It's time for musical theater patrons to tell producers the
relentless downsizing of show orchestras must end.
The Broadway production of "The Phantom of the Opera" has 27
musicians. During its 2006 pass through Pittsburgh, the
touring company had only 15 in the pit. The current
production has a mere 13; 10, if you exclude the three
synthesizer keyboards. There's something fundamentally wrong
when the ensemble of the most successful musical in Broadway
history is identical in size to The Tonight Show Band.
The show's score no longer soars majestically from the pit.
It's now a homogenized emission from the theater's sound
system. The diminutive acoustic levels of the emasculated
"orchestra" must be augmented with the synthesized output,
then processed, equalized, compressed and amplified. The end
result is devoid of vibrance and dynamic range. It's like
listening to an iPod on steroids.
Producers say they must reduce costs to keep a show going,
especially one heavy with physical effects and costumes such
as "Phantom." I can deal with a scaled-down chandelier, but
eliminating the music from a musical? That makes about as
much sense as cutting the overhead for "Romeo and Juliet" by
ditching the unstable emo girl for an animatronic
replacement with pre-recorded dialogue triggered by an
infrared transmitter in Romeo's codpiece.
Roughly $3 of my $70 ticket goes to funding the orchestra.
Once you reach those pricing levels, what's another five
bucks to maintain the integrity of the work as it was
originally performed?
The argument that the average theatergoer can't tell the
difference is irrelevant and disingenuous. The average
person also can't distinguish between fresh and
reconstituted orange juice, but when I go out of my way to
visit an orange grove, I don't want to be handed a can of
Minute Maid and be told "it's just as good as the real
thing."
It's a Broadway musical? I want to hear it the way it was
performed on Broadway. The next time a show with an anemic,
overly synthesized pit comes to town, I'll just stay at home
and listen to the cast album.
Categories:
Broadway,
KGB Opinion,
Music,
Phantom of the Opera,
WTF?
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