Is there an orchestra for PRISCILLA in NYC

I'm just a curious skeptic who would like to know...

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According to my Playbill there is a conductor and associate conductor and 7 people playing in the pit. There is also a Coordinator. they play woodwinds, guitar, trumpet, trombone, bass, drums and percussion. They sound great.

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Yes there is. According to the bios on the website for the creative team, they list the bios for the person doing musical arrangements, as well as orchestrations as well as music director. So yes, I don't think that they would have those members of the creative team if the show's music was done by someone in the booth pushing the play button.

Wow, that is some of the most illogical and faulty reasoning I have ever seen on this site (and that is saying a lot). Even if the music WAS all pre-recorded and played by someone on the sound board, a musical arranger and an orchestrator would have to have been involved in creating the tapes. Unless someone went out and purchased the karaoke tracks of the original pop versions of the songs, but that's just as moronic, because that would assume that the actors are all singing the songs EXACTLY as the originals, with no key changes, cuts, tempo changes, etc. Not to mention the extra, unnecessary rights payments to the artists and/or studios of those recordings.

To the OP, all Broadway theaters have a minimum orchestra size required by the musician's union. Only in rare, special cases are shows allowed to hire less (and those have to be petitioned and approved by a committee). I am fairly confident in saying that the union would NEVER approve pre-recorded music in a Broadway musical.

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No, it isn't sad. If the theatre was housing Sound of Music, it would be sad. However, given the music. An orchestra / band of that size is perfectly appropriate.

"I am fairly confident in saying that the union would NEVER approve pre-recorded music in a Broadway musical."

Except for that Stroman show that won Best Musical some years ago

I can't remember which number, I think it was the number with the shoe and the fabric, I didn't see the conductor, conducting. It sounded pre-recorded.

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Yes forgot about that.

According to my Playbill there is a conductor and associate conductor and 7 people playing in the pit. There is also a Coordinator. they play woodwinds, guitar, trumpet, trombone, bass, drums and percussion. They sound great.

Can you tell me, according to that Playbill, who they are?

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I was going to list them but didn't feel like typing out the names. :)

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Musical Supervisor: Stephen Murphy; Musical Coordinator: John Miller; Conducted by Jeffrey Klitz; Associate Conductor: Jeff Marder; Woodwinds: David Mann; Guitar: Ed Hamilton; Trumpet: Barry Danielian; Trombone: Michael Davis; Bass: Luico Hopper; Drums: Warren Odze; Percussion: Roger Squitero

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I'm fairly confident that the union would never allow ENTIRELY pre-recorded music in place of live musicians in a Broadway musical.

I do not define dance shows like CONTACT as Broadway musicals, despite what the Tony committee says.

TechEverlasting, you're right that the producers have no obligation to have their musicians actually play anything, but that would be kind of silly if the pre-recorded score has the same number of musicians as the pit.

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Updated On: 3/7/11 at 05:31 PM

I agree with you on the classification of Contact as a musical, hence the wink at the end of my statement. I admit that I'm still kind of bitter that it was able to take the award for Best Musical over The Wild Party, which I absolutely loved, though I assume I'm probably in the minority with my love for that show.

And obviously AFM would not be happy about being replaced by a pre-recorded score. That was one of the motivating factors in the 2003 strike.

How is the orchestra covered when the show starts? Just curious.

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