The Musician

What is the least sacred music in all of musicdom?  The overture, that’s what.  No other collection of notes and rhythms is so mutilated and chopped up as the average overture in today’s musical theater community.  As of this writing (early September) I have played in the pit for eight different shows and I can’t remember a single one that didn’t edit the overture in some way or another. 

I understand that the absence of any singers or plot development makes the overture a prime candidate for editing when you’re trying to get your show length trimmed down a bit but the longest overture I’ve ever played was, what, three minutes long?  Is that three minutes really going to make a difference to the ticket holder?  If anything, it gives the folks that wander in late a couple extra minutes to find their seats.  We can’t cut those three minutes from the intermission (I’ve seen these short breaks push the 25 minute mark) because that is where concessions and season subscriptions are sold so we have to cut it right off the top because it would be a crime against nature to force the dancers to pick up the pace and dance to some slightly faster tempos.

The reason this upsets me is because, often, the overture is the only place where the pit gets an extended opportunity to play out and sound awesome without having to worry about drowning out singers.  Sure, we get to play out during scene change music, dance breaks and bows but scene changes are short, nobody is listening to the dance breaks and the bows are when we’re all tired and trying to figure out where to get a beer after the show.  The overture, however, is at the beginning.  We’re fresh, we’re warmed up and we’re ready to show off a bit but now, in an effort to shave three minutes off the running time, we get to play the last 18 bars of music and on with the show.

There is also a practical reason for the overture.  We will enjoy a song more if we’ve heard it before so, with the overture, you get a chance to hear all the big hits of the show before they appear in the production and when they are finally sung in the show, your vague familiarity will attach you to the tune and you’ll enjoy it more.  It’s all fact, look it up.

So where did these three minutes go?  Why is it so important to shave such a small amount of time off the show?  Who’s to blame?  I blame cell phones.  Why, you ask?  Because people are dumb and don’t know how to turn off their phone or leave it in the car without a friendly reminder and while we’re reminding them to turn off their phones and pagers (right, like anyone without a phd has one of those anymore) we might as well tease them about the next show and drop a few sponsors names and tell them how their tax deductible donation to the arts will help continue the tradition of excellence…blah blah blah.

We used to put sponsors and advertisements in the program and people could look over them at their leisure; at intermission, on the car ride home, the next day over breakfast but we can’t risk putting a cell phone reminder in the program and not having it seen prior to curtain so we have to make an announcement and so that the blue hairs aren’t driving too late at night, we have to make up for lost time by chopping up the overture.

I don’t ask for much from theater I watch or theater I participate in, I just want my three minutes of orchestral features now and then to enjoy as an audience member or to show off with as a performer.  I let all the actors say all their lines, I let the choreographer show off their skills, all I want is three minutes of me time.  Is that too much to ask?

Last summer I played the Broadway musical Hair.  In case you don’t know, it’s a charming story of some wasted hippy draft dodgers exploring their sexuality, getting high and sticking it to the man.  It’s as dumb as it sounds.

I went into the show knowing very little beyond the few hits from the show.  I had fun playing it because it’s all 60’s rock and that is where my specialty lies as a guitar player but the show, on the whole, is really stupid.  There is almost no plot at all, there is no character development and their is very little in the way of emotional connection with the performers.  I do not fault the actors in this production because I thought they all did a fine job and the pit sounded pretty good too.  I just think the show sucks.

Of course I can recognize the importance of the show as it paved the way for more social conscious theater as well as the fusion of rock with broadway.  Without Hair, there would be no Rent or even Hairspray and for that alone it deserves a spot in the “hall of fame” of musical theater but if you take the influence away and look at it without 40 years of hindsight, it doesn’t hold up as well as Rent has held up over the past decade.  The music that you know is great, the rest is just filler but I find it hard to believe that modern theater goers, without the assistance of nostalgia in their heart, head to the parking lot with a new appreciation for the hippie counter-culture, draft dodging or smoking marijuana like a cigarette.

Hair deserves a place in history for impact alone but it is time to hang up the beaded necklace and call it an era.  The show has not aged well at all, even in comparison to other musicals of the era, and in many ways is more shocking and controversial today than it was when it was new and seeing it on the stages of every high school and community theater doesn’t endear it more to me. 

That being said, if you’re mounting a production of it, I’d be happy to play.  It is a pretty fun guitar book but you’ll have to listen to my rant in person then.

Being a full time musician is hard work, even in a large metropolis like San Francisco.  The assumption is that we work a couple hours a day playing our instruments in front of adoring fans, drinking free beer, and going home with beautiful groupies.

The truth, of course, is a far cry from that.  We have to pay for our own beer most of the time.  And, we spend a whole lot of time doing other things like teaching private students, searching the web for contacts and gigs, practicing our instruments and checking couch cushions for loose change so that we can hit McDonald’s on our way to the gig.

In this current economy, it’s hard to get live gigs.  Theater companies, known for being a steady stream of paychecks, are hiring fewer musicians and if you play guitar, oboe, or percussion you’re the first to get cut.  Clubs are cutting the pay for live music nights, or cutting out the musicians all together and schools are cutting their music teachers.  So what do you do?  You go to Craigslist to try and find some gigs, maybe someone looking for lessons, or a teaching job.  Of course you have to sift through dozens of high school garage bands seeking a “great lead singer to go all the way” or a bunch of film students looking for someone to score their 25 minute short for “film credit” and no money.

What does all this mean?  It means that being a musician is harder now than it’s been in a long time and most of us have no other marketable skills.  Next time you see a musician walking down the street, kindly give him $50 and well wishes. 

I will be walking down the streets of Brentwood today around 2:00 if you’re interested.