At 10:29 AM -0400 5/7/07, Christopher Smith wrote:
On 7-May-07, at 6:41 AM, Phil Daley wrote:
I have been to live musicals where there was no pit band. The
music played there was far superior to this sample. But, I suppose
the music could have been recordings made from live musicians.
There was a synthesizer guy present, and some of the sounds were
obviously from him.
This was part of my point about the kind of argument that could be
made for shows.
There was a big mega-musical produced here in French a few years
ago; by all reports it was pretty spectacular. But the orchestra and
chorus was entirely pre-recorded. Only the principals sang their
parts live, and even then if one of them was not in voice that day,
or wanted to save his/herself for a TV show or the second show that
day, then their track was turned on and they lip-synched.
In the summers of '78 and '79 I directed The All American College
Singers shows at Disneyland and then at Walt Disney World. At that
time they were prerecording not only those shows, which were part of
a program to select and train outstanding college performers for
possible future hiring, but the Kids of the Kingdom shows, who were
their professionals on year-round contracts. They hired the best in
the business to do the prerecords--I think it was the Ray Charles
Singers (the OTHER Ray Charles!)--and the best arrangers as well.
I can tell you exactly what the corporate reasoning was. To
entertain the crowds moving around the parks, they required two
things: (1) One-hearing acceptance--they weren't out to educate
ANYONE! (2) Since a guest might only hear a show--or even part of a
show--once, they could never afford to have a show at less than its
very best. Don't forget that these were movie people, and illusion
was their business.
My two shows were the only ones i know of in that series of College
shows that were done 100% live. They were experimenting to see if it
could be done and still maintain their standards, and they were also
experimenting with using a "swing couple" as active understudies for
all the tracks in the show. We proved that both could be done (and
hiring "swings" became standard not long after that in all the theme
parks). The first summer I was at Disneyland, doing the show live,
while a colleague directed the same show in Florida using prerecorded
tapes. By August my kids were still full of energy and still putting
on great shows, and when we saw tapes of the Florida shows everyone
realized that they were logy and bored looking. They'd lost their
edge and they'd lost their energy.
In part it was because of the way we used our swing couple. Every
day they would go in for a different couple in the regular cast,
which means that every day someone would be sharing a mic or dancing
with somebody different, and it kept them on their toes. And every
day a different couple would swing out of the show. The first time
out they were required to watch the show from the audience, and come
backstage to give notes to the cast, and BOY was that a learning
experience. After that, on the days they would swing out they would
work in different departments in the park depending on their
interests. This worked great until we got hit by illness or injury,
and there was one day in Florida when my cast of 14 went on with only
8 effectives, and our swings saved the show by moving smoothly from
one track to another to cover everything! They were amazing. (And I
picked them on the audition tour!!)
But what's even more interesting is that the prerecords for the Kids
of the Kingdom were used very differently in the two parks. In
Anaheim, the choreographers were in charge of the shows, the voices
were about 90-100% tape, and there were times when the men, say,
would be singing about the "Big Bad Wolf," and there were actually no
men on the stage!! But in Florida the Live Entertainment Director
was a former studio singer himself, and he insisted that all the
singing be live with the tapes used simply at about 40% to ensure
consistency, which means that (remember that this was the late '70s)
the choreographers had to choreograph the mics, the mic stands, and
the mic cables!!!
Also, for whatever it's worth, we did have a complete 8-piece live
Showband each summer, but additional instruments, additional
percussion, etc., was on tape, and the drummer in each show
controlled the cues and tempos using a click track on headphones.
I picketed that show, partly on a live-music argument, but mostly
because it was fraudulent.
Good for you!!! Both arguments are good and both are true.
There was NO mention of a recorded orchestra and chorus ANYWHERE in
the publicity, nor in the program, yet full ticket prices were
charged. The onstage chorus, mostly dancers, even lip-synched along
with the recorded chorus.
If the illusion were perfect, it would have been undetectable, but
obviously it wasn't.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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