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| Julie Andrews, Robert Goulet and Richard Burton a half century ago |
Musical numbers in a Broadway show are pretty simply composed and very regular meaning that the tunes were in 8 measure or 12 measure phrases that made it easier for the local musical theater ensemble to sing in the "after-royalty-market and enabled the pit musician to just kinda figure it out when it to come in after long rests. Not sure if that makes sense to you but it did to me. Moreover, I generally found the songs pretty and genuine and my personal fav, Camelot, had such good music that to this day I would rather hear the cast recording than just about anything else. I can close my eyes and be right back in the pit, music stand with lights, cramped in, no view of either the stage or the audience...heaven.
One appealing facet of playing this music was the regularity of it all and then on top of it the genius of the lyricist and composers who had to fashion songs that were an instant hit; some neat, some gorgeous, some funny and a lot of them very clever. A few musicals like West Side Story, Most Happy Fella, 1776 and my personal favorite, Camelot, have a rich musical score that stands well on its own; inside or outside a musical theater
I played my first Camelot pit job in high school, another couple while in college and probably a half dozen more afterwards. It isn't performed much because it takes a pretty good cast to pull it off, a good if not great pit orchestra and a set budget that cripples most community theaters. Mostly, I think, it is a "tough act to follow". The original cast created the characters more so than just about any other. I find it hard to hear some of the music performed by any others than the first singers who graced the music.
I'll think more about this during the day, now that my mind's on the subject. Think of it as Happy Gilmore's "happy space".
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