Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Welcome to The Musical Show. I'm Sara and today we're going to talk about the
different types of people who make musicals great. [Title Music.] Now, if you've been in musicals before, this may
not all be new information for you as we talk about the different roles involved
in musical theater. If that's the case, we made a handy button. You can click here and
jump to the end of the episode, where we have some questions that could really
benefit from your expertise. It takes a village to make a musical and it takes
an incredibly talented village to make a good musical. I think composer and
lyricist team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, put it best
when they said: "Not much less complex than war is the musical theatre...a quick
glance at the theatre program for any musical show reveals a staggering number
of separate elements." So what are the different elements you'll find in your
musical program? Let's count! One: we have the composer. Of Rodgers and Hammerstein,
that's Richard Rodgers. The composer writes all the songs in the musical, which are
collectively known as the score. The composer usually works with an
orchestrator who arranges the songs, usually written for piano, for a full
orchestra. The composer also works with a lyricist--Oscar Hammerstein II of
Rodgers and Hammerstein, who writes all the words for the songs in the show. The book
writer writes the book, or script, of a musical: any words that are spoken in
between the songs. Because the book creators is responsible for shaping the
plot, defining characters, and helping to decide when the song belong in the
show
author John Kenrick claims: "The book writer gets almost no credit if a show
succeeds, and most of the blame if it fails." Sometimes a new writer will update an old book
like when Harvey Fierstein added jokes about sushi into the 2015 NBC
production of The Wiz Live! Now, any production of an old musical, whether
or whether not the book changed, is called a revival. Of course you'll need actors! The
director helps the actors find their characters and steers the concept of the
show. Most shows you the choreographer to help design the dances, and some shows
need a licensed fight choreographer in order to make sure that no actors injure
themselves when they duel on stage. During the run of the show, many people need to
be at the theatre every single night to make sure the production goes smoothly.
The people include the stage managers, the company manager, the stagehands-- and did I
mention the music director? I'm sure I'm still forgetting something...
Oh, that's right! we need money
to PAY all of these people. That's up to the producers. Now, before about the 1980s,
producers used to be one or two people who had a lot of creative control over the show
because they ponied up all the money to make the whole thing run. So people like
David Merrick, or Florenz Ziegfeld, had big legacies. After the 1980s,
musicals became so much more expensive to produce that you'll often see big company
names above the title, as well as individual investors. There are also the people
promoting the show, creating educational materials, and showing you to your seat!
Now, if all this sounds like an impossible number of people to be involved,
trust me it's not! But at the same time, people at smaller theaters or regional
theatres outside of New York City may be doubling up on roles. Your actor friend in
New York who has wait tables to pay her bills may be performing evenings at an
off-off-Broadway theatre--that means a theater that has fewer than 100 seats or
doesn't involve a majority of actors who were in Actors Equity (the actors Union)
because, oh yes, the theatre world also includes unions. Which, if you're guessing
means more people...
Yeah. Even with all the people, we've discussed, your musical is still being performed by
amazing actors who are naked on a dark stage with no microphones because, that's
right, we left out the designers!
[Title music.] Now, the Tony Awards, which are THE big theatre awards, got a lot of flak in 2014 when they eliminated the award for Best Sound
Design. Sound designers are hugely important to a musical. They help
create sound effects, they make sure that every seat in the house hears what they
need to hear, and they're really responsible for the whole cohesive sound
design of the show. And the Tony Awards don't even give out awards for the folks on
Broadway who are responsible for designing wigs, makeup, props or projections. So at
the end of every future episode of The Musical Show, I'm going to bring one of
these people into the spotlight and make sure to tell you about a technical
designer. When a musical works well
an army of people come together to create a musical world. Now, that wasn't
always the case, and we'll talk about why-- and how the 1943 musical Oklahoma! changed
things--in our next episode. Until then, share the comments about which designers
you think we should spotlight! I'd also love to know what roles you've played, either
on stage or behind the scenes. Thanks for watching The Musical Show. Please
subscribe, hit like, and let us know what you think!
So...that goes to show something, and I forgot the end of the line!