Les Miserables — Page 6

I doubt that is what is usde for the tour. They tend to base thier orchestrating sugggestions baed on what is commonly out there for people to do.

I have in front of me the playbill for the revival which list an orchestra of fourteen

Let me give you the grouping of insturments that are all palyed by one person


Flute/piccolo/alto flute and alto recorder

Oboe/English horn

Clarinet/Bass Clarinet/Tenor Recorder

Trumpet/Flugle

Bass Trombone/tuba

2 people on the french horn

1 person on the violin

one person on the viola

one person on cello

one person on base


Mallets/timpini and percussion are all done by one person

and there are two people on the keyboard


That is 14 people in the pit. When the original production was running there were most likely about five or so more people.

Keep in mind that between the original production and the revival the average number of people in a pit has changed.

The reason why Les Miserables run at the Imperial wasn't affected by the strike was because it was agreed that this would affect shows that opened up after the strike.


But, London does use a synth because they are willing to save money that way. On Broadway the musicians union refuesd to let shows use a synth because that would mean that they would ultimitaly loose jobs. And if they let shows start to use synths then the producers would realize that this is a great way to save money thus start to use it with all musicals old and new

Thus, it is a good thing that there are at least smaller number in the pit because it is better then nothing at all.

And, way before the talks of synths being used or not. The tirck of only using the minimum number of people in the pit has been in the producers book of tricks to save money for years and years. It isn't going to stop now. On Broadway the maximum number of people that can fit in the pit and the minimum are all based upon how many seats are in the theatre. The Broadhurst has about 100 or so less seats then the Imperial so that changed both the minimum number of people in the pit and the maximum. If they were going to go for the minimum to save money ( which they did) then they are going to have less people then they did in thier first run

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