Time out New York Dirty Theater Secrets

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:40pm

I just love the one about how the composers don't write the songs alone.

"4) They (don't) write the songs alone.
We love Stephen Sondheim, Jeanine Tesori and many others. but guess what? Their scores are the product of a process that they merely initiate, plunking out a tune and basic song structure at a piano. From there, the orchestrator writes out the arrangements and vocal parts, deciding when a swell of strings or burst of brass fits the number. This spring, thank (or blame) orchestrators like Jonathan Tunick and Julian Kelly for LoveMusic and The Pirate Queen, respectively. "


Someone finally telling it like it is. It was like a breath of fresh air. I'm sure the writers heard the lame excuse about time constraints and they didn't buy it either.

Updated On: 4/5/07 at 12:40 PM

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:42pm

What???

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:45pm

This'll help.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:45pm

I enjoyed this article as well. Number 14 about subscribing to Encores and Lincoln Center is really a shame. What happens when their elderly subscription base passes on, so to speak? There'll be a bunch of people unwilling to join because of being shut out in the past.

I've always been disappointed with Number 18, the fact that the Playbill restaurant recommendations are fixed.

I also love number 20, where they compare seeing a show a year after opening to, "Going to a prostitute late in her shift."

And number 6, about Off-Off-Broadway migrating to Brooklyn couldn't be more true. I love it. Any excuse not to cross the river.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:45pm

Wouldn't thread fit so much better inside this one?:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=931041&dt=24

only a few posts from this one and started earlier. Clear up the clutter, spring cleaning, you know.

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:47pm

While most of those are bloody obvious, I had always wondered how the Playbill restaurant recommendations were chosen. I mean, I find it difficult to belive that anyone who works in Midtown every day would pick Applebee's as the absolute best spot to catch a bite.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:48pm

Chorus girls are beautiful--from afar.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:49pm

That thread is about the blind items, not about the whole article.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 12:50pm

*sigh*

right, then.....

Posted: 4/5/07 at 1:32pm

So they compare seeing a show after it's first year to visiting a worn out whore and then chose to illustrate the story with cover pictures of PHANTOM and WICKED? Hmmm, who's the whore in this picture?

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 2:02pm

Re. the #4 item about Broadway composers being largely supplanted by orchestrators is incorrect in the mention of vocal arrangements which are typically made by the pit conductor, or at least it used to be that way, notably by Lehman Engel during the Golden Age and others of his generation.

Updated On: 4/5/07 at 02:02 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 2:46pm

"I had always wondered how the Playbill restaurant recommendations were chosen."

I figured it was a fake several years ago. One of the child actors on Broadway (might have been Daisy Egan in Secret Garden) chose a very expensive French restaurant. After reading her "review" I wasn't sure that I wanted to trust a 12 year old's opinion on the clarity of the wine.

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 2:47pm

Now, if it had been Drew Barrymore, that might have made more sense.

[Craig]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 2:53pm

Interesting in an issue celebrating theater, they manage to take a swipe at long running shows by saying you should only see them the first year.

While it was true for the Producers and perhaps some other shows, I don't think it's a rule at all. I have seen some amazing replacement casts throughout my broadway going years - some that even surpassed the originals.

I know that list was mostly in fun - but I think it was pretty counter "productive" to the intent of the issue as a whole. My .02

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 3:03pm

Personally, I think that nothing about the truths in this artcile can be counterproductive, after all, there's no such thing as bad press.

And theater and fans should be able to take a swipe at it/themselves now and again.

[Craig]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 3:08pm

No such thing as bad press?

While I agree to a point, it simply isn't a fact or rule. There is definitely such a thing as BAD press.

[suzycat]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 3:10pm

Eh, none of those were suprising. And they certainly weren't "shocking."

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 3:28pm

20 Never see a show after its first year.

Going to a musical late in its run is like going to a prostitute late in her shift. Besides the tired cast, going through the motions, most shows are designed for their original stars, and the retrofitting for the replacements is half-assed. The Producers with Nathan Lane: a classic! But the same show with the otherwise-talented Brad Oscar and a chorus of yawning Nazis is…just not the same.

That's a disgusting thing to say.

[jv92]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 5:32pm

I believe Donna Murphy had a bad case of bronchitis (sp?) or something like that durring previews of Wonderful Town. Other than that, I think her attendance record is fairly good. LaChanze...well, that's a whole other story. ("I've got a slight tinge in my throat. I can't riff my ridiculously bad 11 o'clock number, let alone stand onstage doing nothing the rest of the show.")

Posted: 4/5/07 at 7:41pm

The more I thought about it the less I liked this story. If I were a producer I sure would take my advertising dollars elsewhere. If you heeded their advice you sure wouldn't see much theater- They pretty much say it's only wirth seeing in previews.

Makes me want to write 20 dirty secrets about magazines....

[courtnyj]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 8:00pm

Hmmm #14 made me think...does Lincoln Center limit Student Tix members? Becasue when I told a friend about it and he tried to join they sent him an email saying they would let him know when they were accepting new members....I thought it was a general student discount thing but maybe it's more like their member subscription thing....

[Papa_Burgundy_NY]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 8:10pm

I almost s*** my pants when I saw Audra M's name as an infamous "sick day" queen. I have been waiting and waiting to see her and just bought tix for "110..." for April 21st and am PRAYING that she'll be there. I guess I don't have much to worry about, considering that I'll be there a week after it opens, so she has to show up for previews!

Please Audra, show up!! lol

[mikem]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 8:49pm

The fact that jumped out at me was that Sherie Rene Scott was paid over $8000 a week for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and that's after taxes, so her actual pay was probably more like $12-$15K a week. That's $600-$750K a year. I did not realize that Sherie would be paid at that level for that role.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 9:38pm

I love the picture next to the Chorus Girl snippet...hahaha!!

[sondhead]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 10:31pm

Sondheim does all his own stuff, except for Tick Tock in Company. Makes one wonder why the author would use his name specifically, especially considering it is well known that the orchestrations to Sondheim shows are strictly from his piano scores with minimal to no departure from them.