Billy Elliot the Forum

Can anyone tell me where the orchestra is located in the Victoria Palace? Stage left? In the Live Musical, the Conductor was centered down the middle aisle. It appeared he was playing some kind of keyboard. Can someone please comment. Thank You.

The pit is under the apron of the stage. If you go down to the front of the stalls and look at the front of the stage, you can see the musicians' area through plexiglas screens. If you sit in row B on the house left side, you can actually watch the drummer throughout the show.

Re- keyboard... yes, the conductor not only conducts, but makes extensive contributions via keyboard to many parts of the show.

The orchestra pit is the full width of the stage, and quite deep. Being under the stage, they will be subjected to many hours of "enjoying" all of the dancing in ways we do not need to envy.

I know little of these things, but I am told that the orchestral forces called for are unusually large by "modern" general practice. The orchestra was considerably smaller for the Dutch production, leading to quite a different "feel" to the show. Still good. Just different.

Sheepdog wrote:Re- keyboard... yes, the conductor not only conducts, but makes extensive contributions via keyboard to many parts of the show.

The orchestra pit is the full width of the stage, and quite deep. Being under the stage, they will be subjected to many hours of "enjoying" all of the dancing in ways we do not need to envy.

I know little of these things, but I am told that the orchestral forces called for are unusually large by "modern" general practice. The orchestra was considerably smaller for the Dutch production, leading to quite a different "feel" to the show. Still good. Just different.

Although the 'Mother Ship', as we refer to the VPT, may have its own unique orchestra configuration, this link to MTI will provide the three orchestra configurations that have been scored (click 'Materials'):

http://www.mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000437

The current 'band' at the VPT consists of 9 named musicians / instruments, plus a 2nd Assistant Conductor (instrument unknown if playing). This is the smallest available orchestration I am aware of. The others are 13 and 17 pieces strong.

If the Dutch production was considerably smaller, as sheepdog informs us, what on earth could they cut out!

There is often a second keyboard which, as a synth, can replicate a number of orchestral instruments, from brass bands to accordions.

kport wrote:There is often a second keyboard which, as a synth, can replicate a number of orchestral instruments, from brass bands to accordions.

Deep into The Ground is not quite the same without the accordion. There is an alternative piano version which has been used every now and then and, during Alex Delamare's (former Mr. B) absence due to injury, I asked one of the MD's (no longer with the show) why they wouldn't use the accordion from the synth. He said that they had tried it but no matter how they packaged it the sound was awful and unusable. That was about 7/8 years ago and synth sounds have improved since then. Of course, nothing can really replace the real thing with someone actually playing it on stage.

Pat