Actors as orchestra -- getting tired

O.K. so we liked it in "Cabaret". It was praised in "Sweeney" and again in the recent and now B'way bound "Company". Then they did it in the London 'Mack and Mabel". Haven't we had enough?

I am referring of course, to this trend of having the cast double as the orchestra. I do admit that it was creative and innovative at first, but I just worry when more and more shows are doing it. What's next? The actors will also control lighting and usher you into your seat?

While it may be a great concept for some shows, I really don't want to see the orchestra (as we know it) dissappear or many gifted actors out of work because they can't sing, act, dance AND play a musical instrument.

So it's great that they've done it in some shows but really people . . . let's draw a line somewhere!!

What does everybody think?

---

espeially in M&M it's a bad thing. You can't put on a show that's supposed to have a lot of dancing with actors who play instruments. Apart from that: the score cries out for a decently sized orchestra. For Sweeney it worked though I prefer any day the big sweeney version over the small. Whether it'll do it for Company, who knows, probably works too. But as any director's device, they'll tire of it too soon. Wait and see..

right, to get me excited: what instrument is Raul going to play?

If you don't like it, don't go. He has been doing this for years and years in England. There are many shows where this can work. I say, more!

Everyone was in a panic with the two piano Most Happy Fella, too. To paraphrase a lyric I can't exactly remember, trends aren't really identified until their at their end.

---

Franklin, Raul plays the piano for about half of Being Alive, and that's it, except for a couple of cymbal crashes.

---

while im all for pushing the limits, and actormusician productions working... thats great...
but i find it incredibly disappointing. because in the ned, it's taking jobs away from musicians, no matter how brilliant the concept may be. and i can't find it in my heart to take jobs away from musicians. and i can accept the concept for sweeney and company but NOT mack and mabel. there, it's just ridiculous

Well, would you consider it logical to be done at Mack and Mabel? Seriously?

John Doyle has been doing this for years. It's not a trend at all. And FranklinShepard-Inc, have you...have you seen John Doyle's Mack & Mabel? It works. It might not be 'logical', whatever you mean by that, but it makes the show far more successful than the other attempts at staging it have been. It's not as if all actors in these productions have to be professional standard musicians either - I'm not sure about the Company production, but in Sweeney and Mack & Mabel several of the performers play little or no instruments. Patti and Michael don't have to be as skilled musically as the others - the tuba came from Patti and wouldn't have been included if she couldn't already play it - and in Mack and Mabel the actor playing Mack plays nothing and Mabel only helps out with percussion. So it's not as if all the actors have to be able to double as a complete orchestra pit player.

Since there is no orchestra to pay, the ticket prices must be cheaper. Correct?

---

"Musical prices?" You must not be aware of the fact that it'll cost you the same hundred bucks to see a play on Broadway at regular price as it will a musical.

Like I said before, if y'all wanna take up arms against the concept, do so, but at least have an argument that makes sense.

---

I have no idea where you're getting those numbers. At all. Top price, if you ignore discounts and "premium seats," as well as service charges -- if you were to go to the box office and buy tickets -- doesn't have a $15 difference, in the average case, though it happens occasionally. So it really doesn't do much to back up the point of "musical prices," in addition the fact that I'm relatively sure the post you were refuting was being facecious anyway.

I get your point, it needs no rephrasing.

---

Are you telling me that you really think it's just going to be haphazardly applied to shows where it *clearly* would not work? oy.

---