When rehearsing for a musical, music directors receive 1 script and 1 piano-vocal score. Separate rehearsal materials like this, however, can be impossible to navigate and cumbersome when dialogue is to be said under the music between sung phrases or when a dialogue cue needs to be spoken for the music to start, stop, or continue. So more emphasis is placed on creating an integrated score in musical theatre today.

An integrated score takes both the script and the music contents and combines them into one document, so the music director doesn’t need to flip back and forth between script and score or guess what the dialogue is.

In order to integrate these documents into one, you’ll need to use sheet music notation software like Finale, Sibelius, or Dorico. Here are some conventions we suggest when formatting and presenting the script in the score yourself.

3. Dialogue

Dialogue starts after a colon ":” and sometimes uses two lines if the dialogue is too long to fit on the page. Including entire blocks of a scene is unnecessary unless the scene is underscored. For long monologues, include the first sentence followed by "(dialogue cont.)” in italics and then include the last sentence of the monologue. You can use this for long scenes between sections of music, too.

6. Update the script and score

When you update the script or make changes, be sure to include all of those in the score. Writers often ignore this step, which causes a disconnect between the actors and the music director when the script/libretto doesn’t match the score the music director is playing from.

These conventions are important for your pianist, music director, performers, choreographer, and stage manager(s). Integrating the script and score into one document makes rehearsals easier, eliminates questions, and saves time.