The show barely goes on

Kristin High School students have performed Grease. Now the school expects to pay $60,000 to stage Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Photo / Supplied

Cash-strapped New Zealand high schools can no longer afford to put on annual musicals.

Schools say they are being priced out of the market by millionaire composers such as Andrew Lloyd Webber, who command fees of up to $7000 to perform their Broadway hits.

The royalties have pushed the price of staging a musical as high as $60,000, and principals say that despite resorting to fundraising they can only manage to pay for a musical every second year.

The complex laws governing royalties mean schools are charged extra to perform the best-known songs.

In their production of Grease this year, Rosehill College in Papakura, Auckland, were forced to leave out Hopelessly Devoted to You and You're the One That I Want, to afford the show.

Stacey Bolt, head of drama at the college, said the school saved $1000 by leaving out the hit songs.

The musical cost was $24,000, including $6370 in royalties, but Bolt said they would make only about $15,000 in ticket sales.

Drama students were already being forced to sell chocolate bars to afford the show.

The show's producer, James Clarke, said: "It is always a financially tight situation and making a loss is very real possibility."

Marcus Fritsch, head of music and drama at Rangitoto College on Auckland's North Shore, said the school forked out about $6000 in royalties to perform Blood Brothers.

As well as meeting the cost, Fritsch said schools had to send promotional material to the royalties company for approval.

The agency then checked everything from the size and style of the poster, and rejected it if anything did not meet its exacting standards.

"It feels a little bit like you're jumping through hoops."

Principal of Albany's Kristin School Peter Clague said the school's performance of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat including the $4500 flat fee for performance rights, was expected to be about $60,000.

Clague said deciding which musical to perform was a catch-22 for schools, because people wanted to see a show that they knew, but they tended to be the more expensive to buy.

Clague said his school was also paying 16 per cent of ticket sales in royalties to the licenser, Australian company Hal Leonard.

"I am always a little bit sad that schools don't get a school rate. We're charged the same as the local amateur dramatic society."

Tom Gerrard, principal of Rosmini College on Auckland's North Shore, said the school had paid about $3000 to perform Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

"The royalties are quite steep, they're quite a huge thing. We try and break even but often we supplement it."

Principals are calling for the licensing agencies who control the rights to give schools a discount.

But the licensing manager for Hal Leonard, Stuart Hendricks, said the company already had several plays and musicals on its books that were adapted for schools.

Hendricks would not comment on how much money New Zealand schools paid a year in royalties and licensing to the company.

He said about 90 per cent of the money it collected went to the show's writer.

But he did not think it was time for composers such as Lloyd Webber - with an estimated wealth of £700 million ($1.5 billion) - to be reducing their bills.

"That's the only way he makes a living; he doesn't have a day job."

Paul Heyward, lecturer in drama in education at Auckland University, said school productions were a way to raise student confidence.

While it was becoming more common for schools to only hold a drama production every second year, they were still a valuable part of school life.

"I think it's got huge potential to really connect with children who might otherwise be overlooked in the school system."

Shows also encouraged co-operation among students.