An excerpt from my script review for La La Land which will be available 01/16/17:
5.) Format
So you want to sell your musical?
Make sure to write the music first.
Sure you’ll probably rewrite the songs (or is it recompose?) just as you would rewrite and rework parts of your script that don’t work, but realistically you must submit your vision of the score along with your script.
Can someone read your story and enjoy it without the music?
Hopefully, because the greatest music in the world won’t save a shitty story, and vice versa.
A musical is a special blend of two mediums that invoke emotion in the reader/viewer, so to successfully sell your idea, you’ll have to work twice as hard.
(Mr. Chazelle accomplished the first part with this script.)
Aside from that you still need to adhere to basic format concerns.
Keep page length as tight as possible (only 96 pages here which is refreshing upon first glance).
Limit typos to less than a handful.
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