Unboxing a Jukebox Musical

To make a musical, all you need is a compelling story and some music—and who says it can’t be the music you listen to every day? With your class, select a well-known story and break the story into a couple bite-size scenes that you can bring to life.

Assign your students to small groups, one group per scene. Ask each group to dissect their scene, discussing and writing down what emotions and conflicts are explored on a large piece of chart paper.

Next, go song searching! Prompt each group to find a song that encapsulates one of the emotions they’ve written down. This may be a pop song, a beloved oldie or something from the radio. For example, if a character is feeling stressed, they may choose “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie, or if they’re feeling resilient they may pick “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson.

Next, ask them to stage their scene, incorporating their song. This may be through acting out the movements of the scene while their song plays or even including some lines from the original source material. If your students want, they can even lip sync or sing the lyrics aloud!

To culminate, ask each group to present their scene in chronological order, and you’ve just made your very own jukebox musical!