  |
|
|
|
As of this writing the League of American Theatres and Producers and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802 (which represents Broadway musicians) are locked in a series of contract negotiations. The bone of contention is the League's desire to eliminate the element of previous contracts that establishes a required minimum number of orchestra musicians for musicals in production on Broadway. The minimums vary per theatre (ranging from 3 to 26) and do not affect non-musical plays.
The League's argument, as stated by its president, Jed Bernstein, is that this is a "mandate [that] exists regardless of the number of musicians desired by the creative team of the producer, director, orchestrator and composer." (from the League's site, an article entitled "Artistic Freedom on Broadway") Strike the words "the producer" from the list and the statement is deliberately misleading. Those who are swayed by the false statements of Mr. Bernstein ("Why, then, should a union be able to tell Stephen Sondheim or Marvin Hamlisch that he must write for 25 or 26 musicians?") are ignoring the historic results of the loss of required minimums. The last renegotiations of the minimum agreements on a national level effectively eliminated minimums in the larger cities' theatres that still maintained them. The new agreement requires the use of the existing minimum _or_ the show's orchestration, and because shows get re-orchestrated for the road we've seen the reduction of orchestral accompaniment for touring shows to a mere handful of acoustic players, augmented by a battery of semi-automated synthesizers (nicknamed by Brett Somers, a creator of one of the systems, the "wank-a-tron"). I think a reading of recent criticism in the Musical Theatre Original Cast Recording List of the sound of these orchestras should be remembered. In the words of Mell Cisicsila, who plays cello in the pit for touring shows visiting Cleveland, regarding the wank-a-tron, "It's basically a Sony PlayStation orchestra. This is canned music." (Quoted from a paper presented at a National Arts Journalism Program conference entitled "Wonderful Town: The Future of Theater in New York.") One should also note that despite the reduction of the size of these orchestras, ticket prices have not seen a corresponding reduction. The 1993 agreement between the League and Local 802 created a "Special Situations" clause which allowed for the request of a reduction of the minimum orchestra size on a specific show for artistic reasons. This has allowed for non-minimum sized orchestras for shows like Smokey Joe's Cafe, On the Town, Footloose, Chicago, High Society, Swingin' On a Star, Civil War, Swing, Aida, Mamma Mia, Movin' Out, Amour, and Urban Cowboy. This is not the intransigence of the AFM in the olden days, when "featherbedding" |
|
|
|
