady. She has a very narrow and ritualized sense of "femininity" which is frequently outraged by the other contestants' behavior and attitudes. Her talent is ventriloquism.

  • MISS GREAT PLAINS/BONNIE LOUISE CUTLETT - Utterly sincere in her belief in the values promoted by Glamouesse, though some of them seem quite exotic to her. She is honored to represent the great heartland of this nation and to show what honest country folk can do. In the present contest she is agape and aglow. Not necessarily the "prettiest" contestant.

  • MISS INDUSTRIAL NORTHEAST/CONSUELA MANUELA RAFAELLA LOPEZ - Included among he regional winners mostly due to Glamouresse's belated sense that the times they are a-changin' and the Northeast's notable lack of interest in the contest. Her talent has been culled from watching the variety show "Sabado Gigante" on Spanish television.

  • MISS TEXAS/KITTY-BOB AMES - The Professional of the group. With her father's money and a shrewd selection of contests, she has never lost a competition. Her skills may not be outstanding by themselves, but her attitude says "Winner" all the way. Actor must tap dance to some rudimentary extent.

  • MISS WEST COAST/KARMA QUINN - Like Miss Great Plains, is sweet-natured, but Karma is a lot less focused. She has tried to parlay her vagueness and I'll-try-anything-once attitude into a comprehensive mystical spirituality but it hasn't jelled. This pageant is the most structured event of her entire life. Actor should have some dance skills and (possibly) be able to create a different character for the reigning Mis Glamouresse.

  • FRANKIE CAVALIER - Our genial host, is certainly that. Frankie is a third or fourth-tier celebrity who is known to the audience where the pageant is being performed, perhaps as a weekend weather-report reader or a spokesman for a used car dealership. Strong singer who moves well.

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Perusal Material Shipped immediately. This is optional. Order Now

    1 x Vocal Book
    1 x Libretto

    		$24.00
    Libretto This is optional. Order Now

    PLEASE NOTE: The LIBRETTO is available for SALE ONLY and is not available for hire as part of the Rehearsal Material set. It must be purchased separately.

    		$24.95
    Pre-Production Pack Shipped upon receipt of a signed License Agreement and full payment of all invoices. This is optional.

    1 x Vocal Book
    1 x Piano-Conductor's Score (rehearsal)

    		$75.00
    Rehearsal Material Shipped a minimum of 3 months before the last performance. This must be hired as a condition of the License to produce this show.

    7 x Vocal Books
    1 x Piano-Conductor (rehearsal)

    Digital Download
    Performance Track - "Miss West Coast Dance"

    		$450.00 +$135.00/pm
    Orchestral Material Shipped a minimum of 1 month before the last performance. This is optional.

    1 x Synthesizer (performance)
    1 x Guitar
    1 x Bass - Electric
    1 x Drums - Trap Set, Triangle, Bell Tree, Timp (B-flat) & Simmons Drum Pad

    		$150.00 +$75.00/pm

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