Much Ado About Nothing
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009People ask me all the time, “What has been your favorite work in the theater?” Actually, I think that’s a pretty easy call. Working on a Broadway show is a very hard road. It’s an extremely collaborative art form, probably one of the most collaborative because so many people have to come together to make it right.
Much Ado About Nothing
Also they say that ultimately any Broadway show rides on its book, its story, its script. Without a good book, the show is usually doomed for failure except in a few exceptional cases.
I worked on one show that had a great book and a great writer at the heart of it. His name was William Shakespeare.
I spent 5 years working as composer-in-residence at the NY Shakespeare Festival under Joseph Papp, who was a great producer — smart, savvy and dedicated to the theater. I did a number of the Bard’s works during that time, but the real winner was “Much Ado About Nothing”, which opened in the summer of 1976 in Central Park. It was set brilliantly by director, A.J. Antoon, in 1904 during the time of the St. Louis World’s Fair.
I wrote an hours’ worth of music, underscoring the scenes and setting Shakespeare’s lyrics to music. I even wrote a 20 minute pre-show warm-up concert played by an 8 piece oom pah band we named Private Papirofsky’s (Joe Papp’s original name) Genuine Nickel-plated Portable Musical Brass Band. They played in a park gazebo setting and totally set the scene and period for the show.
