It's tricky and expensive securing the rights to musicals and some will never be available to the community. For those dreaming a dream of Les Mis at the local school, here's what it takes.
When auditions opened for Toowoomba's Choral Society performance of Les Misérables, producer Joanna Tooley was overwhelmed.
Not that she's holding her breath for her choral society to be able to tell the story of one of America's founding fathers. "Sometimes the rights for a musical will be put on hold for community groups and schools if there is an upcoming national professional touring production," Ms Tooley explained."It becomes a case of putting your case forward, and working with the rights holders, to see what the best fit is," Ms Tooley said.
Script changes, additional lines, gender changes for characters, are all off-limits if you want to perform certain shows. Since 2008, the small school has written and performed musicals with pirate, jungle, science fiction and fairytale themes.