Saw NEWSIES tonight. Its supposed to be a musical. You wouldnt know it by the sound emanating from the orchestra pit. Sounded like one violin, an electronic drum machine, a clarinet and about four keyboards. The actors/singers/dancers were doing great work and the creative team/production team took the floor right out from under them by taking the music out of a musical. If you cant afford music you shouldnt be doing a musical. Real instruments require breath. INSPIRATION. Real instruments have personalities. Real instruments have color. A good orchestrator pays knows how to use personality, color, rhythm, harmony and melody in the service of the story. The orchestrators work on NEWSIES has been all but destroyed because someone thought fingers pounding on an electronic keyboard would be a passable substitute for an orchestra. I dont care what samples you have - I am not fooled. The audience is not fooled either. So much of an artists work is not consciously controlled - you cannot convince me that taking the breath out of the music doesnt impact the singing and the dancing - My voice teacher used to encourage me to (metaphorically) feed my creative impulses steak - you owe it to them... she was quick to point out when I appeared to be expecting the artist within to live on hot dogs. The music dept at the Nederlander are feeding those performers hot dogs. Shame on them.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 04:56:19 +0000
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