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Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

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#1

Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 9:06pm

I can name a few that I've seen:

Strike Up the Band, The Pajama Game, Bye Bye Birdie, The Apple Tree (all of them were City Center ENCORES! productions under the musical direction of Rob Fisher and either the Coffee Club Orchestra or the ENCORES! Orchestra)
Smokey Joe's Cafe
Swing!
Annie Get Your Gun (1999 Revival)
The Music Man (2000 Revival, overture only though)
Rent
The Rocky Horror Show
Big River (2003 Roundabout Revival)
Fiddler on the Roof (2004 Revival)
The Boy from Oz (only at the top of the second act)
Brooklyn? (The Playbill Yearbook lists this as one but I'm not so sure since they come out at curtain call.)

And soon to see:
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (of course)

"Ev'ry-buddy wants ta get into de act!" - Jimmy Durante "Breathe from your hoo-hoo." -Kristin Chenoweth

Updated On: 12/19/05 at 09:06 PM

#3

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 9:08pm

I can't believe you didn't list Chicago!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I remember days
Or at least I try
But as years go by
They're sort of haze
And the bluest ink
Isn't really sky
And at times I think
I would gladly die
For a day of sky
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
And Starbucks will use the words 'large' and 'small', not pretentious crap like grande and tall.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You could get away with anything if you call it art and tell people who don't like it that it's cutting edge culture." --vmlinnie
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
#4

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 9:08pm

"Cabaret", "Songs for a New World", "Big River" (sometimes).

And of course, all the actor/musician shows ("Pump Boys", "Radio Gals", etc.)
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
#5

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 9:08pm

Because I didn't see Chicago.
"Ev'ry-buddy wants ta get into de act!" - Jimmy Durante "Breathe from your hoo-hoo." -Kristin Chenoweth
#8

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 9:11pm

While we're talking about this, just like I'm crazy about musicals with banjos, I'm crazy about musicals with the orchestra/band onstage.
"Ev'ry-buddy wants ta get into de act!" - Jimmy Durante "Breathe from your hoo-hoo." -Kristin Chenoweth
#10

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 9:15pm

Jekyll & Hyde...their pit was at the (looking at the stage) upper left hand corner. If you look closley during "Murder, Murder" you can see the conductor's hand going up and down furiously...wait that didn't come out right...and neither did that...Anyway don't turn this into a "Hasselhoff Hate Thread".
#11

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 9:17pm

"Grease" ~ kelly0ann

Yeah, but which version?

P.S. The interesting thing with Rent is that Jonathan Larson originally wanted a rock band onstage (which he got) and a traditional Broadway orchestra in the pit (which he didn't get, and not a single musician has played in that pit ever since).
"Ev'ry-buddy wants ta get into de act!" - Jimmy Durante "Breathe from your hoo-hoo." -Kristin Chenoweth

Updated On: 12/19/05 at 09:17 PM

#12

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 10:03pm

Well the musicians in Chita are technically on the stage, though somewhat hidden behind a curtain.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#18

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/19/05 at 10:21pm

Ain't Misbehavin'
"Smart! And into all those exotic mystiques -- The Kama Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than seventy-five. Call me tomorrow if you're still alive!"
#22

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/20/05 at 12:27am

I can't Believe no one has said Suzanne Somers' THE BLONDE IN THE THUNDERBIRD! re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

"It's like children's theatre for 40-year old gay people!" - XANADU THE MUSICAL
#24

re: Musicals with the Orchestra/Band onstage

Posted: 12/20/05 at 2:26am

The main time I noticed it, I treated my neice to one of the very firt ever tours of "Chicago" and our seats were IN the orchestra pitt. It was raised up to floor level and it was so strange to keep getting little "Hi there, We see you are sitting up here with us!" winks from the cast onstage, LOL! It was funny because it was her first Theater piece and she handled it very well and has become a Theater admirer in her own right. Maybe all those little winks payed off, LOL!
"It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance." - Elizabeth Taylor

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