Sunday, October 01, 2006
Broadway Overtures
New York Times: "Thanks in part to “A Chorus Line,” the Broadway orchestra and the Broadway overture would rarely emerge from that obscurity again. The “Chorus Line” revival’s 17-piece ensemble is not even in the pit this time; it’s in a room backstage, hooked up to the sound system. And traditional overtures — several minutes long, made up of melodies heard later in the show and played by an orchestra before the curtain goes up — are similarly disappearing."
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2 comments:
as a musician i feel somewhat insulted that they would put the orchestra in a whole other room backstage.
first of all the orchestra is just as important as the actors onstage, in fact even more important, because without orchestra you dont have a musical.
it also seems like there would be so many more complications with timing and stuff by doing this, why spend the extra effort and money?
I'd have to disagree with the statement "without an orchestra you don't have a musical." Without music you don't have a musical; people have been doing musicals for years with no live orchestra, much less the orchestra in a separate room.
From a sound point of view, given the way musicals are scored by composers and arrangers, they are easier to control sonically (i.e. mix to sound good) if the orchestra is out of the room. As for timing, multiple video feeds for conductors and performers have been the norm for 20 years, even with the pit in the... um.. pit. We've been doing video monitors for the onstage performers for two years both in the musical and in the opera - and the orchestras are in the pit!
Besides the sound advantage, there is an advantage to the scene designer: they don't have to care about saving or designing around the real estate normally reserved for the pit. Again, look at our musicals for the last few years, which have all had scenery encroaching into the pit and in one case covering the pit.
Not the traditional way of doing musicals to be sure, but times change and technology offers options for things that were impossible to consider in the past.
Just out of curiousity, do you see a difference between an orchestra in a covered pit and one in another room?
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