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It's funny how some of us mention the Jitterbug from Wizard of Oz and Side by Side from Company. I've done both those shows, as well as close to 100 other shows, and those are two numbers I really don't like at all! I don't like Jitterbug because, besides being totally derivative, it doesn't...

Not so much a horror story, but one that shows that danger is lurking around every corner: I was a Sunday matinee of Guys and Dolls at a high school. It was the end of intermission and the pit orchestra was getting seated for the second act. Everybody quickly warmed up and tuned, and we...

I just finished doing a show in which the small pit band was in the wings stage right, completely hidden from the audience. I heard after one of the shows that an audience member was surprised to hear that she had been listening to a live pit. She thought we were a tape. I guess it's not...

I know this is an old thread, but reading about stage fog made me think of a recent production of Jekyll & Hyde I did. The director called for fog to be a part of Jekyll's big number, "This is the Moment." During the first two days of tech week, things went fine, although on Tuesday (the...

First of all, having a backing track playing for a live musical is always a bad idea. You've got a live foreground trying to vie with a static background. What if the singers/actors throw in a rubato? And then to try to put the two together--a live band with a recorded band? You're asking...

Mmm... Secret Garden horns... I got the call to do the show once. I called back the next day to say yes, but turns out they had had two contractors calling players, and the second contractor had already given the gig to one of his callees before I called back.

I've played the following horns on gigs at one time or another: Soprano saxophone A Clarinet Bb Clarinet C clarinet Oboe Recorder Alto saxophone Eb clarinet Guitar English horn Piano Tenor saxophone Alto clarinet Bassoon Baritone saxophone...

I was an actor on stage with a body mic once, and you're right. We didn't turn off our own mics. But when we came off stage, we had a stagehand whose responsibility was to remove the mics and transmitting boxes off our persons.

So I'm doing Jesus Christ Superstar, with the band on one side of the stage, and at the end of the crucifixion scene, everything is quiet. All eyes are on Jesus and the cross. Suddenly, I'm aware of an unmistakable watering sound coming through the sound system: a steady stream of liquid is...

42nd Street Another one of my favorites is 42nd Street. Great writing for the pit! You can tell the writers wanted us to have fun because the Exit Music goes on and on with one great arrangement after another. Our pit had so much fun doing this show that even though we were only supposed to...

Like Al's, my gig calendar is also amazing. It requires no batteries, and I can see it in any kind of light with no glare. I never have to recharge it. I never have a connectivity problem. Alerts and pings are never an issue. And, unlike Al's, it fits in the palm of my hand or in my jacket...

My first reaction was that "Superstar" is a great musical. But that word as you mean it, to me means a player who has achieved a lot in the business, has used her or his talent wisely, has retained a good image, and has also procured the management smart enough to engender others to be using...

Make it ergonomically comfortable to carry in one's hand when folded up. We all know how literally painful those metal Hamilton stands are to carry without a case! And make sure the desk doesn't have a lip on the edge. That prevents one from attaching extendable desks. I also have a piccolo...

A couple years ago I was playing in a pit for "Music Man," and intermission was taking longer than we thought it should. It kept dragging on and on... until we were told that there was some sort of "technical difficulty" that needed attending to before the second act could begin. So somebody...

Nope!

A few years ago I was playing in the pit for Beauty and the Beast. During a scene, one of the supporting actresses was wearing a body mic. When she left the stage, the soundboard person didn't fade her mic. Obviously the tech crew backstage didn't turn off the body mic, either, because the...

Tintypes Tintypes, the turn-of-the-century review, was one of my favorites. We had a small orchestra: piano, trombone, drums, and me (flute/picc/clarinet). They had us down-stage left in a gazebo, so we were featured the entire show. We even played a few Joplin things before the show to...

Hi Pete, Thanks for the welcome. It's nice to be here. Jim

In a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, I was sitting directly in front of the stage with my back to it. During the scene where Jesus tries to kick all of the wicked people out of the temple, he tossed a small wooden stool from stage right to stage left. It was supposed to go into the...