Audio mediation technology and liveness in modern musical theatre performance

Abstract

The widespread use of audio technology in musical theatre – and, in particular, how the use of this audio technology interfaces with the presence of live musicians – complicates the sonic notion of liveness in the theatrical setting. This article will delve into the more complex details of what we call liveness in mainstream musical theatre, with special attention paid to live musicians in this highly mediated environment. The first half of the article explores the roots of contemporary audio technology norms for musical theatre and argues that they have developed in part to maximize the sonic similarity of the live performance to its mediatized forms (primarily cast recordings). The second section explores the impact of audio mediation norms on pit musicians and features comments drawn from interviews with a number of Broadway musicians. The use of audio technology in contemporary musical theatre performance, while perhaps making it easier to align mediatized and live performance forms for audience consumption, results in complex notions of quasi-liveness with respect to the live musicians.