Make singing look different from speech
A reader should know a line is sung before reading it. Italics or all caps, with each sung line on its own line, both do that; the choice matters less than keeping one convention for every song in the script.
Set sung lines apart from speech — italics or all caps, one lyric line per line — and quote only the lyrics the scene actually needs.
Direct answer
Put the singer's character cue above the song and give each sung line its own line so it reads as verse, not prose. Set singing apart from speech with italics or all caps, use one convention for every song, and add a (singing) parenthetical the first time. Quote only the lyrics the scene needs; for a song playing in the background, describe it in action instead.
On the page
INT. HARBOR BAR - NIGHT
Mara steps up to the microphone. The room keeps talking.
MARA
(singing)
The last ferry's leaving,
and I'm still on the pier.
The room goes quiet.
Evidence weight
A reader should know a line is sung before reading it. Italics or all caps, with each sung line on its own line, both do that; the choice matters less than keeping one convention for every song in the script.
There is no single correct form: produced musicals have marked lyrics with italics, with all caps, and even with color. Readers do agree on two things — sung and spoken lines must not look the same, and the convention adopted for the first song should still hold for the last.
Not one rigid template
Italics under the singer's cue keep the page quiet and read clearly as song. Produced musical screenplays have used this form.
All caps, one sung line per line, is the other long-standing convention. It stands out more on a busy page and survives any typeface.
When the music already exists or plays under a scene, name the song or describe it in action. Some musicals written alongside recorded demos refer to tracks rather than printing every lyric.
Reader and handoff friction
Choose for the recipient
Outside a musical, keep songs short on the page. A reader needs the song's dramatic job, not every verse, and a one-line description often serves a spec better than printed lyrics.
Any existing song a production uses has to be cleared, which is the production's job rather than the draft's. Original lyrics are often settled with the music team, so revise them through the script's normal revision process like any other dialogue.
In Plot, put the singer's Character cue above the song and use the Lyric element for each sung line; Plot sets lyrics in italics on the page and in the PDF so they read as song, not speech. Lyrics come in from Final Draft as lyrics and go back out to FDX the same way.
Asked next
Either is accepted. Italics read quieter; all caps stand out more on a busy page. Choose one and use it for every song in the script, because consistency is what tells a reader a line is sung.
Usually not. Name the song and describe what it does in the scene. Printing an existing song adds pages without adding story, and any song a production uses has to be cleared anyway.
In action. Describe what plays and when it matters — a jukebox starts an old ballad — and quote a lyric only when the words themselves land a story beat.
Character cue
The speaker’s name above a dialogue block, conventionally in uppercase — the label that tells the reader who is talking.
Parenthetical
A short note in parentheses inside a dialogue block — how a line is delivered or a small action during it, e.g. (whispering). Use sparingly.
Dialogue
Spoken lines under a character cue. In Plot, dialogue is a first-class element — so a dialogue pass can propose line-level changes you accept or reject without touching action you meant to keep.
Browse the screenplay formatting reference
Complete, source-backed guides for common screenplay situations
Dual & overlapping dialogue
Use side-by-side dialogue only when two speeches are genuinely simultaneous; use interruptions, dashes, or action beats when the timing is sequential.
Montage
Signal the montage, organize its visual beats in action, and end it clearly when the reader might not otherwise know where ordinary scene flow resumes.
Pre-laps & sound bridges
When the next scene's sound arrives before its picture, write it just above the scene it belongs to: a (PRE-LAP) cue for a line of dialogue, a PRE-LAP line in action for a sound.