Q&A with Larry Blank

What first piqued your interest in musical theatre?

I was in a summer camp, Camp Oakdale in Connecticut near New London and performed in Fiorello and West Side Story. Fiorello piqued my interest and my parents bought tickets for me and my brother for the last month it played on Broadway in 1961. I was 9 years old! By the way, the pianist for West Side Story was Steve Margoshes, the Broadway orchestrator, who replaced me much later as MD on They're Playing Our Song on Broadway when I left to move to California.

How did you wind up conducting on Broadway at the ripe young age of 22?

I had conducted much in stock and on the road and my friend Arthur Rubinstein was conducting the show Goodtime Charley. Arthur left for another commitment, and asked me to take over the show, just like that. I had assisted Arthur on a stock production of Marc Blitzstein's JUNO at Williamstown with Geraldine Fitzgerald and Milo O'Shea. Jo Beth Williams was featured in the cast.

Don Pippin's name comes up a lot when you talk about your career and influences, why is that?

I met Don Pippin when I was 13 years old, and hanging out at the stage door of MAME. He was the conductor of that show, took a liking to me, and mentored me - all my life. He is godfather to my children and is totally responsible for my career as a conductor and for my career as an orchestrator.

What project have you been most proud to work on?

I loved conducting Sweeney Todd for the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center in 2002. Also, orchestrating Mrs. Santa Claus for Jerry Herman and Don Pippin with Angela Lansbury was an important breakthrough for my career as an arranger.

Sweeney required some conducting chops and the score is wonderful, so what's not to like?

I conducted the international company of A Chorus Line in 1977, and that was very important to me professionally and personally as well. It set the tone for the rest of my career and I made many personal friendships and business relationships that exist to this day. Talking about Don Pippin, both that job and the job conducting PLAYING OUR SONG were totally on Don Pippin's recommendation to Michael Bennett and to Marvin Hamlisch.

So what's the difference between an orchestrator and an arranger?

An arranger will take a lead sheet or recording or whatever form is presented to him, and figure out accompaniments, figures, counter lines, etc. That is an arrangement. Orchestrating is assigning which instruments or groups of instruments play the various elements. The two jobs can be mixed though, for example orchestrating for pop music almost always incorporates both arranging and orchestration.

How have you approached projects where you've been less than enthusiastic about the score?

That's happened far too often! As a freelance musician, the job is the thing, and I try very hard not to be a critic. I look at every job as a task to accomplish with great pleasure. It is very pleasurable to take something that is less than wonderful and make some magic out of it. It's rewarding to try to make a less than stellar score theatrically viable and satisfying for the performers, authors and audience. That's the great part of working with theatrical/pop music. It's all about emotions and creating some energy out of it.

Where does a composer's job end and an orchestrator's begin?

Well, that depends on the composer and his skills. However, any way you cut it - Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein wrote "Ol' Man River," not Robert Russell Bennett. And, as nice as the vamp is to "Singin' in The Rain," Roger Edens wrote the vamp, not the song, which is pretty good stuff.

How has an orchestrator's job evolved over the years?

Well, I only know the answer to this from conjecture, my experience, and talking to a lot of guys over the years who were there before me. I think that the orchestrator is now more involved in the creation of the sound of a show. The orchestrator/arranger must be a dramaturg as well, and understand what is happening in the plot - both dramatically and emotionally. You can't walk in and hear "If I Loved You," and decide that it would sound really great on 5 saxophones and a brass band. You have to take into consideration that it's New England, at the turn of the century or before, and that the characters are singing at a park bench near the shore. Saxophones would sound pretty inappropriate near a carousel on the Maine coast in the early evening! So, it helps to know a little bit theatre and show biz or whatever the final venue is for your product.

What's your take on how Broadway has evolved over the years?

Well, I'm a purist and I don't like the way it's headed, but I do keep in mind that there's an awful lot of real estate between 40th and 53rd street that needs to have shows in those theatres to generate income. So, I haven't lost hope! I miss the fact that shows were seemingly produced for their own sake with the hope of making money, rather than money being the reason d'etre for a production. It seems that things are going that way when I see that both orchestras, and casts are cut down.

I admire the new Sweeney Todd with the actors playing musical instruments. But, the thought that they will now do Company, Night Music, or Follies with the actors playing musical instruments is insulting and stupid. It's a nice idea and a great new concept for Sweeney, but now it seems like another way for producers to make more money by eliminating the orchestra and making it seem like the right thing to do. Sadly, I think Broadway will end up on tape, just like Vegas and Branson, Missouri, because the audience will ultimately show up and not know the difference between live music and a wheezing synthesizer.

What's such a theatre guy like you doing living out in Los Angeles?

The weather is great, and with the internet and iDisks and technology I can live anywhere at all.

What's the theatre scene like out there?

Is there a theatre scene in Los Angeles?

Your career has traversed the worlds of theatre, concerts, films, and recordings - where are you most happy? Least happy?

I am very happy when music is being made, with real people and with the ups and downs and peccadilloes of live performance. I am least happy spending hours in a studio making a perfect performance, that removes the distinction between a great instrumentalist/singer/actor, and a digital sample. I am also least happy when music and art is treated as something to play in the background while strolling thru a shopping mall. That shows no respect for musicians/artists and creativity.

The concert stage has put you behind the baton for performers like Michael Crawford, along with many others - what have those experiences been like?

Lovely, I like being on stage with the performers. You are exposed and have to do your best at all times.

Credited (and uncredited!) for 'Additional Orchestrations,' just how involved were you with The Producers on stage and screen?

I was involved with about 1/3 of the orchestrations for the Broadway production without credit. I was involved with more than that on the film, with minimal credit.

How common of a practice is it to come in and do un-credited orchestration work?

It is the history of orchestration on Broadway and film and the music business. Many films and the majority of all Broadway shows, were the work of a committee in the orchestration department.

What's one show or score that you didn't work on, but would have loved to?

My favorite score of all time, is the film score for THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES by Hugo Friedhofer.

You've had the opportunity to work with Stephen Sondheim both on Sweeney Todd at the Kennedy Center, and for other concert works - what was that like?

I have been kicking around Broadway and theatre for a long time, since I was very young and grew up in NYC. I met Steve Sondheim when I was 16 years old and knew his shows, even then, before he became the revered composer that he is now. I've always admired his work from West Side Story on. Conducting Sweeney was very satisfying, and I'm not a snob about music having made a career of popular music as opposed to the "classics." Sweeney though is glorious music, gloriously orchestrated by Jonathan Tunick, and it's the best theatre has to offer and challenging to conduct. You can't fake your way thru that one, and I loved every minute of it and the whole Sondheim Celebration in DC.

It was one of the great times in my life and career to be involved with all of those people. We referred to it as CAMP SONDHEIM, and I'd bet that Steve would agree that it was a special time for him too.

Actually, Steve and I bonded over his Apple ibook computer. It froze up one day, my phone rang, and he asked what I knew about computers. I took that to mean that he trusted me about music, so now he was asking me about his computer. He's a brilliant man, and it's difficult not to admire someone with that kind of brain and talent to come up with the perceptions/music/lyrics that he has.

The Phantom of the Opera just now became the longest running Broadway show of all time. You spent 2 years conducting it in LA - what's your take on its success?

Phantom is a wonderful show, and you have to appreciate Andrew Lloyd Webber, Michael Crawford and especially Hal Prince for all the concepts on the show. It deserves all of its awards and recognition, and it's put my 3 children thru school.

Tell us about your most recent projects...

I'm very proud to be the orchestrator of White Christmas, which Kevin McCollum is producing everywhere. Paul Blake hired me at the MUNY in St. Louis to orchestrate it, and it is in the grand tradition of Broadway musicals. It's got a big orchestra, lush sounds and lots of dancing. Paul was one of my teachers at the High School of Performing Arts, where I was a drama student

I'm also orchestrating Drowsy Chaperone, which I've become quite fond of, and I hope that it finds a theatre and soon.

I also hear that you've worked on the orchestrations and vocal arrangements for the Dr. Dolittle tour with Tommy Tune - how's that looking?

Tommy Tune is Dr. Dolittle, and has repackaged the show into marvelous entertainment. The choreography by Patti Columbo is lots of fun, and Dee Hoty and Tommy make magic on stage. Michael Biagi has done the vocal arrangements (and is also the MD) and Gordon Harrell has done the dance and incidental music. I'm very happy to have been involved, because the show is great fun!

For more information on Larry Blank, visit his web site at http://larryblankmusic.com/