How do you get a playing job in a Broadway Pit?

[LeTtHeSuNsHiNeIn2]

Posted: 8/5/09 at 12:00am

Title says it all. I'm currently a junior in college and I really want to try and get a job in a Broadway/Off Broadway pit. Anyone got suggestions?

[faithzilla]

Posted: 8/5/09 at 1:17am

Just so you don't feel ignored...
No idea. Sorry. I have a friend who wants to do that but I'm not sure he knows how to get involved either. Sorry I'm no help!

[dramadude2]

Posted: 8/5/09 at 1:38am

from Seth Rudetsky's website:

"Let me first explain what a sub is. It?s essentially like being an understudy. Musicians on Broadway can miss up to 50% of their shows, as long as they have a sub that can play the show exactly like them. So every musician has around four subs that they can use if they?re gonna take off a show. Let me also say that Logan asked the right person about subbing. I?ve been a piano sub on 15 Broadway shows. And my book BROADWAY NIGHTS was originally called SUBBING until my publisher told me that it?s the worst title of a book, ever. Really? What about ?Cysts of the Oral and Maxillofacial Regions?? (I googled that, FYI). Anyhoo, Logan?s approach to getting a sub job isn?t so off the mark. You do need to be brazen and get your name and resume out there. And sometimes pushiness works in this business! Right after college, Faith Prince went to see SCRAMBLED FEET with her mother. After the show, there was a question and answer session with the cast. Faith?s mother?s question was: ?Do you need another girl for your show? My daughter is very talented!? Besides mortifying Faith, it also got her an audition for the show?and she got it!

After I graduated college, I didn?t exactly approach conductors at intermission, but I would drop off resumes at every stage door asking to be the pianist?s sub?and it actually worked! That?s how I got LES MISERABLES?or as we in the business call it, LES MIZ. Although, in reality, I had already subbed on Broadway by then so it?s not like the pianist was hiring someone with no Broadway experience. So, Logan, let me say that the first thing you should realize is that every person you meet leads to more people you meet and eventually one of them can help you a lot! That?s really how I began subbing?just through a friend I met while playing auditions. After making the rounds for a few years in New York, I met a pianist named Joe Thalken who then got hired on his first Broadway show. I asked him to let me sub for him. And by asked, I mean begged. And pleaded. He said yes and I started training. To train you have to sit in the pit during the show and tape it. Yes, tape it! Calm down, bootleg police. It?s not like you?re getting some fantastic tape of the show, you?re just taping what you?re gonna hear when you sit in that musician?s seat so you can practice with it. On the tapes I?ve made of all the shows I?ve subbed for, you can hear the piano part, the drums and trumpets blaring from nearby. Very rarely do you hear the voices onstage. The next step is learning how to play it technically. This may take a week, or up to three! Some shows are really easy to play: THE PRODUCERS was a great show, but the piano part was mostly playing vamps. Whereas RAGTIME had tons of terrifying solos that required hours of practicing and a Valium on the day I first played it.

Once you know how to play the music, you start practicing with the tape to see how your part fits in with the rest of the orchestra. At the same time, you keep coming to the pit and watching so you see how the conductor conducts. Some conductors will cue you for every entrance, some pick only the really important ones and some ignore the orchestra completely so it?s totally up to you! Once you feel you know how to play everything and you?re comfortable with how the conductor cues/doesn?t cue you, you are ready to rehearse with the orchestra. After all, it?s a Broadway show?you obviously need a few run-thrus with the orchestra before you actually have to play it in front of a paying audience. WRONG!

The first time you play with the orchestra is during an actual performance! AND, it?s also your audition! It?s not like you?re an actor under contract and you?ve been hired to understudy. It?s totally freelance. If you don?t play it well, you?ll never be asked to play again. You don?t have a contract when you?re a sub so you can?t say, ?Sorry! I was really nervous. I?ll be better next time.? There won?t be a next time. You have to nail it the first time or lose the gig. Which reminds me of a devastating story I recounted in one of my books. I was subbing KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN for the first time and was scared to death. As soon as I began playing, the conductor Ted Sperling, looked over at me and whispered that there was a crazy vibrato coming from my keyboard. Every note I played sounded like Ethel Merman. Sound technicians were sent in to investigate if there was something wrong with my keyboard or the sound system. I was too nervous to worry about that and just kept playing. Finally, though, I suddenly realized I was so nervous that my leg was shaking uncontrollably on the volume pedal! I lifted it off and suddenly everything sounded normal again. I just stared straight ahead throughout the whole ordeal so it looked like it stopped on its own. If you run into Ted, keep your traps shut.

After I played my first show, I waited nervously to hear if I was accepted? and I was! Yay! My Broadway dream came true. I was finally on the Great White Way. And then the show closed. It was MY FAVORITE YEAR. I call it MY FAVORITE WEEK. But once I subbed there, it led to all my other shows. The conductor got me KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, the pianist there was best friends with the PHANTOM pianist and that?s how I got that, the other sub pianist offered me SEUSSICAL etc. Speaking of SEUSSICAL, that was the scene of my most terrifying pit experience. As I was playing, I noticed something above me: an enormous water bug! He was literally on the ceiling of the pit right over my keyboard! And I couldn?t escape because I was in the middle of playing a five-minute long song. AND the ceiling of the pit is the floor of the stage. So every time someone from Whoville would do any sort of sassy dance step, the floor of the stage would shake/AKA the ceiling above me and I kept waiting for the waterbug to lose his grip land in my lap. I?m not saying I?m thankful that show closed and I don?t have to play in that pit anymore, but you do the math.

Here?s a little pit musician secret: Every musician in the pit has reading material next to their chair for the times they?re not playing. I?m talking ?People?, ?The New Yorker?, ?War and Peace?, ?Cysts of the Oral and Maxillofacial Regions? etc. Here?s the thing: if an actor is not in a scene, he can go offstage and relax. If a musician isn?t playing, he?s still stuck in his seat, so naturally he?d want to occupy himself. The worst is being in a orchestra onstage. Those musicians go to great lengths to hide their reading material. But trust me, music isn?t the only thing on their music stands.

The great thing about being a sub, is that you can play a lot of shows at once. During the 90?s, I was playing ?How to Succeed??, ?Les Miz?, ?Grease? and ?Phantom? all at the same time. The most fun was when I?d play a matinee of one show and a night show of the other?I loved the variety. The only bad part is that there is no guarantee of how many shows a week you?ll play. Sometimes I?d play eight performances a week (or even nine, if one of my shows had a Monday or Sunday night show) but sometimes I?d have no (ZERO) shows. So, even though the variety you get while subbing is fun, after a while I was wishing desperately to get my own show full time. Then I got GREASE. Be careful what you wish for.

In conclusion, if you?re a musician, network up a storm and you?ll eventually get offered to sub. Just make sure you practice!

And wear a protective suit if there?s a revival of SEUSSICAL.

Anyhoo, if you have any other questions, new readers from TDF, go to my website at www.SethRudetsky.com. Peace out!"