Orchestras on Stage- Page 2

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:36pm

My orchestrator has praised American Idiot and Tom Kitt for use of both a standard rock combo and a string trio, without emphasizing one to the detriment of another. It's Tom Kitt's signature setup annoy works very sell for the material.

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:09pm

Giant at the Public had a visible orchestra above the stage.

[Amalia3]

Posted: 7/23/13 at 5:02pm

Bwyphreak-
It was the Oklahoma with Patrick Wilson and Josaphina Cantrememberherlastname. Mostly the orchestra was upstage behind the scrim, and they lifted it up for entracte, and possibly Farmer and Cowman --but I'm not totally sure as my memory is going!

Not even sure if that counts as being onstage for this thread, but we were in fact onstage.

[suestorm]

Posted: 7/23/13 at 5:05pm

they have the orchestras on stage at City Center and i find them very distracting.

Even worse during Cinderella which i loved, the Conducter is above the pit and is very distracting. my poor sister had to keep moving her head and shes 5'11"!!!!

[OKBroadwayFan]

Posted: 7/23/13 at 5:28pm

Lysistra Jones had the "band" above the "basketball court". They were like on the second level of the stage.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/24/13 at 12:31am

suestorm,
You refer specifically to the City Center Encores! and off-Center series, where they are on stage. The point of those concert stagings and having the musicians share the stage is for the emphasis to be on the MUSIC, musicians included.
City center does in fact have an orchestra pit which can be opened when wanted or needed.
One example, and I think it is by far their best transfer, was Finian's Rainbow, where they featured the orchestra on-stage at City center and when the transfer happened, moved the musicians into the pit and elaborated on the original concert design while expanding it to be a true theatre piece, unlike Gypsy, wherre while fine for a week long concert, having the musicians on stage behind the cast created not only a few very awkward moments, but robbed the show of the audience, musicians in pit, cast on stage set up that the show very literally requires.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 7/24/13 at 12:34am

^ what was the design like for Finnian's Rainbow when it came to Broadway?

[gchris11]

Posted: 7/24/13 at 1:33am

The Shaggs. OH, goddess that was a bad show too.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/24/13 at 3:56am

Bway freak,
It was, essentially, a unit set.
The was a gold, semi-circular false proscenium.
The primary playing space was downstage, with a well at stage left. The upper half of the stage, where the orchestra was at City Center, was a series lf stairs, ramps and platforms, roughly textured and a bright emerald, grassy green, sculpted to look like rolling hills.
The stage was framed by very stylized trees.
Smaller pieces were brought on - some manually, some automated, for various scenes. The wellcould move downstage, etc.
A a soft curtain, green and painted with leaves, served as an in one drop for several scenes.
The show curtain was a quilt.
The upstage drop was an impressionistic orange and yellow sky.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/24/13 at 7:40pm

Someone I met insists it's the fault of the trend of putting orchestras onstage but none of these examples comes before the 1990s and I can't imagine the musicians union let it happen that quickly.

My examples were from the early 1960s and the mid-1970s.

I promise you the reduced orchestras in most shows are a result of money, not because the orchestra is hidden or on stage.

Frankly, amplification has also played a role, I suspect. I worked on a brilliant SHOW BOAT in 1975 that had a pit of 12! With careful miking and doubling, conductor Richard Parrinello made it sound like an old-fashioned pit. It was quite extraordinary.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 7/24/13 at 9:00pm

If you ever get a chance to see Tom Stoppard and André Previn's EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR, do. (I saw a collaboration at Boston University a few years back between their Schools of Theatre and Music, respectively.) I believe it is properly classified as "A Play for Actors and Orchestra."

Also, while I was living in Boston, I had to see the Huntington's SHE LOVES ME with Brooks Ashmanskas and Kate Baldwin. It was Nicky Martin's swan song as AD at the Hunt, and he put the Orchestra on the upper level of a tiered, semi-circular set. They got a deserved spotlight during the Entr'acte.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/25/13 at 9:06am

BARNUM had the band onstage, dressed as the circus band. At the top of Act 2, they marched in down the aisles of the theatre for "Come Follow the Band".

URINETOWN had the orchestra just offstage right, visible to the audience. They were behind a sort of cage, like prisoners in a holding cell. At the top of the show, Officer Barrel led the conductor across the stage, opened the cage, and locked him in so he could start the overture.

[suestorm]

Posted: 7/25/13 at 9:08am

ahhh thanks BROADWAYGUY, i guess that makes sense.