The New York Times: Last fall, as show No. 13,781 of “The Phantom of the Opera” came to a close, the applause overpowered the thundering music. The members of the orchestra, packed into the pit under the stage, could not see the crowd, but they could hear and feel them.
3 comments:
This is one aspect of the theater industry that I don’t know much about. Reading this article was very eye opening to me as to how being a musician on Broadway works. While I have heard many thoughts and opinions about Phantom’s closing on Broadway, I haven’t heard anything before this article about the musicians. They are a vital part of the show and very often overlooked. Their job is very hard and getting to the point that they’re in with their career is extremely difficult and impressive. Like any job on Broadway or in the theater industry in general, being a Broadway musician is not the most stable job in the world. Many people work gig to gig so having a stable job like Phantom is rare and very lucky. While it may be nice that new shows will get to open, it is hard to see so many people lose such a good job.
I don’t quite remember how but by means that were not through cmu I discovered both how pit orchestras work on broadway and just how coveted having a chair in a pit orchestra is. When I first brought up wanting to go into theater the first concern many people had was the lack of stability. Even with a union theater is not necessarily a consistent job with so many people hopping from place to place. The fact that these musicians have had the privilege to play the same show night after night for over three decades is phenomenal along with the fact that they could raise children while having a stable job that would not be going away in the theater industry. A small part of me is concerned for these incredibly talented musicians who may have to attempt to find chairs in increasingly smaller pit orchestras in contemporary shows.
Theo
This is the best article I’ve ever read from the News Page. This is the reason that I love theater: I love the community that is built around a show and I love that these people have been a part of each other's lives for so long or Phantom has at least been a major part of one chapter in their life. It really is the artistic dream of being able to do something you love and are passionate about while making a decent living. I think for every person going into any artistic field their primary concern is how will they be able to support themselves consistently. Phantom has absolutely created that stability. I read another article recently that talked about the orchestra pit size decreasing and It's something I wasn't really aware of. Now that I think about it, so many shows are having the pit on stage and while it's really fun to be able to see the musicians, the underscore is also missing the kind of rich, full sounds that an entire orchestra pit usually has.
Post a Comment