davidquinlan

There is a thriving "Actor-Musician" circut here in the UK. It's seems to be another attempt to do something "different" to put bums on seats!!

I have a personal interest in this as Mrs Q is a music theatre actor, who performed last year in an actor musician show [The Hot Mikado at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury.. google for reviews, check my myspace for pictures ;)] Initially, she was not too keen on the idea, as her preference is for non actor musician work, but when it came to making the choice between working and not working.:) We went to see the Mack & Mabel here in London and I wasn't impressed with the standard of the musicians. When I go to a show here in London, I take it as the norm that the standard of the music will be top quality, not high school band quality. It was a good show, but overall, the quality of the music did detract quite a lot. However, the production of the Hot Mikado was a different story altogether! I know this may come across as sounding biased but honestly, the show worked as a concept (check out the reviews!!). It may have something to do with the venue, the Watermill in Newbury [http://www.watermill.org.uk/] as a venue? dunno!
The MD for Sweeny Todd [and Hot Mikado] won a Tony and the Hot Mikado is up for an award this year, so this concept is finding favour with critics as well as public.
I'm not sure that there is an agenda to replace all musicians with actor-musicians.. I'd be more worried about the amount of live music replaced by backing tracks...

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David Quinlan
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B15M

I am not a professional musician and in my main job I am really on the other side of things. I am however in the musicians union.

I know that this is your job and your life so I won't harp on this stuff.

This is my opinion, not fact or the way things should be just my thoughts.

If a guy builds a theater and wants to have a one man show he should be able to do it. This is a free society. In the U.S.A. we have a free market. If I have a lot of money and I think I can make more by hiring an orchestra and making a record I can do it. If that record is a hit and I then want to do a two man show and make more money, why not. You were hired to make a recording and paid for it and now they want to put on a crappy show with one violin. It's their theater and they have a right to keep it empty with a crappy show or fill it with a good show. It's their investment and their money on the line not the musicians.

If every theater used electronics then one day one of the owners would get an idea to use live musicians and he would have a better show.

When the musicians were on strike I called up a theater and got some manager on the phone and I told him; "You guys have the right idea. I'm all for what you guys are doing. You should fire all the musicians because what do they add anyway? While your at it why have actors, aren't they a lot of trouble? In fact why don't you just show a movie?" He got mad and said I was being ludicrous and hung up on me.

Maybe seeing a show with live musicians is going the way of the blacksmith. Should the blacksmith union force buyers to get 200 horse shoes with every purchase. It's a part of our history that shouldn't be ignored.

Tony,
I know this is your living and I would never go to a show with recorded music but you said it. People did and didn't care. That's what dictates the market.

wiseone2

I am a professional musician, I have been a professional player for all my life. When I read the above post I was furious, I'm still quite angry.
I don't know where B15M got his facts, but they're wrong.

Let's talk about One Man Shows.
Musicians are paid to play if there is music. Hal Holbrook doing Abe Lincoln did not need, nor employ musicians for his One Man Show. Liza Minnelli's show had musicians and dancers because the artist needed them, not because of contractual obligations.

Theater minimums are set by mutual agreement, not by union strong arm tactics. Imagine West Side Story with singing dancers playing the score
Think of a sextet playing The Phantom of The Opera

Management knows just how to manipulate the media to make the workers look like the workers are calling the shots. It just aint so.
Management knows at which theater a show is going to be staged, and exactly what the mutually negotiated orchestra numbers are.

I have walked the picket line in Schubert Alley. I know just how devious management is. Don't believe the finger pointing management, check with the violas who are not hired on Broadway. Check with the trumpets, horns and trombones who are no longer needed for management to make more money than ever.
I am proud to be a Local 802 member. If Local 802 falls so will musicians all over the world.
Wilmer

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Be sure Brain is engaged before putting Mouthpiece in gear.
S.Suark 1951

NJtrpt

Seeking of broadway shows...... I saw A Chorus line during its original run and the pit orchestra was amazing, to say the least. I am considering seeing the current production. Can anyone comment on the orchestra, if its a full orchestra, etc. Also, anyone know whos doing the trumpet work on this show?

Thanks.
Paul

wiseone2

John Chudoba is playing lead trumpet. It's a smaller group than the original show's band.
Wilmer

__________________
Be sure Brain is engaged before putting Mouthpiece in gear.
S.Suark 1951

NJtrpt

Just one more note which I didn't mention in my previous post....

I have no desire to a show without a full orchestra. I am trying to find out the orchestra situation before I buy tickets. For me, the orchestra plays an equal part of the show, along with the actors etc. I don't want (and won't) see a show without a qualified orchestra.

All in Local 802..... thanks for all the great music I have heard on broadway over the years.

Paul

Mrs Q

Hi folks, thought I’d add my bit as the aforementioned Mrs Q! I am a professional actor-musician and have performed in 2 distinctly different actor-muso musicals but I am also very wary of the genre.

The first was a show that was originally only scored for 2 pianos and percussion and, despite being one of the most popular British musicals ever, has never been performed (to my knowledge) with any additional instruments. The producer felt that, although that might have been acceptable in 1953 when it was written, the modern day audiences would not respond well to something so thinly scored especially in an 1,800-seater theatre and so decided to employ a cast of mostly actor-musicians. There were moments that worked well theatrically (for example, my co-star and I both played our own graduation fanfares) however, I always felt that the actor-musician device was an after-thought, partly tagged on to save money in the pit and the musical capabilities of the cast were somewhat varied to say the least!! However, my main frustration with this show was that there was no creative concept that required the actors to play instruments so it really didn’t add anything to what was otherwise a very good production.

However, money saving is NOT the only reason for the rise of this genre. The second show, Hot Mikado (as my husband mentions above), was a completely different story. In part because the musicians were of a substantially higher quality, but also because we created a great piece of ‘theatre’. I know as the professional musicians many of you are, your attention will automatically be drawn to this aspect of the production but you cannot judge a piece of theatre on each individual component - musical accompaniment is just one of many. Also, don’t forget that musicality is subjective – an actor-musician would not always try to produce the ‘best’ sound or to play that technical passage to the ‘best’ of his/her ability simply because the character may not ‘feel’ that way. An example is Judi Dench’s heart-wrenching performance of Sondheim’s ‘Send in the Clowns’. By traditional measurements of ability to sustain pitch or create a resonant sound, she can’t sing for toffee and yet this is considered by most as the definitive performance of that song because the performance as a whole is so moving. As actors, our body is our instrument and so as actor-musicians the instrument is an extension of our body and its expression.

This particular producing theatre (Watermill) who also created the current Sweeney Todd, not only choose their shows specifically for an actor-muso adaptation but in every aspect of the creative process, the instruments and instrumentalists are used to their greatest potential. I believe Craig Revel-Horwood (who directed Hot Mikado) is the first choreographer-director in the genre and he challenged every one of us to the limit in terms of what we could do with our instruments. It could take hours to perfect just 8 bars of dancing one rhythm whilst playing another but, for the impact in this intimate theatre, it was worth every minute!

I hope this doesn’t all sound too w*nky, but I just wanted you to see it from an insider’s perspective. As I said, I am wary of actor-musician work and have turned down 2 potentially great productions because I felt that I was being ‘used’ as a good trumpet player (there are apparently only 20-odd female actor trumpet players in the whole UK and I doubt all of them ‘good’!) because I was totally miscast in the roles. This is my main misgiving with the genre, in successful theatre, the character is always be the central focus.

I am sure you musicians feel as if you have lost out on lots of jobs because of this growing trend but I believe it is nothing more than that – a trend. Just as we actors are fed up with reality TV taking the place of work that would otherwise be given to us, there are only so many times an audience can be impressed at seeing a flute used as a fishing rod. While new directors are bringing their own innovations to the genre, I believe its shelf-life in mainstream theatre is already diminishing but that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed as a second-class art form.

Bye for now...

Mrs Q

wiseone2

Glynis Johns was the Désirée Armfelt in the production of "A Little Night Music" I played on Broadway. She had a range of maybe an octave, but what a moment was her version of "Send in the Clowns." Talk has it that they want to do a miniature version of this show. After all there is a role for a cellist......it was played in the pit on Broadway. I remember the sound guy setting up two mikes. One for each side of the pit. Oh, the good old days.
The trumpet part had maybe 150 notes in a long show. The show held my interest for the entire run.
Wilmer

__________________
Be sure Brain is engaged before putting Mouthpiece in gear.
S.Suark 1951

B15M

Wilmer,

I sorry your mad at me. I am a strong believer in personal rights and freedom. I believe very strongly in a persons right to do what they want with their property. I'm sure I don't have all the facts and I am not trying to represent that I do.

I think the minimums that you speak of were set because the musicians walked out. It wasn't that long ago. I don't remember the theaters saying to the musicians at Radio City, "Get out we're using a recording now". If the theater owners wanted to use musicians for any show they had to sign an agreement. I never used the words "strong arm" but does it fit?

Why can't they just hire what the part calls for? Just answer that question straight out. If the guy that wrote the show wants two trumpets, great if he wants one great. If he doesn't want any trumpets, bad for us but it's his show.

Wilmer and Tony probably think I'm the biggest @ss in the world now but you never have to wonder what I'm thinking.

Really Wilmer, it's really nice that people like you take the time to even take part in a board like this and believe me it is appreciated.

I do wish you guys the best and my wife and I do go to shows now and again. If I see your name in the program I will come up to the rail and say hi (and then duck)

Take care,
Joe

Manny Laureano

Joe,

While I'm also very much a free market guy I think there's a flaw with the example you gave and Wilmer's point is a good one.

If a show is created with an acordianist or pianist as the sole musical source, fine, that's the way the composer thought it should be and there's integity to that. I don't like AT ALL when large Broadway show houses scale the orchestra down from what was originally intended.

The typical show-goer doesn't have the discriminating ears that most of us here do. That's just a fact. the producers count on that to get away with synthesizers and such to pick up the slack when they dump whole sections. At home, I am training my kids to look for the difference betwen commercials or soundtracks that use synths and such. I say "Listen really carefully... listen to the timbre and articulations, it's fake. That's not a real string section. Can you hear why?" They're getting pretty good at it.

I recently wanted to take my kids to a Nutcracker performance and my first question was "Is there a live orchestra?" I was told there was a small group but most of it was from recording. I found a three man show called "Triple Espresso" and we spent our money there instead. The music? One pianist as the show was originally designed to have.

I pine for the old days of the appropriate sized orchestra in the pit. I would be willing to pay higher prices but I am sorry to say that the public is not as educated as we wish they would be and not so principled to not attend a largely synthesized show.

ML