Fans of musical theater love to bicker, but there’s one thing they agree on: A live orchestra, preferably a big one, is key to the experience.
Driving the point home, a commercial attacking Broadway’s shrinking pits and canned music started airing on NY1 last week. “It’s not the same energy,” a ticket-buyer complains. “It’s not cool.”
The ad comes from an organization called Save Live Music on Broadway, the brainchild of the nonprofit Council for Living Music and Musicians Local 802. In the group’s crosshairs: “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” which augments its nine-piece band with recorded strings.
The minimum requirements for orchestras — which are based on the theater’s capacity — were actually lowered after a strike in 2003. Broadway contracts also have a “special situation” clause that allows smaller pits for artistic reasons, as with the rock musical “American Idiot.”
The “Priscilla” producers say they fall in the latter category, arguing the “recorded manipulated sounds” they use are “very specifically related to the music of 1980s drag shows in Sydney, which is the setting for the show.” The two parties have been duking it out for months now, and clearly Local 802 fears a precedent. “The whole thing is bigger than just ‘Priscilla,’ ” says its president, Tino Gagliardi. “It’s what’s happening to an American art form.”
From the theatergoer’s standpoint, one thing’s for sure: no matter the size of the orchestra, ticket prices keep ballooning.