Good evening readers. Tonight's topic is to summarize this summer's musical experience. I had the joy(?) of playing in the orchestra for a local production of "Seussical". For those of you not familiar, the musical "Seussical" was written by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens which some aid by Eric Idle. The show was basically a broadway flop. Opening in November of 2000 and closing in May of 2001 after only 198 performances. After closing, the books were taken back and were reworked to make the story an hallucination.
The story operates similar in the fashion as the "Fantasticks" and "Pippin" operates. There is a narrator guiding characters through various plot devices and eventually having them all cross paths. Its kind of a Quentin Tarrantio approach to musicals. In the case of "Seussical", the narrator is the Cat in the Hat, who not only is guiding and interacting with the audience to take them through the story, but guiding the young child Jo-Jo into the world of Dr Seuss. Jo-Jo first meets Horton the Elephant int he jungle of Nool as Horton hears a dust speck screaming for help. Then Jo-Jo is transplanted into being a citizen of Who (the speck Horton hears is the planet of Who). Who is in trouble of course, torn over how to put butter on your bread, and Horton is accused of being insane, but one bird believes him. The animals in the jungle want Horton locked up and his dust speck on the clover destroyed. On top of that, this floozy of bird got herself knocked up and seduces Horton to sit on her egg, and Horton ends up in a circus. The story never really explains how Horton escapes the circus but that's not important, because everyone is singing.
Musically, the score is a dream for the orchestra. The songs almost never stop. There's no downtime. Every song forwards the plot and if the show isn't over in two hours, you're doing it wrong. Faster to the bar, faster to being happy. The orchestration is bit cramped though, as each reed book (three total) appear to require four instruments for each player. The brass books had been condensed into two trumpet parts and one trombone part. Which results in not the fullest sound on the brass side of things. A french horn part and even a second trombone part could be used. Especially considering the screamer style the first trumpet book is written in. Support voices would definitely help.
The show does move at a frantic pace and left me exhausted after every performance. There are thirty-one official songs of the show, but many numbers are split into long sections that segue to each other for ten to fifteen minutes at a time.
So now that the story and element of the show are set, lets get to the meat of the entry. This was the first show I had done in a while that I felt good about my overall performance. I thought I had a good ratio of right notes, and not too many bricks. I was also very happy to get my friend and hetero musical life partner involved in the production by covering the drum set. He read the book like a champ and learned the ropes of community theater fast. He learned not to necessarily trust watching the conductor, that he's in it with us, and that the singers will make us look bad but we can't make them look bad. Also the fact that you must either fit in or sink with the musicians involved. It's just as important to get along socially as it is to be responsible for your part and talent. Stevie, if you're reading, I'm proud of you and I hope you don't regret agreeing to do it even in the tough times you're having.
Alright enough of the sappy crap. So the cast was pretty stereotypical. A few pieces of talent, the rest raw meat just making our lives in the orchestra a living hell. The best way to explain it was a few songs I got seasick from the tempo fluctuations. There was the funk tune sung by some monkeys. I can't explain to you but, imagine if Isaac Hayes was an eighth note slow singing "Shaft", every time. They were hesitant, almost like they were waiting for some audible cue that was never there. Now imagine the frustration of the brass section with horn pops on beat four, and its clear the singer isn't supposed to be singing on beat four, but you can still hear him. Add to that the drummer hanging on for dear life on his stereotypical sixteenth note beat on the high hat. Dead in the water my friends, every night, without fail. The cue line for the song?
Cat in the Hat:"Hang on Jo-Jo, things are about to go wrong!!"
"How true, how true" said the sad kangaroo and the young trumpet player in the pit said "Meee tooooo!".
Only one more complaint and again its a tempo issue. The curtain call is a big band, Benny Goodman/Gene Krupa salute to "Green Eggs and Ham". The cast just is dying to come out clapping to it. Here's the problem, they see the music is written in 4/4 time. The song is too fast for that and is played in cut time. So they clap on the after beat instead of the back beat. Crash and burn my friend, crash and burn. So with their clapping off, their singing of the song is off too. Hang on again Jo-Jo, the orchestra is going into phasing metric modulation hell!!!! Especially when you're the loudest and highest voice in the pit and you are the one punctuating the "Four - One" feel. Lets not forget that everything except an eight bar section of this song is above the staff. It's an exhilarating and nerve wracking experience.
I have to admit, "Seussical" is one of my favorite shows to play, and was a fun way to celebrate my ten year anniversary with Liberty Showcase Theatre of Baltimore, Maryland. Its been fun and every show, though bitched about, has been fun to play with them. Every year I get better and learn more about musicals, and I get to know the orchestra better. I feel blessed really to continuously be called back year after year with a group as talented in the orchestra. I've never been asked to audition, I've just always been trusted to learn the part and try to help in any way I can. The help this year included putting together an arrangement of the Muppet Show theme for the orchestra to play before the Entr'acte. I couldn't have been more honored, and I learned how to write for strings and for saxophones. Thank you Ted, Elisa, Joe, Erica, Lisa, Matt, Steve, and Jonell for the memories and I hope for another ten years with you folks there.
This blog entry has been far too sentimental for this time of the night, and I must sign off. This entry rambled itself out quite well. Right now the sky is turning pink, and when figuring out what will happen next, I'm asking you, What do you think? All the thinks I can think have been thought, and when making the telephone, Bell asked, "What hath God wrought?". God gave us a musical where all the lines rhyme and just needs a twist of lime.
Good night.
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