One of the shows I MDed for my alma mater after graduating was the melodrama
East Lynne. I spent hours, well days in the Library of Congress Music Reading Room researching songs and various musical "ditties". Fun, fun, fun! And the woman in charge of the silent movie music archive, Gillian Anderson, helped me find cue sheets and other "mood music" for the production. By the time I was done with all my research, I had binders full of music and songs.
Once we were finally cast and in rehearsal, it was fun deciding where songs could possibly go, and then going through my 'research' to see what could work in each place. All those Balfe songs!
*On the unfortunate side of things, our director had a stroke a few days before going into tech. He made a full recovery, but since there was no real assistant director, there was no one around to decide/authorize any cuts in the show once we were up and running in tech. However, I guess were more or less authentic since the show ended up running about 3 hours (with the two intermissions).
