[Dixielandjazz] The Music of Broadway

[Stephen G Barbone]

Interesting take on the downsizing of many pit bands. Yet , a few of  
the revivals like South Pacific and Gypsy use the full bands and  
orchestrations of the originals.
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

August 17, 2008 - NY TIMES - by Susan Elliott
Off the Stage, What’s Behind the Music

YOU can hear the collective gasp from the audience as the stage of the  
Vivian Beaumont slides back to the opening bars of “Bali Ha’i,”  
revealing 30 formally attired musicians reveling in the lush, exotic  
hues of the overture to “South Pacific.”

The melodies that roll seamlessly by — “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,”  
“A Wonderful Guy,” “Some Enchanted Evening” — are all classic Richard  
Rodgers. But the instruments playing them, the elaborate counter  
lines, shifting harmonies and alternating rhythmic contexts, are the  
work of Robert Russell Bennett, his orchestrator. Mr. Bennett wrote  
the overture, too (as he did for virtually all of his clients,  
including Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Frederick  
Loewe), weaving together excerpts of the score’s famous melodies to  
create a seamless potpourri of its greatest hits. Similarly, Sid  
Ramin’s original orchestrations bring to life Jule Styne’s score for  
“Gypsy,” now playing with the full complement of 25 pieces at the St.  
James Theater.

The size and sound of the “South Pacific” and “Gypsy” ensembles are  
far from today’s Broadway norm of smaller, heavily miked pit bands.  
But virtually all musicals of any vintage or scale have long been  
dependent on orchestrators for their aural color and character.  
Imagine “Mamma Mia!” on a lone guitar or “The Phantom of the Opera” on  
piano. Mel Brooks may be a brilliant writer and director, but without  
Doug Besterman’s orchestrations, his music for “Young Frankenstein”  
would sound bland. The same is true of countless Broadway scores  
through the years.

The composer-performer Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights” won the  
Tony Awards for best musical and best score. Mr. Miranda’s secret  
weapons? Bill Sherman and Alex Lacamoire, who transcribed, arranged  
and orchestrated the show. (The two won the Tony for best  
orchestrations.)

Working from as little as a hummed melody to as much as a keyboard  
arrangement, the orchestrator at the most basic level assigns  
instruments to create the full score; more importantly, he or she  
interprets the composer’s intentions. “It’s as much a creative job as  
the composer’s,” said Paul Gemignani, Stephen Sondheim’s music  
director of choice and perhaps the most powerful Broadway conductor  
working today. “The same thought process, the same agonizing, the same  
artistic decisions made by an actor have to be made by the  
orchestrator. The best orchestrators” — he mentioned Michael Starobin  
and Jonathan Tunick — “write movie music for the theater.  
Orchestration is the warmth in a love scene, the electricity in the  
kiss, the thing that makes you start to tear up. And it has to come  
from the gut.”

Audiences may not realize it, said the “Gypsy” music director, Patrick  
Vaccariello, “but the orchestration supports the journey of the entire  
piece.”

The choice of orchestrator is generally left to the composer. Just as  
Rodgers chose Mr. Bennett (among others), so Mr. Sondheim uses Mr.  
Starobin (the original “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Assassins”)  
or Mr. Tunick (“Sweeney Todd,” “Company”), Stephen Schwartz chose  
William David Brohn for “Wicked,” and Michael Holland is revamping Mr.  
Schwartz’s original “Godspell” score for its run at the Ethel  
Barrymore (set to open Oct. 23). Martin Koch is Elton John’s  
orchestrator for “Billy Elliot,” scheduled to open Nov. 13 at the  
Imperial Theater.

When the composer is deceased, the choice of orchestrator is generally  
left to the music director. For the revival of Rodgers and Lorenz  
Hart’s “Pal Joey,” scheduled to open Dec. 11 at the Roundabout’s  
Studio 54, Mr. Gemignani asked the veteran arranger-composer Don  
Sebesky to create an orchestration for 15 pieces based on the original  
1940 piano-vocal score.

“Normally you have to reorchestrate,” Mr. Gemignani said of revivals.  
(Not everyone agrees with him on this point.) “It’s not that the  
originals are no good, but shows get revamped. You have to make the  
numbers work for the people in them.”

Downsizing is the norm these days, mostly because of space and  
economics. “We’re being asked to write for smaller and smaller bands  
all the time,” Mr. Starobin said. “Everybody’s oohing and aahing about  
‘South Pacific,’ but nobody’s saying: ‘Hey! Let’s use big orchestras  
again.’ Producers don’t want to put money into the music; they’d  
rather spend $3 million on the scenery.”

Today’s Broadway orchestras range in size from 1 (keyboard for “[title  
of show]”) to 30 (“South Pacific”), with most in the 8-to-14 range.  
Local 802 of theAmerican Federation of Musicians has been battling the  
shrinking-orchestra issue for years; its current contract with the  
Broadway League sets musician minimums for specific theaters: from 19  
for the Broadway, Minskoff, St. James and Marquis theaters to 4 for  
the Longacre and Nederlander theaters, barring special situations like  
the one governing “[title of show]” at the Lyceum.

Space is also an issue: open sections of Broadway pits were long ago  
shorn up for the addition of seats. Often the musicians are under the  
stage or even in separate rooms from one another — not to mention the  
audience — relying on the conductor’s image on a monitor. “Jersey  
Boys” splits its offstage band into three rooms at the August Wilson  
Theater; the entire orchestra for “A Chorus Line” is in the basement  
of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater; the percussion for “Legally Blonde”  
is piped in from a room on the third floor of the Palace Theater.

Today’s Broadway orchestras are basically treated like recording  
studios; acoustic instruments, to the extent that there are any, are  
closely miked and then mixed by an engineer. It’s a practice abhorred  
by musicians (“You may as well just give them a CD and go home,” Mr.  
Gemignani said) but favored by producers, largely because of cost.

“The dread of my job,” says Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers &  
Hammerstein Organization, which represents work by its namesakes (and  
many others), “is when producers ask, ‘How few musicians can we get  
away with?’ ”

It all comes down to economics. Depending on orchestra size,  
orchestrators get as much as $50 to $100 per four-bar page, with most  
Broadway scores being 600 to 800 pages. Add the musicians who play  
their creations, plus copying and contractor fees, and the per-show  
cost can be staggering. Small wonder commercial producers try to keep  
their orchestras small.

Some orchestrators consider themselves “guns for hire,” as Mr.  
Starobin does. Others, like Mr. Tunick, are more protective of their  
work. Essentially, they are paid for the initial run of a show and any  
recording, and that’s it. There are no royalties from future  
performances; those go to the composer.

Mr. Starobin is now reducing his original charts for the musical “Dr.  
Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to 10 pieces from 14. Asked how  
best to reorchestrate, he responded, “The best way to do it is to not  
do it.”

Drama Desk voters singled out the recent revival of “Sunday in the  
Park With George” for outstanding orchestrations, a case in which the  
original orchestration was reduced. Mr. Starobin’s charts for the 1984  
original Broadway production called for 11 instruments. Jason Carr is  
credited with orchestrating theRoundabout Theater’s revival, for which  
he reduced Mr. Starobin’s original arrangements and instrumental  
colors to just five instruments, making judicious use of a synthesizer.

What happened? Were the producers too cheap to allow six more  
instruments into the theater? “It was part of a particular artistic  
concept the director had,” said Todd Haimes, Roundabout’s artistic  
director. “The show had been in a small theater in London. Then when  
it came over here, Steve Sondheim was asked if he was happy with the  
way it sounded. He said yes, so there was never a discussion about  
increasing the size. If he had said, ‘No, it can’t come to New York  
unless there are 11 musicians,’ we probably would have accommodated  
that.”

Mr. Gemignani said: “Sondheim, to his credit, is very generous with  
his own work. Had that been Jule Styne or Richard Rodgers, the  
response would have been: ‘Excuse me, this score was originally  
orchestrated for 20 people. Get them in here, or the show’s not  
happening.’ ”




Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband