sound failure at threepenny opera! — Page 2

Just so you all know, the orchestra is IN the balcony. (well, the boxes right and left). They have been doing this since ASSASINS. Unfortunately, without the sound, there is no show. Better to not hear the awful translation and direction...

Just my opinion!

By the way, "Brecht" in German means barf! (brechen: to vomit or break)

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I think my other two friends stayed behind; they asked me to call them on their cell phones if I could get a refund...when I tried to call them back, they didn't pick up. So if they call, I will report back to you :)

Well, two points:

1) Studio 54 was originally built as an opera house (La Boheme was the first production), so although there have been various renovations and changes to the house through the years, the basic structure SHOULD be fairly acoustically sound -- I guess we'll see after tonight.

2) The show is using the original orchestrations (and has the original orchestra size) Weill created back in the late 20s. Since then, the show has been performed thousands of times around the world in the ensuing decades without any amplification whatsoever. One would hope that an ensemble of talented performers and musicians (who also won't be amplified tonight as they normally would be) in 2006 working under the same conditions as thousands of actors before them (eg -- no mics)should be able to be heard loud and clear -- albeit not as loudly and clearly as they would with a sound system. Again, I guess we'll see.

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I'm seeing it tomorrow

*prays for no mic issues*

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"you can't understand the show from the balcony even with the mics."

Completely agree. This was my 3rd time at Studio 54 and each time I have trouble understanding the lyrics over the orchestra. And I'm not one with sensitive or lack of hearing or whatever. I just surprisingly have some trouble when the music starts getting loud at Studio 54.

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First of all, Mint0621, MANY Broadway actors ARE trained to project -- this one especially, I learned to act and sing without microphones.

Second, you make it sound like hundreds left. About 15 did - and the rest were an AMAZING crowd -- the show was amazing - the energy was so high and they LISTENED and heard it all... I have to say they the sound in that theater deadens the show - and that could have been a major failure for us. You could hear EVERYONE and it was pretty amazing - we even had many people standing at the end - well, as we left the stage. we don't have a curtain call.

I guess now it's PROVEN that I sing the song :) I was so excited and it was better than with a mic... you could hear yourself.

Please don't spread rumors about things when you left the show before it started. I think that it would have been a loss to miss hearing the orchestrations, but you did miss a history making show, in my opinion... and what an appropriate show to do so with - a comment on Broadway's sound issues and whether or not most actors can actually project.

I am so proud. :)

-BCR

Just got back from tonight's show, which finished at 11:15pm. I sat Mezz AA Center, and for the most part, it was actually pretty strong sounding tonight!

Basically what they did was make the announcement, bring out what I'm guessing is the rehearsal piano, to the foot of the stage, audience left. Lit the thing, and started the show. At first, I was very scared because as good as Cyndi Lauper was tonight, I would be amazed if anyone could hear her beyond the first 5 row. I'm sure Nellie for the most part couldn't be heard from the back of the mezzanine, when she sang. Otherwise, the cast was actually projecting quite well for the most part, with some actually being suprisingly loud (Ana, for example, who you can tell was working really hard to sing out, to much appreciative applause.) Thankfully, it's not too high-tech a show, so aside from hearing the spotlights click on and off and switching gels, there wasn't too much noise. That said, you could tell the audience was missing a lot, but it was really great to see they stuck it out.

Probably the best thing about tonight was the audience. Aside from one RIDICULOUS audience member that seemed to thing we were watching stand-up, the audience was really great, really receptive, and they actually shut up for the whole thing! When Cyndi sang, you could hear a pin drop. And the cast was really great working with the audience applause, which I'm sure fell in some new places tonight, because there was only the piano. Surprisingly, not as many people left at intermission as I thought would leave - the mezzanine at least still had a lot of people left at the top of act two.

Now that I've seen the show for the first and last time, I have to say I'm actually quite suprised more of the performers weren't recognized come awards time. I thought the world of Nellie, and Brian Charles Rooney (who I know has gotten raves here) was absolutely tremendous. I'm his new biggest fan, think I'll write him a note! Alan Cumming - and that thing in his pants - was actually quite good. I'm not his biggest fan, but he did really well tonight. Jim Dale was just great and really working his ass off, as was Ana. And Cyndi was just wonderful - I really hope the audience got to get as much of her performance as we did.

Too bad they didn't do a curtain call - I forgot about that - because the audience just exploded with applause at every opportunity. I hope cast know that their efforts tonight were appreciated.

Hope this makes sense, it's been a long night...

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Updated On: 6/21/06 at 12:58 AM

Sitting front row of this show - who needs Broadway Bares.

Especially the brothel scene.

Jeez! All that orange neon and no "GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!" sign in sight!

The show was enjoyable... it was a great performance by all despite the sound failure. Also if I knew the 2005-06 season better, and saw "Three Penny" before the TONY Noms were out... I think Brian Charles Rooney should have been nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Musical along side Nominee, Jim Dale.

"Yankee, all debate aside, the orchestra at Threepenny is excitingly large and full."

It's sad that we've reached the point when a 10-person band on Broadway is an excitingly large and full orchestra.

That having been said, of course, you wouldn't want it larger for this show since, as MargoChanning mentioned, the original Weill orchestrations are being used. They were written with Lewis Ruth Band (which played the original production) in mind, a particularly virtuosic group of (I think) just seven. But it's hard to get another group of just seven to play the combination of instruments that the Lewis Ruth Band played.

it's too bad that they put the band in the boxes for musicals at Studio 54. It certainly screwed up the sound in Assassins. And it would have been nice if the audience last night could have heard the show performed with no amplification and the original orchestrations. Unfortunately, with the band in the boxes, it really wouldn't work for the people upstairs.

To whoever said that most Broadway actors aren't trained to project without amplification: What are you thinking??

I'm not sure when the orchestra minimums started in Broadway houses, but in fact some musical comedies in the '10s, '20s, and '30s had fairly small orchestras. Operettas and, later, the musical plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, and others tended to have larger ones (sometimes much larger than what we get nowadays, as many as 35 or 40), but those orchestras were string-heavy. And, of course, it's much easier for singers to be heard over strings than over winds and brass.

So much has changed that it's hard to compare what actors did when Broadway musicals were unamplified with what they have to do now. Back before amplification, most musical numbers were staged way downstage, making it easier for the actors to be heard. Many of them were staged in one, which made projection even easier. It's not unusual nowadays for numbers to be staged fairly far upstage.

And most Broadway theatres didn't have air conditioning till the '50s. Air-conditioning, even nowadays, makes a lot of white noise, which doesn't sound loud but is very tough to be heard over. And there was a time when 150 lighting instruments was a huge number for a show to have. Now that's tripled. (And the greater number of lighting instruments also makes it easier for directors to put actors further upstage, if the director thinks that will be make a better stage picture.) Lighting instruments also make a lot of noise. And back when there were a lot fewer lighting instruments, relatively fewer of them were in the house. All of these things make a big difference, they make it much more difficult for actors to be heard.

Indeed, to some degree because Broadway orchestras now have fewer instruments than they generally had in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, they tend to be orchestrated more for brass and winds (not to mention electronic instruments) than for strings. There was a time when orchestrators did their work so that the singers would be audible over the orchestra. Now they don't worry so much. Even Merman might have trouble being heard over the brass-and-wind heavy orchestrations we often get nowadays. In fact. one of the first Broadway musicals to be miked was a show that starred Merman, Du Barry Was a Lady, because it had brass-heavy orchestrations.

It's not all as simple as it might seem.

Wow! After reading everything about how it was without mics, I too wish I couldve' been there! Seemed like a truly amazing experience which could prove the passion and dedication of the case to those silly unbelievers! Sounded like quite a night!

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