Re: [Harp-L] Playing on Broadway/subs

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael - 

Great pit story; thanks for telling it.

My first musical theatre experience was very old fashioned - we were in
an open pit in front of the stage and could directly see the conductor,
the stage, and the house. This had its disadvantages, though, as one of
the actors played a moment of surprise during a  meal by spewing
half-eaten chicken  from his mouth all over the stage and the pit.

The opposite of this was described by a friend (Keith Bennett, who
played all the harmonica cues in the old TV show MacGyver) who visited
another friend playing for one of the Lloyd Webber extravaganzas where
the stage setup didn't allow any room at all for musicians, so the
orchestra was in a separate building, watching the conductor on a
monitor, and the musicians were wearing shorts and flip-flops, reading
magazines (that happens anyway) and  generally creating a very casual
atmosphere.

My experiences since that first one have been all over the map but
mostly involved not seeing the stage or the audience, and watching the
conductor at least part of the time on a monitor. It's sort of weird -
you're doing live theater in real time, but there are all these
technology-based disconnects involved.

The sub thing can be hard on harmonica players. Even for an easy show
like Big River, it's hard to find a sub (though I shared that show with
Rick Hatfield a couple of times - I was actually the sub). For a harder
show like Floyd Collins, forget it! Often when I've done a show, at
some point each member of the orchestra will have an opportunity to
watch the show when their sub is in the chair. The harmonica player
seldom gets that opportunity.

On one show, they were very generous about doubles. The score clearly
showed the need for bass harmonica, chromatic, and several specified
keys of diatonic (that sort of specific instruction is unusual but can
be helpful to a player of middling ability, the player an arranger will
write for if he/she is smart), so they gave me the maximum doubling
rate considering that I was playing  about fifteen different actual
instruments.

Could your sub have been Corrin Dion by any chance?

Winslow

--- Michael Rubin <rubinmichael@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I was on vacation and read some archives things that I am commenting
> on.  I was the original harmonica player for the Broadway show The
> Civil War.  The whole experience lasted about a year although we were
> only on Broadway for previews (about two months) and then about 2
> months after the official opening and then we lost the Tony to Fosse
> and closed a week later along with 11 other shows.  Pre Broadway we
> did 2 other cities, Houston and New Haven.
>    
>   First off I have no idea how they found me.  I was living in
> Austin, Texas and was not a member of the Union.  Texas is a
> right-to-work state.  One day I received a phone call asking me to
> audition for the Houston show.  I was told there was no possibility
> of getting the Broadway gig.  I audtioned, lied about my ability to
> read music and got the gig.  I quit my part time day job, kissed two
> bands and my students and my apartment goodbye and moved to Houstoin
> for a 3 month gig.  I went with the intention of getting the Broadway
> gig and did not want to have any ties at home.  
>    
>   I took two reading lessons and practiced 8 hours a day for 3 weeks.
>  I was the worst reader of the orchestra by far, but I made it.
>    
>   In Houston, we practiced for 3 weeks.  This is an unusually long
> time for Broadway.  I think this was because the writers were still
> writing the show.  Most of the singers (a great ensemble cast where
> any one of them could have starred) went on to Broadway.  Only 4
> musicians did and the other three were New York and LA cats flown out
> to Houston.
>   There were no subs in Houston.  I was expected to make every show
> no matter what.  
>    
>   About half way thru they told me they wanted me for Broadway. 
> Rumor has it Rob Paparozzi was offered the gig and turned it down and
> so I got the call.  Thanks Rob!  I believe I lived in around 11
> different spaces in that year's time moving from city to city and
> living on couches while I found an apartment in New York.
>    
>   In New York we prepared one week for the New Haven show and then
> moved to  New Haven.  The musicians were almost all different, like I
> say.  So was the music.  Whatever I had learned in Houston was out 
> of the window.  Until a show "opens"  the writers can change the show
> as often as they please.  As a musician, I was allowed to show up one
> minute before the show started.  There was no policy forcing me to
> show up early.  Quite often I would arrive to find new songs or parts
> written out on my music stand.  
>    
>   In New Haven, the orchestra pit was small.  The horns and myself
> were placed in a separate room we nicknamed the Blow Room (because we
> all blew to make our instruments work you sex and drug minded
> people!)  We baffled my amplifier and I had a vocal mic. We watched
> the conductor on a television screen.  We listened with small
> monitors.  
>    
>   In New York, there were plastic walls between most of the
> musicians.  We each had our own monitor and although we were in the
> pit together I still watched the conductor on a small tv set.  My mic
> was sent to my amp in another room.  I also played thru a vocal mic.
>    
>   Although one contractor is in charge of booking almost all Broadway
> shows, the musicians were in charge of finding their own subs. 
> Although paid vacation days were limited, a musician could sub out
> close to 100% of the shows if he wants to.  Also, unless he screws up
> big time, a musician has the right to his chair for the run of the
> show.  Pretty much the only way to screw up was to arrive late.  They
> understood that you people make mistakes trying to play what is
> written.
>    
>   Finding a sub was excruciatingly difficult.  I knew no one in
> Manhattan.  If I called anyone to tryout they either blew me off or
> assumed they had the gig without any audtion and some people acted
> quite hurt when I did not choose them.  I played both acoustically
> and electrically, with chromatic in multiple keys and diatonic in 3
> positions and both read music and improvised.  Finding a harp player
> to handle it was tough.  The potential sub would sit next to me
> during a show and see what I did.  I got to interview both Don Brooks
> and Rob Paparozzi and got to know them.  Don did not want the gig,
> Rob seemed willing but busy.  I wound up writing all the improvised
> parts and giving the sub part to a very nice guy (sorry if you are
> lurking, but I forget your name.)    and we spent many hours training
> him for the one day I subbed out, my girlfriend's birthday.  It was
> worth it.  
>    
>   To give you some idea of the musicianship caliber, the musicians in
> the orchestra were in other bands you might have heard of... Steely
> Dan, Barbara Streisand, Prince, THe Woody Hermann (I suppose
> memorial) orchestra, Donna Summer, Gregory Hines, Arlo Guthrie, The
> Blues Brothers, etc.  AT the end of the night I had to take a solo
> right after the Steey Dan guitarist.  He would show me up night after
> night.  My only strategy was if he played slow, I played fast and
> vice versa.
>    
>   For a year I made around $1500 a week.  When it was over, I was
> depressed for a little while, mmoved back to Austin and got happy
> again. I also fought the union and won proving that I should get paid
> a double for playing both chrome and diatonic.
>    
>   If the show had continued I would have had more stories. 
>   Michael Rubin
>   Michaelrubinharmonica.com 
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