Episode Transcript
Speaker 2 00:00:03 Welcome friends to Cadenza #3 of Chicago Musician. I'm back at work. I figured two and a half years was about enough time to take off for your average pandemic. And now I'm lucky enough to be working on the pre-Broadway production of 'The Devil Wears Prada'.
Speaker 2 00:00:29 And thus the title, 'The Devil & Me'. I am lucky to have a job and lucky to have a really good job at the moment. And I'm back at work. I haven't really had a job since March 12th, 2020. That's when I was in the pit for An American in Paris, out at Drury Lane Oakbrook. And we shut down, oh, you know, for a few weeks, which ended up being two and a half years for me. I know this is a story that a lot of musicians can relate to. So I just wanna talk about what it's like to be back at work and what's different. This production a little bit specific, but not too much. I don't wanna give away this store, but I'm hired to be Key 3 and an assistant conductor for 'The Devil Wears Prada'. This is headed for Broadway, almost certainly. It was in workshops and in quite good shape, I think, before the pandemic.
Speaker 2 00:01:54 And then it got shut down. Went back into some workshops. And now this summer, it is in its first full production here in Chicago with eyes on Broadway in the fall, I would guess, but I don't know anything inside about that. I do know we just finished our first week of previews here in Chicago. We did. . . uh, I don't know how many shows. . . 7? So, my story: I got hired to be in the pit, but also, when this company, which had been rehearsing for a few weeks in New York before coming to Chicago, when they came to Chicago, they had several COVID cases in the cast and also in just the company in general. And this is with very stringent COVID protocols and testing all the time. This is one of the new things about theater. The 'new world' I've come back into. Another thing I noticed right away in rehearsals now, it's not 'ladies and gentlemen, let's take it back to the top of the number.'
Speaker 2 00:03:15 It's 'friends, we're going back to the beginning of the number.' 'All right, friends, we're on a 10 minute break'. "Friends". That's part of the new gender neutral, all inclusive nomenclature that's in use now. At first, I just thought it was a quirk of a person or two. And then I'm like, oh no, that's the new language: 'friends'. It's not bad. Not perfect, but it's definitely apropo for the environment we've established at 'The Devil Wears Prada' which is, you know, people from all walks of life and all genders. So that's one of the new things I'm getting used to. The other is getting COVID tested at least five times a week. Yeah. So Broadway in Chicago is my employer in this situation, not The Devil Wears Prada. That's New York producers and company. But my employer is Broadway in Chicago.
Speaker 2 00:04:24 So they test us twice a week, I believe. And then the company, the New York producers of The Devil Wears Prada. They have their own protocol, which involves, I don't know, spit testing, what? three times a week? Anyhow, we're tested a lot. And even with that, there's still COVID around and it's affecting everyone. It's worked to my advantage in that it sort of scared everybody and made them realize they need some redundancy in the music department. And so what was happy circumstances for me, I got to be at all of the tech rehearsals when they came to town. They rehearsed in New York, you know, did their blocking, did their choreography, learned their notes. But then when they came to Chicago, they jumped into tech rehearsals, which are really long days with where you have the sets and lights and costumes. And you just start plowing through the show in super slow motion.
Speaker 2 00:05:30 And, oh my God, the house of the Nederlander theater, where Prada is playing here in Chicago. . . I've never seen more tech tables with more computer screens in my life! It looked like a Wall Street trading company with every seat and every desk having a computer and laptop for animation and lights. It's a big ass show. It's pretty exciting, but the technology is just crazy. Crazy!! And so there's a lot, a lot, a lot that has to align as a big musical comes together. So for me, I got to be a part of these rehearsals. I played almost none of them, but I was there and learning the show. I got to see eight measures at a time. And in a way, it's the ideal way to learn a show if you're gonna end up conducting it or having to play rehearsals. You get to see what the dance beats are, what people are aiming for, what the singers need to hear, what on stage needs to hear, what the cues are, the technology, all of that you get to at least observe. And start getting in your brain in slow motion.
Speaker 2 00:06:56 And then on top of that, since you know, I also think I'm a director and I've been an actor, (probably a really shitty actor, but an actor professionally for a lot of years!) to be in that room with a lot of high, high powered and huge-credited designers and directors and music people. It's just been really fascinating. This is a story, if you remember the movie with Meryl Streep and, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt and, uh, Stanley Tucci is a really good movie. You can see why people wanted to make it into a musical. But it's a young girl's story about finding her voice as a writer. And thrillingly here for The Devil Wears Prada, almost the entire production team is women. The book writer is a woman, the lyricist who wrote the lyrics with Elton John and with Elton John's music is a young lady and the director is a lady, Anna Shapiro.
Speaker 2 00:08:03 She's a Tony winner from August: Osage County. The book writer is Kate Wetherhead and the lyricist is Shaina Taub, both of them charming, smart, clever people. And I think of that all the way down through all of the set design, the costume design, the lighting design, all women. I think the only department head that is a man is the sound department. The music arranger Nadia is basically, uh, in charge of the music department. And then James is our music director. And Elijah is the assistant conductor and playing a lot of the rehearsals. So this is the team I jumped into and got to watch working and then become part of the team as we go into production. So I've been like a fly on the wall, listening to all these amazing discussions and about how this looks and how this goes.
Speaker 2 00:09:11 And I mean, everything that I've really missed about not working on a show was here in Excelsis Deo. And it's very intense. Musicals are hard! I don't know if anyone's noticed that, but they are very hard. And we have a director who has never directed a musical before. Anna, you know, ran Steppenwolf, I think maybe for seven years and has been a powerhouse director for a long time now. But self professedly, she has never done a musical. Well, don't let it fool you folks. This is a sharp lady and she knows what she wants. She can play the "oh, I don't know musicals" card, but she has great instincts and she's a wonderful leader and she's a wonderful human being. So the room, which as we all know, can get quite tense and can get uncomfortable if the atmosphere is incorrect, is actually the opposite of that here so far on Prada.
Speaker 2 00:10:17 Anna's very generous and funny and relaxed. And thus, the rehearsal process takes on that same air. It seems like a safe place for actors and designers and technicians all to be heard and to be able to explore and to express their opinions and their ideas. This is not always the case. So I've been very impressed with the rehearsal process and also intrigued that I get to sit there and hear all these discussions. And what's interesting: I'm not the boss of anything in this production. I'm a hired gun. I'm not a music director. I'm not a creative, so my opinion is not needed or wanted. So I'm keeping my mouth shut and listening. And, as hard as that is for someone like me, with many opinions (all of them brilliant by the way!), it's an interesting test just to keep your trap shut and listen to how people problem solve or not, and how people come to their conclusions or their ideas and how they welcome others' ideas and who finally makes a decision.
Speaker 2 00:11:43 All that sort of stuff is really fascinating. And I keep pinching myself thinking if I was 20 years old and you told me I could sit in this room if I paid them, they would let me in, I'd be like out of my mind. So the fact that I'm getting paid to be there and that I GET to be there is really blowing my mind. It's really fascinating and fun. And for that reason, if for no other reason, I really hope this show is a success because the way it's been put together has been admirable and welcoming and fun and intense and very creative and a little bit unusual and in all the good ways. So, that's the beginning of my experience. That went on for about 10 days tech rehearsals before the band got added. So on top of all these rehearsal days, a lot of them are what we call 10 out of twelves, which means you can rehearse 10 hours out of a 12 hour period.
Speaker 2 00:12:51 And I think we did seven of those? It gets to be long. And for some reason, the Nederlander Theater is minus 412 degrees centigrade at all times. So we're inside wearing winter coats and blankets. And for what reason? I never heard a good reason, but cold inside. So we'd have to go out in the alley on breaks and warm up. But I suppose that's not unusual. So flip forward 10 days of tech, and then we get to the first series of band read-throughs, which is always exciting to sort of hear the music come to life in a more fully realized way. And on a big production like this, we have the luxury (and it really is a luxury) of time. When the band started meeting, we rehearsed, I believe the first was a Saturday. We rehearsed from 9:00 AM to noon.
Speaker 2 00:13:58 And then on Sunday we also rehearsed 9:00 AM to noon. For those of us in tech rehearsal, then we went at noon, we went back to the theater up upstairs and joined the 10 out of 12 rehearsals for another 12 hours. So really long, mind-blowing days! But you get a lot done. So we did a couple day of band rehearsals where, you know, we're just reading the charts for the first time. . . getting this synth patch, see what. . . for me, I'm just learning what it is I'm gonna be playing and what sound I think I'm making and where it is and what pedal it to push and what button to push. And one of the new things for me on this production is I am reading my music off of an iPad. I was given the option of 'paper or plastic', and I thought, "well, people in, you know, symphony orchestras, pit orchestras, gigging, people are reading music off of iPads these days."
Speaker 2 00:15:06 So maybe it's time to bite the bullet and do it. So that's my big learning curve on this one: I am playing off of an iPad. Which means, on a synthesizer where I already have four pedals, I have a volume pedal, a sustained pedal, a patch advanced pedal that, you know, moves my synth from say, from strings to fake clarinets or a gong or harp. . . that's patches, what the sound is. So I have an advance pedal and a go backwards pedal. So add to that, a foot switch for the iPad, which turns the pages for you. So now I have five pedals, six, if you can count that that has a forward and back part of it. And I'm sort of like a church organist with my feet. So sometimes it's a little confusing, but it's kind of a fun game. For now, anyhow. I think I'm getting better at it!
Speaker 2 00:16:11 Having done it for a week of performances. You can also turn the pages with your hand by touching the edge of the page. So you have options, but sometimes when you're busy with both hands, you need to change with your feet. If you remember to. So we read. The band has two days toget through most of the charts, or the ones that exist. Things are always changing. Songs are getting added, so not all inclusive. But then on Tuesday, after those weekend reads, we get to the sitzprobe. Now those of you who don't do musicals, and even some of you that do, may not know what a sitzprobe is. But it is the first time the cast comes and joins the band and they get to sing out loud and sing their songs with the orchestra for the first time, which is really thrilling after weeks and weeks of just piano and/or maybe drums, that you finally get to hear what the show is actually gonna sound like. Or at least start to hear what the show is gonna sound like.
Speaker 2 00:17:21 And for me as a music director of many shows in the past, I think it's the most thrilling day of all of the rehearsal process. When you finally hear the music and the singers just wet their pants, because it's like, holy crap, that's amazing. And add another layer of that for this. This is a brand new show. So this is the first time anyone is EVER hearing the orchestrated versions of these new Elton John songs. Elton John wrote the score for this. And if you think that's weird, well, Elton has a pretty good track record on Broadway. . . The Lion King, Billy Elliot, Aida. . . you know, he's written a few hits. So Nadia. . . it's her job to sort of translate Elton into a more theatrical form and make these songs theatrical or make them play in this production.
Speaker 2 00:18:24 So that takes, you know, arranging. And then you have to orchestrate and Giles and James and Nadia all working on orchestrations. So this is their first chance really to hear them out loud with the cast. It's really exciting! Even in its raw form, you know, you're in a rehearsal hall, the acoustics aren't great. It's not really mixed. Sometimes the balance between the electronic instruments and the voices is not ideal, but you really start to get a sense of the show. And for me, and for a lot of people, what was really exciting about this, is Anna Shapiro has never been in a sitzprobe. You know, she's done a lot of read-throughs at Steppenwolf with big-time actors and that kind of exciting world, but never been in the sitzprobe. And so I knew it was gonna blow her mind.
Speaker 2 00:19:21 And of course it did! It blew most of our minds. It was really exciting and fun. I just love that this really is only the beginning of how the music and the play start to meld. Then up in the theater, the next day or a day or two later, we move into the pit. Move all the musical equipment and believe me, there's a lot of it on this show. There's . . . okay, so the orchestrations for ‘The Devil Wears Prada’: three keyboards; there's a playing conductor-keyboard one. Then the assistant plays two and I'm playing keyboard three. There is a drummer who plays drum set and then a percussionist who plays other things like chimes and timpani, and every other sound you can hit. Add bass and bass has got three or four different bases. . . upright ,electric, fretless, and two different guitarists.
Speaker 2 00:20:27 You know, it's a rock and roll show. Sotwo guitars and bass. Then we have two doubling read players. Each of them with 3, 4, 5 doubles. . . haven't counted. One trumpet player. Violin, a violin/violaiola player, and a cello. So I think that's 14 of us. Which is pretty good these days. Broadways usually has around that are a little bit more, but usually when we get 'em in reverse. If we get the show after Broadway, they're always cutting it down. And somehow 19 players shrinks to 10 by the time it gets to Chicago. So it's kind of fun to have a bigger band for this, but it means a big move. And moving all this equipment and wiring everything. Getting the microphones and blah, blah, blah. So after the sitzprobe, the next few days are sound checks and just going instrument by instrument to make sure you're on, to make surethey can get balanced, to make sure that we, as musicians can hear ourselves in the pit.
Speaker 2 00:21:43 It's not new. Um, it might be new to audience members or to people who don't play shows, but we've in the pit world. We've been dealing with things called AAMS for, well, probably close to 20 years. We had them in wicked. That was 2005, six. What it's been a lot of years. Anyhow, they are like your own mixing board. So you have your headphones and you can dial up whatever you want to hear in your own mix. So when you're playing a synthesizer, it's the only way to hear yourself, but you also need to hear the other two keyboards in the drummer and or the bass and the vocals, if you, and so AVMs allow you to, um, sort of get a mix in your ears that is the most helpful for you and everyone does it differently. Everyone likes to hear, you know, on this one, we have a lot of click track.
Speaker 2 00:22:38 There's a lot of very complicated lighting, moving, set, you know, exact tempo sequences that require, you know, that the timing be exact and be on a click track. So the tempo was always 1 25 or whatever it is for that sequence. Um, so that adds another layer of complexity into, um, what you need to hear. So everybody pretty much everyone in the pit is on headphones. So that has to get balanced. And then the sound department out in the house needs to start hearing us out loud so they can balance it in the house. And then we add singers again and add another layer of complexity. And so it's, it's really, uh, fascinating to watch and makes me really glad that most of the sound stuff is not my job. It's really hard. There's so many computers and so much, um, micro, tiny stuff that, you know, tiny stuff until it goes wrong.
Speaker 2 00:23:43 And then everything grinds to a halt and you're trying to figure out what's wrong. What's not working. Um, yeah, so it's thrilling when you actually just get to play the show and, uh, instead of just dealing with all the tech stuff, but this, the tech stuff has to be in place before you can do it. The same thing is true on stage. You know, it's, it's frustrating to do those rehearsals and stop and start, and the, they have to stop for lights. The set isn't moving, right? My costume change, I can't do it, but of course all that stuff has to be worked out in order for a show to run. And this is an enormous show, you know, it's the devil words pro. So it's about fashion and the costume tracks for this are so complicated and there are so many of them. And I think probably just my amateur guest view of this from within is that the costume department has been the most overwhelmed so far in this process, just because there's so many different looks for so many different characters.
Speaker 2 00:24:48 And when anything gets changed on stage, if an actor, oh, I want you to exit on the right side and not the left side. Okay. But their dress is on the right side. And they got a quick change, which means they go off stage. They have to change costume to the quickly and come back on quickly in a brand new costume, sometimes just a jacket, sometimes the entire costume. But if you change an exit and, uh, an entrance, you know, it's, everything's a domino effect. So it's, uh, it's been very interesting. I am very, very thankful to have a job. And, uh, yeah. So what about that, Sean? Yeah. During the pandemic I was thinking, uh, maybe I'm done, you know, maybe there aren't any, I don't know, is theater done? Am I done? Um, I didn't theater was probably the last one of the last industries to come back from the pandemic because, you know, a room full of 1500 people sitting next to each other breathing, um, and actors having to act without masks mostly or rehearse without masks.
Speaker 2 00:26:03 Yeah. It's still, um, challenging. And, um, and, uh, there's still COVID issues in, on most shows. Broadway's still struggling with it and tours, you know, Mullan Rouge had to cancel several performances here and in Minneapolis and on the road, and it's a complicated problem. Um, so I wasn't sure if theater was coming back and then I wasn't sure if theater was coming back with me with fewer productions and fewer theaters hitting on all cylinders, I just couldn't really see a path for me, um, back to doing what I love to do. But I was wondering if there would be any more jobs. So I'm kind of embarrassed at the, uh, good fortune I have at jumping back into, uh, this business on a really big, um, big production. Uh, so that's pretty thrilling. And, um, I'm thankful to Michael Kee, he's the contractor here in Chicago now who, uh, the contractor is the one who hires the local musicians to play the shows.
Speaker 2 00:27:23 When, when any show comes to town, they need to hire local musicians. And they have a local contractor who knows the local talent pool and chooses who he believes will be the best person for whatever, um, part the production specifies. Um, and I don't envy him that job. It's very political and very, um, difficult. And there's a lot of opposing forces and a lot of people who want you to hire them. And, um, so I'm appreciative to Michael that this time, you know, my name came up, I know a lot of my fellow pit musicians know exactly what I'm talking about. It's, uh, we all wish there was more work. We all wish we could have worked all the time. Um, these are good gigs and they're, they're usually intense, but usually pretty fun to be a part of. And there was a time when there used to be more of this work and there was, uh, a little bigger piece of the pie to spread around.
Speaker 2 00:28:32 Uh, so I am fortunate to be eating pie this time around. Um, so yeah, music, musical theater, it's still going on. I'm glad to be doing it. So the play itself, I now am buried in the pit with headphones and a mask and glasses and an iPad. I have no idea. Um, if this is a good show, a bad show, a great show. Um, I really hope it's successful. I like the people involved with it. And the cast is full of nice young, mostly, and very talented people working really hard. Um, there's a few Chicago people in it too. I'm excited for my friend Sawyer Smith. This will be their Broadway debut. And it's a very, even though it's a ensemble role in this world of fashion, the costumes they've made for Sawyer are really fantastic. And of course they're so beautiful and unusual that, uh, they know how to work.
Speaker 2 00:29:56 'em, uh, big time som I'm excited for Sawyer. Another, uh, Chicago friend, Jim Ortlieb is in it. Um, we rub shoulders, uh, when he was doing Billy Elliot here in the same theater. I don't know what was that? 10 years ago, eight time flies when you're having fun. So there's, uh, there's the Chicago world meeting the New York worlds and, uh, that's fun. Um, the pit is full of really talented players and, uh, some of whom I've worked with a lot and some of whom, this is my first show, working with them, even though I've known them for a long time. And then there's some people I've, I'm just meeting. And, uh, it's a pretty exciting blend in so far. We're getting along. At least I think we're getting along. Of course, I bribe them all by making brownies and cookies and stuff like that. So in a way they have to like, or they have to pretend to like me, you know, you never know everyone's such fine actors in this business, even in the pet, I'm mostly kidding.
Speaker 2 00:31:15 We're having a good time. The music department is really chill and talented and, uh, we're working very hard, um, changes pretty much nightly. Some of them small, some of them big, some of them we make on the fly, which is, uh, pretty hard to do. You have to kind of keep your cool and, uh, but at this point of a new production stuff can go wrong. Stuff can get changed. People forget to tell you, or, or someone forgets a line or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It is good old fashioned theater in that regard. Uh, you gotta keep your ears open and your head up and just, uh, be prepared. It's really fun in that regard. Uh, the score is really, uh, it's Elton John and there's no mistaking. It's Elton John it's, uh, pretty much, uh, rock based as you would expect. And, um, and yeah, I I'm, it's getting stuck in my head now, you know, I suppose all new shows the first time you hear them, you're like, oh, I don't know what, uh, uh, but this one now, as we flesh out the orchestrations and get into some of these grooves, they're really fun to play.
Speaker 2 00:32:44 And, uh, uh, aside from that, I, I have no idea Mrs. Lincoln, uh, they're fun to play audiences seem to like it. I've had some friends come see it. They didn't like it. Um, so I'm not sure, I think it's still very much a work in progress. There are three weeks of previews, uh, before officially opening to the press. And I'm pretty sure the plan was always to be working on this show with, you know, eyes on the prize of going to New York and, uh, they're gonna work on it. Um, this is how most shows used to go into New York. They would do out-of-town tryouts, but outta town tryouts in the age before the internet and cell phones was a lot more anonymous and a lot more were out in the sticks. And no one's gonna know if we do anything, um, back in the day and now there's no hiding from anything.
Speaker 2 00:33:47 You know, if something happens weird in the show here, it'll be all over Broadway world.com by tomorrow. So it's a little bit different in that regard, but it is still less pressure being out in Chicago, people knowing that you're working on it and, um, still honing in on precisely what kind of animal this show is. Uh, and as I've said, I'm delighted and pleased and honored to be a part of it. I hope that long ramble, there has been an interesting window into a little bit of, uh, the world of putting together a Broadway musical and, uh, the life of a pit musician. And now I better go practice my part because I just got a new chart for tomorrow's rehearsal now, whereas I can't play you any of the music for this yet to be debuted, uh, musical. It would be a shame not to give you at least some flavor of the Elton John, this of it. So I'll play you a few, uh, Elton John, like cord progressions on the way out just to, um, tease the taste buds, hope you'll check out other episodes of Chicago musician. I'm soon to release part two of the episode about home. Uh, this involves the selling of our family home in Brainerd, Minnesota, and part two will have my siblings and my parents, uh, with their thoughts about this process. Uh, and there's a whole bunch of other episodes of interesting musicians. So you should subscribe and become my third faithful listener, or I don't, I haven't comforted lately. Anyhow, for now. It's Shawn STLE and this Chicago za.
