Broadway's Sound Revolution: The Debate Is On

It is not news that technological advancement is the new center of global competition.  Indeed, in today's world, we have become accustomed to wanting everything bigger, clearer, louder, and faster - and we want it now. This emerging perspective has led to a number of interesting innovations: music has become digitized such that album creation no longer requires singers to have the talent to stay on pitch or carry a tune; books have become screened via the Kindle; communication no longer requires the use of a voice or pen (when did you last send a letter via post?); and through online money management people can become rich without ever touching a dollar bill. The list goes on.  

The same can be said for technological changes on stage, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal Online.  Once upon a time, talents such as Patti LuPone and Liza Minnelli belted their way to the back of a house with the aid of a small handful of mics, if any at all.  Today, this is far from the case.  With the advancements in sound technology that can mix a chorus of voices in real time, productions are increasingly installing massive sound systems to ensure that the sound is as crisp and pure as possible -- and, of course, to aid the film stars who pass through the Great White Way who are not accustomed to projecting. 

What is more, the Wall Street Journal Online reports, "With theater producers increasingly reliant on revenues from touring shows playing spaces with as many as 4,000 seats, more shows are being rigged with miniature mics and high-tech sound systems to project the performances to the far reaches of the theaters...And, unbeknownst to most audience members, some performers in musicals are occasionally backed by prerecorded vocal tracks, allowing them to sing quietly, or sometimes not at all, during strenuous dance numbers or scenes with complex effects."

Specifically, The Journal notes: "On stage at the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" are seven actors-and 23 hidden microphones. The new musical "Fela!" has 80 speakers hung around the theater, and mic transmitters embedded in a character's tap shoes. And during one song in "The Phantom of the Opera," actors choose whether to sing along-or just mouth the words-to a prerecorded vocal track."

Lip-synching on Broadway? What would Ethel Merman say? It certainly is a new day in American theater.  And, the debate, as to whether or not this new age of technologically enhanced performance perverts the core of live performance, is on.

On the one hand are theater pioneers like David Mamet, who notoriously refuses to use mics in his productions, though much to the dismay of audience members who also notoriously have difficulty hearing the performance from the balcony, such with his current Oleanna with Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman.

On the other are players like sound designer Russell Goldsmith of Broadway's recent Exit the King.   Goldsmith insists that the addition of multiple mics added new depth to the storytelling as he was able to manipulate the mics to evoke the sound of voices in a room with a cathedral ceiling.

To read the full report in the Wall Street Journal Online, click here.

Good or bad, one thing is certain: the new sound revolution on stage has growth with the upcoming generation's audio palate.  Now, after becoming accustomed to watching television on surround sound and running through the park while listening to overly produced studio tracks on our state-of-the-art ipod touches, would we even be able to appreciate un-miked, mixed and digitized live performance?