From SWEENEY TODD to BANDSTAND to GREAT COMET, the Ins and Outs of Actor/Musicians

Music has been a part of theatre since the dawn of the genre; from the origins of the Greek chorus to opera to vaudeville and to musical theatre. However, in recent years the line between the music and the theatre on Broadway has become more blurred as, in unique and creative ways, we have seen performers serving as both actors and musicians.

A little more than a decade ago, Scottish director John Doyle brought to New York a conceit that he had been honing at the small Watermill Theatre in England, in which, he stripped down traditionally large musicals to their absolute bare bones. Leaving little in terms of set, alongside a small acting company and no orchestra at all.

The first show that Doyle did this with on Broadway was the 2005 revival of SWEENEY TODD. The 10-person cast, making up just the principals, with no ensemble, also played all of the music. As the demon barber, Michael Cerveris played guitar; as Mrs. Lovett Patti LuPone played the tuba, and they both played orchestra bells and percussion.

Doyle and orchestrator Sarah Travis specifically chose the instruments for each actor to play, based on their musical abilities, as well as how the instruments related to their characters.

"It was sort of the first time Broadway had really seen this stripped down, actor-musicianship," said Lauren Molina, who played Johanna in the revival. "The reasoning behind it was that they wanted to tell the story in the most stripped and exposed way, without any additional orchestra, so that, with each of the characters, the instrument they were playing was a reflection of their character, and an extension of their voice."

The young lovers, Johanna and Anthony (played by Benjamin Magnuson) both played the cello, because Molina said that it conveyed "a sense of sorrow and passion."

Conversely, the musical's villains all played horns, and Toby (played by Manoel Felciano) played the violin, which Molina said often had the saddest sound of all.

Molina, whose father plays the double bass in the Detroit Symphony, grew up playing cello, and had played the instrument in a handful of productions in college, but had never practiced or pursued it as much as she did theatre. However, with SWEENEY, Molina had to change how she approached her preparation.

She would arrive at the O'Neill Theatre early before every show to play scales as well as to prep for some of the score's more complicated sections.

"I had a tradition of playing through the really, really hard riffs. In 'Epiphany,' 'They all deserve to die. Buh-buhbuhbuhbuh, bu-buhbuhbuhbuh...' (laughing) It was so hard.

"So, when I went to see the recent SWEENEY TODD down at Barrow Street, it was so intimate for me. As certain musical moments approached I got anxiety, because I remembered it being a really challenging moment."

The emotional resonance that having actors playing a show's music can create is not reserved to the stripped down interpretations that Doyle made his name on. In the current Broadway production of BANDSTAND, the story centers around a post-World War II band made up of military veterans.

While the show does have a traditional orchestra, all of the actors playing the band members, do their own playing, which allows the characters a level of expression that they wouldn't have any other way.

"BANDSTAND is a story about a group of men who don't talk about their feelings," said Corey Cott, who plays Donny Novitski, the band's leader. "They don't speak about their war experiences. Nobody did at the time. So... their music allows them to express something they are feeling in another way."

Cott said that the power that comes from having the actors playing instruments on stage transcends just the show's specific plot.

"Music always elevates the emotion that is being conveyed," he said. "Imagine STAR WARS without John Williams, or Pixar without Michael Giacchino. Music enhances emotion in ways that are hard to describe. The same thing happens with these guys. It gives them a voice where they don't feel like they have one. It's this method of expression that ultimately leads them to use it as a powerful tool to cope and heal, rather than to escape."

Similar to Molina, Cott, who plays the piano in the show, had to take his preparation to another level to be ready to for BANDSTAND.

"I've never worked so hard at something before," he said. "The time and thought I put into playing the piano was very hard, but very rewarding at the same time. I know I am a better artist because of it. I know now that I have a massive capacity to work hard at something I care about."

One of Cott's co-stars, Joe Carroll, said that he was able to discover who his character, Johnny Simpson, was because of the inclusion of playing an instrument.

"Music is in their DNA," Carroll said of the band members. "So for me, the drums were the way into the character. Growing up it was all drums and rock 'n' roll all the time, so it wasn't a hard thing to unlock. I practiced percussion all the time leading up to this process. When we did the first reading two years ago, I couldn't play 'Welcome Home.' It was too fast and too difficult. I locked myself in a room at Michiko studios and practiced until I got it right. It was incredibly rewarding. Music is like that."

While the musicians in BANDSTAND found that the act of playing brings them together, it can be quite a different experience for the roving musicians of NATASHA, PIERE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812. In addition to a traditional orchestra, there are numerous musicians traveling throughout the Imperial Theatre to bring a bit of their Moscovian music to the masses.

For accordion player Mary Spencer Knapp, being up in the balcony brings a certain set of logistical challenges to her performance.

"The funny thing is, I don't actually hear the other roving musicians, because we're spread out all over the theatre," she said. "I'm kind of listening more to what's in my immediate vicinity. So in some ways, I feel a little cut off from the other musicians in the show. I did initially wear an in-ear, but that was just giving me a pit musician mix, but I found that it was too disorienting, and I prefer to hear myself in the space and watch the conductor and make sure I was staying on the pulse."

Knapp, who is new to the GREAT COMET family having joined the production for the Broadway run, is a trained musician who has played the accordion for years, so the music is the least stressful part of her performance, but the unexpected level of physicality that's required for her role has taken a toll on her at times.

"For me, the weight of the accordion is 'a thing,'" she said. "I run up and down so many stairs; I think I'm the only person in the ensemble that runs across the mezzanine three times, and I play an accordion. So, you know, I've had some minor injuries, like straining muscles and stuff.

"It's one of those things, when we started blocking, I was like 'Oh yea, I can do deep squats with my accordion,' not thinking that I'm going to have to do that eight times a week for six-plus months. So, it's all a little bit of a learning curve with all of the body stuff. I'm not a trained dancer, so I've had to learn how to do proper warmups."

The physicality that GREAT COMET requires of its musicians is a source of pride for many in the show, including Sumayya Ali, who plays the violin. Much like Molina with the cello, Ali played the violin as a child, but when she got to college, she switched her focus to voice. Having been in the revivals of RAGTIME and THE GERSHWINS' PORGY AND BESS, Broadway was not foreign to her, but much of what she was asked to do, was.

"When you come from a musician background," she said, "you know a lot about the technique of playing a stringed instrument, or a clarinet, where you have to sit this way, you have to have all of these restrictions. We're just taught, this is how things have to be done."

Ali, who joined the GREAT COMET team for its run in Cambridge, Massachusetts at The American Repertory Theatre, said at first, choreographer Sam Pinkleton had the roving musicians "doing a simple step-touch in the corner during like 'Balaga.'"

However, as the plans for the show evolved, the musicians were asked to do more and more. They had an experimental session with music director Or Matias to see what they could and couldn't physically do while playing.

"We had to come together, like, 'Is this going to be dangerous?' We had to come to a place of 'Yes,' and, 'We're gonna step out here together.' I don't think anyone's ever done, to this extent of dancing, that we're doing while playing before."

That experiment of pushing their bodies and breaking down the conventions of their individual instruments led to what Ali believes is a special relationship.

"We all kind of went through some sort of some weird, experimental musician bootcamp for dancers," she said. "So, we all went through this rite of passage together. It kind of made us some kind of hybrid, I think. And it's a very, very special bond, and we're all very proud of it."

Whether the music allows actors get in touch with the characters emotions, or or allows the characters an additional avenue to communicate their feelings, the trend of actors playing there own instrument has been a revelatory one in many Broadway shows.

---

What are your favorite examples of Broadway actors also playing instruments? Let me know on Twitter @BWWMatt. You can listen to me on BroadwayRadio or on BroadwayWorld's pop culture podcast Some Like it Pop.