hey guys, just wondering if you guys could just list a bunch of good musicals with a small orchestra pit. are there any sondheim ones like the size of little night music? but if you can list as many as possible that would be great. thanks in advance!
Lol, guh . I think it shows the sorry state of Broadway if people think that NIGHT MUSIC typically has a small orchestra (based from the revival's orchestrations, I assume).
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
If we're going by the size of Night Music's orchestration, then that's 25 -- I really wish that was considered small!! (Though it is compared to the original Carousel - 45)
Assassins, Merrily, and Company, have fairly small orchestrations for Broadway standards (between 10 and 20). Next To Normal, Urinetown, Spring Awakening, Book of Mormon, Last 5 Years, and 13 all have smaller bands. But most anything that's considered an "older" show (thru the early 1980s) will have at least 20-30 in the orchestration because that's what the theatres required at the time. Someone correct me if wrong.
If you really want small, [Title of Show] and I Sing! are piano only.
And unfortunately in this day and age you can get even smaller - put on a MTI Jr show that comes with an accompaniment CD filled with backing tracks. No orchestra needed.
Little Shop of Horrors You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown Godspell Snoopy The Me Nobody Knows
Remember: Small orchestra usually means small cast, too.
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