| Re: New Broadway Shows
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 |