## The Perfect (?) Musical Libretto Format - Kieren MacMillan Source URL:: <https://www.kierenmacmillan.info/perfect-musical-libretto-format/> No Standard(s) As an art form, the Broadway-style musical is upwards of a hundred years old. (Show Boat is nearly ninety, and while it certainly broke new ground, it was hardly The First Musical.) Yet in all that time, with ...more » ### Highlights > [!quote]+ %%Updated on Wed Mar 29 2023 13:11:58 GMT-0400%% > > As an art form, the Broadway-style musical is upwards of a hundred years old. (Show Boat is nearly ninety, and while it certainly broke new ground, it was hardly The First Musical.) > [!quote]+ %%Updated on Wed Mar 29 2023 13:12:13 GMT-0400%% > > The film industry learned early on in its evolution that adopting a standard format would reap many benefits for writers, producers, actors, and directors alike. For writers, the standard format helps level the playing field: it becomes “transparent” and intuitive to readers and producers, so the content can shine through without having to fight the presentation. For producers, having a standard format helps identify experienced writers (who know to, and know how to, use the format), and even affords a quick (and remarkably accurate) estimate of the duration of the film based solely on page count. For actors and directors—indeed, any creative artists involved in film production—a standard format provides a consistent and comfortable way of parsing out relevant information from the script, as efficiently as possible.