Fascinating interview from 1999 with A CHORUS LINE's original design team

[morosco]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 5:03pm

Here's an interesting part of the interview:

Munderloh(sound designer): I have two collaboration stories. One is, when Kelly Bishop, playing Sheila, came downstage in 'At the Ballet,' she was in between two foot mics. She had the weakest voice of the three, and Abe said they were trying to get Michael to do something about it. So I had a confab with Michael and begged him, 'Isn't there any way you can move Sheila to be right on the foot mic?' He hemmed and hawed, but he did, in fact, move Sheila to foot mic number two, and no one ever knew that when she was strolling she was actually getting to the mic--but that's what she was doing.

And the other is Michael saying to Tharon, 'This person's not in the light!' and Tharon would say, 'Move the person!' Then Michael would go up onstage and say, 'Where is the light coming from, Tharon?' And she would say, 'The left!' And he'd move the person and say, 'Is that all right, Tharon?' And she'd say, 'Yes.'


One Singular Sensation: The Design Team of the Original A Chorus Line

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 6:55pm

Thanks for posting this Morosco.

You know, I've been wondering about this whole microphone thing since they mentioned they were going to do the show as it was done in 1975. After they mentioned the sets and the costumes (virtually the same exactly), and the orchestrations and the lighting (only slightly modified, mostly in the name of technology), I thought about the actual sound design next.

I'm thinking of it from a human and also a "realistic" point of view. (Hopefully this will make sense as I write it...)

With floor mics (which were used in the original show), the performers weren't as amplified... but you also got a better sense of the location of the physical sound. You can actually tell that it's coming from down stage left, or up stage right, etc. There is a little more of an organic feel that these voices on stage are coming from the dancers at a (supposedly) “real” audition.

I don't see how this "realness" could possibly come through here if they’re all wearing body mics. It would be so obvious to anyone in the audience that the dancers' voices are artificially amplified, and I think it would add a sense of phoniness to the occasion. It would lessen the stakes, because we would constantly "hear" that it wasn't real.

I’m very sensitive to sound and sound design, and I work on it for my job... So I may be picking up on something that most theatre-goers either wouldn’t notice, or even care about.

But I’m curious if anyone else has thought about that... and its potential impact or affect on this show in particular.

I usually believe that people "feel" sound, and understand that it effects them emotionally, even if they don't or can't pick up on the specifics of what they are hearing.

And I do think it would affect them and their experience sitting in the audience for this production of ACL.

[morosco]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 7:11pm

I agree. Hopefully there will be no body mics. With a show like ACL the orchestra is isolated so it should be a little easier to strike a good balance. I know some folks will argue that modern audiences hear differently nowadays, but I like to think that no mics would cause them instead to LISTEN differently. It was interesting to read that in the original production even the air conditioning was turned off during Paul's monologue. The audience truly felt like they were eavesdropping on an intimate conversation. I think the lack of body mics would create an intimacy between the show and the audience that we haven't seen in a long time.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 7:19pm

I posted a thread on ATC about body mics, and the response was that they are indeed using body mics, but well hidden.

[morosco]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 7:19pm

***sigh***

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 7:25pm

Thanks for posting that, Morosco.