Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is this?
This is my Musical Theater Database. It serves two purposes. One is selfish: so that I can learn PHP and MySQL which I used to make this database. The second reason is because I have not found a suitable online database of musical numbers that is searchable for specific criteria. This is hopefully a usable solution.
2. What does it do?
You can browse through all the different musical numbers that have been entered into the database. You can also do a text search and browse by show. However, the most useful feature is the ability to find songs that meet various criteria.
3. What kind of criteria can I search for?
The data on each song entails the number of featured men, the number of featured women, number of other significant parts, the presence of a chorus and any other notes. Featured people are pretty straight forward: solos have one, duets have two. In larger numbers, featured people is usually how many named characters/singing roles there are. Others refers to the rest of the people, like small speaking parts or those random three word solos. Numbers in which there is a part that everyone (and not specific characters) sings, there is a chorus. The notes are for anything else. For a wildcard (any value will work) leave the entry blank.
4. Hey! You forgot my favorite song and my favorite musical. Fix it!
Me? Fix it? Surely you jest. This database is designed as a community project. I could not possibly enter all of the information by myself. Just click on the Insert New link on the top of the main page and add a new number. The success of this project relies on your participation.
5. I'm not sure how this song should be classified.
Use your best judgement. If you've made it this far (i.e. you know me :-P) you're bound to be pretty smart, and thus I trust you can decide how to classify stuff. The jury is still out on how to classify Gary Coleman (Avenue Q) and Angel (Rent). In general, classifications should reflect how the show usually produces the number.
6. What if the information isn't accurate?
There is an edit button next to each entry. There, you can fix entries and make them super.
7. What stops me from completely trashing your database?
I have faith that no one will start inserting tons of bogus items. So don't. Please.
8. The lyrics link doesn't work. Fix it!
Sometimes, stlyrics.com just doesn't have lyrics for every song. Check their database manually. If there is a bizzare punctuation issue, let me know.
9. I have another question!
Please feel free to email me. I enjoy getting emails.