Children of Eden Concert- Page 2

[LostinTranslation]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 11:32am

What's so expensive? For yesterday's concert there was a total of 103 people on the stage: 42 musicians plus the musical director, a choir of 40, 9 principles and 11 dancers. That's what's expensive. They'd have to trim back the orchestra and choir to make the numbers work.

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 11:35am

42 musicians and a 40 person chorus in not necessary for the success of the show, also if it was ever on broadway, the dancers would certainly be the choir as well.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 8:10pm

"prohibitively expensive for most theatres to pull off right"

Sure, it's not necessary. You can put the union minimum 8 musicians in the pit, and the choir could double as dancers and you could hack down the cast to 12 people just to make it affordable for a commercial Broadway run, but then why bother doing Children of Eden at all? The entire score is written around a full choir. I'd rather it be done rarely and done well than see a budget-friendly Broadway run.

[LostinTranslation]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 8:34pm

My understanding is that the minimum number of musicians is 16. Probably bump that up to 20. I think you could get close if you stay close to the numbers on something like Ragtime, which is 34, not including swings, with the dancers doubling as choir. It wouldn't be cheap, and it wouldn't be as lush with the smaller choir, but it would be worth doing.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 11:58pm

Children of Eden, as licensed, is not the "Children of Eden: Symphonic Version" performed last night. The licensed version is sort of a chamber show, written for a cast of 12 and a band of I believe 6.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 12:52am

^Again, done well.

Lost in Translation- nope. The musicians minimum is based on house size. Only the largest houses have an 18 minimum, but:

"Producers are allowed to employ fewer musicians than called for in the Local 802 contract by invoking a “special situation” clause. According to the Broadway League, roughly 20 shows have done this since the 2003 contract.

In many of those cases, the producers have argued that they are pursuing an artistic conception that does not require standard-size orchestras. In recent years some producers have revived musicals like “La Cage aux Folles” with chamber-size orchestras of eight or so musicians to create a fresh sense of intimacy."

Also, the Ragtime revival flopped in 2 months on Broadway. Probably not the best model if you're looking to impress investors.
Broadway Union Takes On ‘Priscilla’ Over Music

[LostinTranslation]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 5:50am

Ragtime flopped the first time under its own weight, generally bad reviews and being in a house that was too big (nothing has done well in the Ford's Center/Hilton/Whateveritisnow Theatre). The second incarnation got generally good reviews, but it, like Finian's Rainbow which was running at the same time, came to the fore at the bottom of the recession -- several shows that got very good reviews closed nonetheless. To draw conclusions of their economic viability based on those parameters is, I think, premature. Other shows such as Mama Mia have casts of 30.

As for the band, Schwartz wouldn't want it done with that few, so while the minimums as an argument may hold, not in this particular case. I was told by someone involved in this production that the minimum was 16.

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 8:42am

I'm not saying have eight musicians but it certainly does not require 40 and an ensemble of maybe 20 would be more than sufficient to have a the full sound.