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Playing in the Pits

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play in the orchestra pit for a West End musical?

Christopher Fish, the cellist who plays in Oliver, has been playing in West End shows for nine years. He's played in 6 shows back to back. You'll find his name on the CDs of the cast recordings of My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, The Witches of Eastwick and, of course, Oliver.

When I got in touch with Chris to ask if I could interview him for littlecellist.com he invited me to sit in the pit for the matinee performance - and then texted me again to tell me to wear all black! You can read more about what it was like to be in the pit at the end of the interview. But first, here are the questions that Chris answered especially for littlecellist.com:

What is it like to play in the pit? Is it cramped?
It depends from show to show. This is a large band for a West End show and it's a very long thin pit. Most pits run the length of the stage but some are quite deep. I did Mary Poppins at Prince Edward Theatre and that pit extends underneath the stage a little bit so it's wider. This pit's long and narrow which means the band is stretched out and makes it awkward getting in and out as well.

There are a lot of children in the cast and when we start the show, they all emerge onto the stage from inside the pit which means that we've lost quite a lot of space. They queue up on two iron staircases inside the pit which then get rotated back into the wall. So yes, it is cramped. I've done two shows in this theatre before this one - My Fair Lady and previously to that, The Witches of Eastwick. My Fair Lady was a similar sized band but we didn't have to accommodate the children so there was more space.

Playing in the pit can be a little bit claustrophobic and it has a certain monotony about it as well but it's quite nice because we're anonymous. Not having the audience looking directly at you means it's a bit more relaxed. We try not to misbehave too much!

Is it hot?
It depends. In the summer, it can get very hot but it's not unbearable. We've all got fans down there as well. They make us quite comfortable! They're having air conditioning put in but I don't think until next year.

It looks as though it's too dark to read the music?
We have lit music stands and we also have monitors to see the conductor. The conductor has to be raised up so the actors can see him and he can see them. There's a camera on him and on all of our stands we have a tiny television.

Little cellists will be really interested in that! That sounds much easier!
I'd never done it before and it's actually harder because you are so used to having a direct visual contact with a conductor. The monitors are very small and they're black and white. It takes some getting used to - looking just above your music at this tiny image - but it makes it easier in the long run. The conductor can see the band but he's got a restricted sightline. The horn players are at his far right and the percussion is extreme left and they are screened off to help block the noise. He can crouch down and glare at us and he often does!

The conductor is entirely responsible for tying us up with the actors. There's something unique in music for shows called 'round and round bars'. There will be a bar of music which is repeated as many times as is required for someone to finish speaking their line. Different actors might say something slower or faster, or sometimes the scenery doesn't come in correctly, so they have to have these devices where the music keeps going and the audience thinks the whole thing is synchronized perfectly.

Do things ever go wrong?
If something does go wrong, it's usually the scenery. The sets in these shows are enormous and incredibly complicated - there are whole buildings that move in and out and staircases that go up and down. It's all automated - there are banks of computers. I think we had a moment where two pieces of scenery collided and then they stop the show, they make an announcement and they fix it very quickly and they carry on.

If there's an understudy does it make it difficult for the orchestra?
Not necessarily because the understudy's job is to mirror what's being done. In this show, the understudy for Nancy sings two of the numbers in a different key so we have to be aware when she's on so that we replace the music and don't come blundering in in the wrong key!

You said it was a big band for a show but it's much smaller than an orchestra?
Yes, there are about 20 players which is a big band for a show. Some of the players are doubling. The violinist, for example, is also playing the mandolin. The trombonist also plays the euphonium and tuba. That's called a trebling chair because they're playing three instruments. For some of those guys, it's quite specialist. I remember when we did My Fair Lady, there was a very odd trebling chair which was bassoon, bass clarinet and baritone saxophone. It was an odd combination because usually a bassoonist doesn't play bass clarinet, so there were only three people in the country who could do the chair. Apparently, it's a common American trebling chair but not here.

You're just playing the cello. That's because the cello is the most important!
Absolutely!

So when composers are writing for a show, they must have to take account of what's feasible?
They have to take note of how big the pit is. I think the musical of Oliver was a first film so they had a symphony orchestra. (A symphony orchestra can have 100 players.) For Mary Poppins, there were originally going to be no string players at all but at the 'try out' the orchestrator decided that there was a harp there that he didn't really need to use so he wrote a solo cello part to accommodate all the melodies.

Is it usual to have only one cello in a show?
There are shows with more than one cello. Phantom of the Opera and The Witches of Eastwick both had two cellos but it's increasingly rare with synthesizers because the string sound can be padded out. A synthesizer (keyboard) will be making string type sounds in the background which gives the illusion of a bigger string section.

Do you stay with the show for the whole run?
We don't have to - it's a permanent contract but I can give them two weeks' notice and likewise they can give me two weeks' notice. Sometimes people will do a show for a couple of years and then move on, do a new one. But essentially the jobs are ours for as long as we want them.

Is it difficult to play the same thing every night?
That's the question that everyone asks most. I personally don't find it is. We are given a great deal of time off if we need it because I think they know they wouldn't get musicians of this standard who would just do this eight times a week.

So you have an understudy cellist?
I have six at the moment.

Six!

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