Did You Know? Not all Broadway musicals have had happy premises or happy endings. Popular musicals over the years which featured death or murder include: Redhead (1959), Sweeney Todd (1979), and West Side Story (1957).

Designed with educators in mind, MTI’s School Edition™ musicals embody a bold new idea in creating and licensing adaptations of grand scale, symphonic musicals in versions adapted for performance by high schools. These adaptations, while smaller in size, retain all of the scope and glory of the originals.

MTI’s first School Edition Musical Les Misérables School Edition™ was released in 2002 to great fanfare and has already become a huge success in high schools around the world. Many schools that thought they would never be able to mount a production of Les Misérables found that this new adaptation of the great Broadway show provided them the ability to stage a production that was a triumph in their district. For Les Misérables School Edition™, the show was edited so that its total running time is just over two hours, songs are offered in alternate keys that allow younger voices to shine, and a detailed Director's Script offers technical advice that makes the sets, lights, sound and props a manageable proposition. The result: An emotionally rewarding experience that is bringing students and communities together wherever it plays.

In the works: Ragtime The Musical School Edition™—the authors of Ragtime The Musical are creating a School Edition of the show that promises to bring this musical theatre masterpiece to high school stages everywhere.