 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2003-02-15 04:20
Here's the latest on the Broadway negociations:
"WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE LOCAL 802 - NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE
Where do things stand in the negotiations?
The League cancelled scheduled negotiating dates in January. Talks finally began on February 4th and so far two full sessions have taken place. Negotiating dates are scheduled through the month of February. The contract expires on March 2, 2003.
Now that talks have begun, are there at least good faith efforts to find a settlement?
Local 802 continues to hear about stepped up efforts across the country to recruit scabs to run virtual orchestras on Broadway after March 2. In a NY Post story on the negotiations on Friday, February 7th, an unnamed "theatre executive" threatened, "we'll lock them all out." The union has also learned that a special $.10 per ticket dues assessment that will run through the beginning of next year has been imposed on League members for the fight against Local 802.
Only days before the first negotiating session, the League took the unprecedented step of filing a "Unit Clarification Petition" with the National Labor Relations Board, seeking to exclude music copyists from the bargaining unit. This action would deprive music copyists of health insurance and pension benefits. These actions do not suggest good faith efforts to reach a settlement.
The Producers say they want "the artists to decide" musical issues. What's wrong with that?
In a full-page ad placed in the New York Times last Friday, the League said they want the "artists to decide" on orchestra sizes. Unfortunately, that is not true. If it were, a new contract could be finalized tomorrow. Nearly all the "artists" they speak of - composers, orchestrators, arrangers, music directors and conductors - are members of Local 802 and are covered by the
Local 802 contract. These artists tell us over and over again, that without orchestra minimums, they would be forced to use fewer musicians than needed.
Jonathan Tunick, the orchestrator for many of Stephen Sondheim's musicals,told the New York Times, "We are concerned that some producers will want to decimate or even eliminate the orchestra from the theatre." He added, "We're trying to keep a tradition alive, a tradition of music played by people."
The producers are demanding the removal of the very mechanism in the current contract that allows artists like Sondheim and Tunick to have some say over orchestra sizes.
Don't the Producers already have the option of using smaller orchestras when they are needed?
YES! It's called the "Special Situations" clause in the Musicians' union contract and it allows for smaller orchestras whenever required by the musical needs of a show. Over the last 10 years, the Producers asked for smaller orchestras for 18 shows and either dropped their request or got the smaller orchestra in 15 of the 18 cases. Shows like Smokey Joe’s Cafe, High Society, Footloose, Swing, Aida and Mamma Mia were all done with smaller
orchestras. If Producers are not serious about allowing artists to make artistic decisions, what is the real issue?
In a word - Profit! We all know that the business of Broadway is making money. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it cannot be the only thing guiding decisions about cast, crew or orchestra sizes. Broadway's success depends upon quality. The degradation of that quality would hurt all of us who work in the theatre. The Producers and Theater owners have made extraordinary profits on Broadway over the last decade. Their effort to take
away the very limited artistic discretion currently enjoyed by composers, orchestrators, arrangers, and music directors, to generate an even higher rate of profit are unconscionable - and they threaten the continued viability of musical theatre, an important source of employment for all of us who work on Broadway.
Written petition drive
We've had a great response to our online petition, but not everyone goes online. Some musicians have put hardcopy petitions (see attachment below) up in their buildings and the response to those has also been tremendous. We'd like to encourage those of you in apartments to do this. One person ended up with a bunch of her neighbors gathering on their way in and out and expressing their incredulity - you might have some good interaction that way. If there is a neighborhood business you frequent, do the same (with
permission , of course). Print out some copies of the petition and post them. Best way would be on a clipboard with a pen attached. The more sheets you have, the less often you'll have to check and retrieve full ones. (Good if it's in a store or someplace you don't go every day.) . How about spouse's place of business?, etc. If you're comfortable putting your phone# - "IF FULL, CALL ###-####" , that might be a good idea. Otherwise check up on them from time to time. This is a very easy way to pitch in. Thanks!
----in your apartment building
----in neighborhood stores
----at your spouse's place of work
----at the school/university where you teach
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2003-02-15 14:34
Hi Keil:
Thanks for your interest. Here's a link to the site:
http://www.savelivebroadway.com/
JJM
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-02-15 18:43
With all due respect to all concerned, being from NY and having grown up around the arts, I've been keeping close track of what's going on with the Broadway music issue, and I'm really appalled at the fact that theatre owners and operators would take live music off Broadway, for whatever reason, if allowed to do so.
If they can do it on Broadway, they can do it everywhere else in the world. More so, if this is allowed to happen in NY, it will not just allow it to happen everywhere else in the world, but to happen with righteous impunity.
However, I've been reading all this business about "keeping a tradition alive." That's a losing argument. We, Americans, as a group, couldn't give a lesser hoot about "tradition," and there is no way that tradition is going to win over profits in this country. If this is the tack the union boys are taking, I see Broadway with canned music in the very near future.
The issue is that live music is the most suitable media for live performance and that people who attend the theatre expect to get their "money's worth" of that live music. Otherwise, why not just go to (or rent) a movie instead? It’s certainly much cheaper and it is, after all, canned entertainment.
There are quite a few of the classics and plays being made into movies now-days. Not as many as in the hey-days of the great "musicals" somewhere about the middle of the last century, but that can change and increase quickly enough, should Broadway find itself unable to deliver what the public expects for the prices they are charged.
Live music is part of what people pay the big bucks for when it comes to Broadway. That is, those who know the difference, and those who don’t know the difference often find out while attending their first live performance.
I have seen many shows on Broadway over the years; I’ve actually gone back to NY just to see a particular show. I’ve also seen some of the movies made of some of them at a later date, and there’s been little to compare. That’s not to say that all the movies were bad. The movies can certainly be good, but never in the same way as the live show, and never as rewarding to the senses.
This is like buying a bag of potato chips. Today you pay $0.75 for 2 oz. of potato chips. Tomorrow you pay $0.75 for 1.5 oz. of potato chips. I would rather pay a few cents more and get what I'm used to getting, what I expect to get, rather than be "cheated" out of 25% of it for the same amount of money.
(Oops, potato chips! I'm afraid I have wandered too far a-field again with an analogy. Please accept my most humble apologies.)
Still, Broadway is the same as those potato chips. I would rather pay $5.00 or $10.00 more per ticket to see a live performance with live music, than to get cheaper tickets and see a live performance with canned music. The prices are going to go up anyway, regardless of whether there is live music or not, because the people who run these things are not going to be satisfied until their profit margin is at the maximum that “traffic will allow!”
Composers have always dictated the number of musicians and the type of instruments to be used in what they write. So what else is new? This is, strictly an issue of profit vs. artistic value, and if profits win over artistic value in this case, then it’s a cinch that much the same will happen world wide.
And for anyone who might not know it yet, live music makes a humongous, noticeable difference in a live performance.
Peter
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Author: William
Date: 2003-02-16 16:23
It is unfortunate that most of the general public does not recognize (or value) quality outside of their own expertise. However, most all can equate quantity as a measure of the value of their dollar. More chips in the bigger bag for less pennies--hey, I'll buy that every time. No thought given to nutrition. I'm afraid that Peter has a valid point and his prediction for the future of live musical theater may be accurate--as it has already been much of Vegas, IceCapades, Holiday on Ice Shows, and the traveling circuses (which all now use pre-recorded music). And the audiences that attend these shows do not recognize (or probably even care) that the music is not "live." I played a pre-show Zor Shrine Concert Band concert last night for our local Shrine Circus and got to see the circus show "for free." I must admit that, as a spectator, I was impressed how well the specially arranged pre-recorded music was coordinated with the various performers, human and animal. It was well done and entertaining, but not "live." But unfortunately, I'll be that not one of the ticket buyers of last night's show even gave it a second thought--or would have even cared.
There is also the argument (for the other side) that sometimes, expecially in small communities with less talented resources, live music is not best--and pre-recorded music makes the traveling show better, or at least, more consistant between cities. It is "no contest" between the pit orchestra of a local production of "Annie" (for example) and that of the Broadway original. The quality of the local "union" musician may also be a contributing factor in the demiss of "live" music, wheither we like it or not.
The future of live music on Broadway--and elsewhere--may be going the same way as the sliderule and typewriter of my "yesteryear" college days--times, and technology change, wheither we want them to or not. But for the sake of the future of the musical arts, it would still be well worth it for every one of us to sign the Petition, circulate it among our co-workers and friends and make a "fight out of it."
(I'll be playing book one--for pay--for a production of Annie" this afternoon in Janesville, WI. Live music still alive here!!!)
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-02-16 21:46
Have a good show, Wm, break a reed! I've played a couple of the parts also. The soprano/alto sax part is a HOOT !. Don
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2003-02-17 10:07
The stunning Circus de Soliel, which recently toured here, as far As I recal, had a live band. A memorable feature of this circus was the soprano sax player who walked around the audience playing - LIVE!
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2003-02-17 14:36
Gordon:
Yes, "Cirque de Soliel" does use a live band. When they were here in NYC many of us were called to play with that fabulous troupe!
The soprano sax player travels with them, and is part of the company. But, as with any good group, they insist on live music wherever they go. As a matter of fact, when "Riverdance" was here in NYC last season, they held auditions for extra players, and had quite a large band, which was seen and heard on stage!
At "Oklahoma!", we are 24 musicians that are seen and heard on stage every night. The production felt it was essential that the orchestra be seen on stage, so the audience would know, and appreciate, a live musical production.
JJM
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Author: DougR
Date: 2003-02-18 02:56
Yeah, live bands onstage in Broadway musicals drive me nuts, because I'm usually so busy watching the reed section, I miss a lot of what's going on onstage. But I wish it was done more often; I think exposure to live, first-class musicians educates audiences, and boy do we all need THAT to happen.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-02-18 03:53
DougR wrote:
>
> Yeah, live bands onstage in Broadway musicals drive me
> nuts, because I'm usually so busy watching the reed section, I
> miss a lot of what's going on onstage.
In John's case (Oklahoma) the orchestra is behind a scrim so they're not distracting, but they are highlighted once so everyone knows it's a live orchestra.
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