Musicals with Actors doubling as Musicians

I recently read an article on playbill.com that was promoting a new production of Chess the Musical with U.K. actors who double as the orchestra while on stage. For all you musical theatre people you may remember this as a recent trend a few years back with productions such as the Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris cast of Sweeney Todd in 2006 or the Raul Esparza cast of Company, also in 2006. It should be noted that both productions were directed by John Doyle. While this style of directing seems to be a passion of his, also with Merrily We Roll Along at the Watermill Theatre, the questions remain... Is this a new trend? What do we as an audience think of this? What do we as actors or musicians think of this?

It could be thought of as simply one man's vision that was followed through to success. I think it opens the doors to many possibilities but it is still a fine fine line. With the Sweeney Todd  production the issue of union membership arose. Since the actors would now be playing instruments on stage they "officially" need to be in the American Federation of Musicians Union. A deal was worked out and all was fine. But by actors playing musicians, are musicians going to be out of work if this trend ever picks up? I feel the answer is no; simply because not all actors can play an instrument. So I think all my pit friends will do just fine.

Are we as an industry always looking for a new way to make money? Yes. Are we as an industry always looking for new ways to collaborate artistically to make an original concept work? Unfortunately No. I feel that is why I am so attached to this concept because it merges two fields that have always worked in conjunction as one. Call me an optimist but I think art is created with joining forces, so my hope is that we can look to the future to keep trying new things like this and see where it leads us. I tip my metaphorical hat John Doyle.

I will say that upon reading this article on Playbill I was actually excited but admittedly I am a bit bias. Two years ago I played the role of Walter in Chess the Musical in my senior year at Jacksonville University. It was one of the best experiences of my life as an actor and I feel it highly had to do with a conceptional direction style of Rob Tudor as well as the music of Benny, Bjorn and Tim. It got me to thinking, to see the passion of these melodies played by the actors combined with the lyrics and emotions of the characters, it would be a dream for me to attend the performance. Unfortunately I don't feel I will make it to Toronto or the Princess of Wales Theatre any time soon.