Best Orchestration... Really???

Ok, so I know many may disagree with me on this, but...

Why is it that everyone thinks that Sarah Travis/Sweeney Todd should and probably will win Best Orchestrations of a Musical?

Now I say this as a conductor and music director, so I am not just some non-musical person throwing this out there. I DO respect the job that Ms. Travis has done, and it fits the production well, but it seems as if it will win just because of all the hype about the actor/musician concept. They really aren't, in my opinion, the best orchestrations of the season. (And no, I am not one of those people trying to say that just because it is not Tunick's big, grand orchestration of the original Sweeney--although those are brilliant!!) Jonathan Tunick did some very nice work on Color Purple this season also. He's a real pro and did a great job trying to make those pop songs sound better, and he wasn't even nominated. If you listen very closely to Purple's orchestrations, there is some really cool, amazing stuff in there. Larry Blank, who is finally becoming more widely known, gave Drowsy Chaperone a very distinct, period sound, and Mr. Lieb and Mr. Troob make Pajama Game sound very good considering Roundabout only let them have 12 musicians for a revival that should have way more.

Anyway, I don't mean to ramble on, but maybe there are others who feel the same way?? I just don't think there is any point of having this relatively new award if it is not judged fairly. It is such an objective thing and I do realize that the majority of Tony voters don't know much about music at all, let alone orchestrations.

Hmmmm... any thoughts???

It's all about the hype, agreed. But there is certainly a great deal of cleverness in the SWEENEY TODD orchestrations - the ability to balance it all with the vocals and still maintain the integrity of the score. If it wins it's because it is a very impressive balancing act (which is not to be confused with the best orchestration).

TT

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Jazzysuite82---That was very nicely put.

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If you really think about it, the ability to take a 29 member orchestra and cut it down to 11 or whatever musicians, only some of whom can play because they have to sing. She really is able to creatively bring out some of the nuances of the music, and makes it an interesting take on an amazing score.

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The orchestrations are brilliant on their own merit.
It is not about the concept or the hype.

Sometimes the "over hyped" choice is the right one.

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Sometimes there's a reason for the hype.

Not only did Travis condense the entire score and still make it sound full, but she also manipulated (in the nicest sense of the word) the score so that it's not just background music or something to sing along to. This is not to take away anything at all from Tunick's orchestrations, which I could not admire, respect or enjoy more, but the score is now an even deeper expression of the characters. The music is almost literally a part of the characters and their relationships with each other in a way that it hasn't been before. I can't fathom how much work that took to make everything look and sound so effortless.

I think that Ms. Travis absolutely deserves this award. But there's no telling until the actual day.

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I think what Sarah Travis did was turn the music into voices -- she took a difficult score and made every single orchestration choice matter in a hundred different ways that serve to illuminate the whole show. Hard work but also a bit of magic at work there, I think.

There were 26 players in the original Sweeney pit. Although with the acoustics in the Uris (now the Gershwin) and the fairly covered pit, it sounded like 12 or so.

Updated On: 5/23/06 at 12:20 PM

It's inevitable that Travis is going to win the Tony, for the simple reason is that never before in the history of musical theatre has the main concept of a show revolved so completely around its orchestrations. (and please don't remind me of No Strings). This Sweeney Todd revival is bascially ABOUT the orchestrations!

But I'm actually a little queasy about this, because the real genius at work here is Jonathan Tunick, and Travis' orchestrations, although brilliantly clever, are still basically a reduction of Tunick's work. On the plus side, at least the Tony award will make more sense here than it did when Billy Joel won best orchestrations for Movin' Out!

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"Jonathan Tunick did some very nice work on Color Purple this season also."

Oh, I beg to differ. I found the orchestrations, especially the circa-1972 overture, as bland and pedestrian as the score.

What makes Sweeney's orchestrations so brilliant is the fact that Travis was able not only to score the show with the limitations of the actors' abilities for each instrument, but to balance the instumentations themselves based on which actors are acting and which are playing instruments from scene to scene. It is an amazing balancing act flawlessly exeuted and quite frankly, the only thing about the revival that interests me at all.

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I think those of you bashing Tunick don't realize how brilliant he is. YOu say the orchestrations were bland and pedestrian, like the score. Well that's what makes Tunick so great in my opinion. He does his job and the voice of the composer really comes through. Look at any project he's done. Color Purple, Marie Christine, Sweeney Todd all sound drastically different. YOu'd never tell that one person did them all. If you find the orchestrations bland I generally think it's prob because the compositions are bland.

answer to the thread title?
uh...yes!

JS, noone bashed Tunick in this thread. All admire him, but dont think that his CP orchs hold up to Travis' this year. Had the orchestrator tony been awarded in 1979, he'd have won...by this time he'd be rivaling Prince for "most tony awards on the mantle."

After hearing the recording of this Sweeney, I am even more enamored of what was accomplished by Sarah, everyone actually, but especially Sarah. The score lives anew imo.

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I'm with Smaxie...love those PG orchestrations.

I am, however, a fan of Travis' orchestrations for this Sweeney. It's probably the one thing I truly enjoy about this revival (besides the talent of the cast, I should say). BUT, I still think it would have been better had every time someone died, their instrumentation was lost. AND WHY DIDN'T THEY CUT THAT FINAL BALLAD OF SWEENEY TODD???

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