Orchestrations

RICHARD NELSON, LIGHTING Traditionally, when people sing songs in musicals, very strange things tend to happen. I personally consider it out of place for the visuals in almost any show to distract people from the continuity of the action, particularly in work like this which follows such a strong narrative line. I've gone to some length to make songs look not very much different than the scenes. The most striking thing about walking in the woods, and what James and I wanted very much to capture, is the sense of incredibly dramatic, long light on a very high angle, smashing through the trees and breaking into the forest so that there are continually changing patterns that people walk through. The lights are designed in a very directional manner so that we could use a strong sense of light and shadow to give this effect, but I don't think we have nearly succeeded to the extent I would have wished. If you set up imbalances in lighting, people are not so much aware, as they are struck by the quality of it. My feeling was that this quality should get stranger and more disquieting as the show progressed and to a certain extent we succeeded in finding this movement. JONATHAN TUNICK, ORCHESTRATIONS This show is so unusually non-electronic that it is revolutionary. For the first time I can think of in recent history, the audience is hearing human as opposed to electronic energy on a Broadway stage. Traditionally, in a Broadway musical we try for the most imposing sound possible. Formerly this was done with very large brass sections and lots of drums; in more recent times by a great deal of electronic sound. The entire score for Woods was thought of structurally as one big song. The melodic material consists of fragmentary, rhythmic and very catchy phrases that weave in and out. I think this confuses some people. They hear what appear to be independent melodic fragments weaving in and out, when in reality they are all part of the development of a much larger musical composition. Steve is quite accurate in calling these phrases "ditties," and the term isn't meant derogatorily. A good symphonic theme is actually a ditty: a short, rhythmic phrase which is repeated and developed, and sequenced into a larger more complex structure. Any theme in a Beethoven symphony is a ditty. This is a far more sophisticated technique than is usually used in popular songwriting, and puts the material in league with serious composers. My orchestral score for this show is, strictly speaking, not an orchestra at all, but a chamber ensemble. There are fifteen players, and unlike an orchestra in which groups of musicians play the same part in unison, every part is a solo part; the musicians are able to be heard as individual artists 62 on their own. The instrumental writing is unusually subtle for a Broadway musical, calling on fairly delicate resources of solo strings and woodwinds, and unusual combinations of small groups of instruments. I think that most people's ears have been numbed to a point where they can no longer appreciate plain old music played on plain old instruments. Steve and I wanted Woods to be a reminder of what it can be like. LAR LUBOVITCH, MUSICAL STAGING It took me some time to fully understand the process I was involved in, and to realize that my job was to bring to life a vision that was not my own. With the exception of the number between the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, and the Act II finale, Jim Lapine and Stephen Sondheim specifically did not want any dance in the show. They wanted me to take the staging that had already been done in San Diego, and to bring more movement to it. Jim and I worked very closely to find movement ideas for each of the characters using Arthur Rackham's silhouettes as a primary source. This was a way of stylizing the characters' movements within the specific context of fairy tale illustration. This technique was used most overtly in the opening act tableaux and again in the Act I finale...