I loved City Center Encores’ The Cradle Will Rock last week and want to write about it. The material still blazes and it was a cast of flame-fanners!
But first I do have to say that once again I realized how much I loathe the amplification that is now ubiquitous in Broadway and Broadway-scale productions.
It robs us of being able to experience what was once one of the most exciting things about live theater: the sound of a theatrically-projected singing or speaking voice. We are no longer getting a full or accurate representation of these resonances.
And it does strike me as a form of cheating on the part of the performers. In the old days, performers learned to project their voices to the last row of the second balcony without straining. And they cultivated distinct, expressive vocal timbre.
Today at the theater we contend with an inevitable overlay of reverb and echo. (Can’t the technology here at least be improved?)
I mean, if the opera singers can be heard above a Strauss or Wagner orchestration—surely musical comedy singers could be heard above a relatively puny Broadway pit band. And yes, eight shows a week is rough, but so it was back in the day. (Didn’t some musical comedy stars forego matinees for that reason?)