It started at Barrington, yes, but unlike a lot of other transfers, the production values were probably much upgraded for Broadway. I think the Broadway cast was a little bit larger. Most of all, the number of players in the orchestra was greatly increased to, if memory serves, 28, although later in the run there were reductions. It also had what I think was the most open pit I have ever seen on Broadway, like a pit from the 1950s and earlier. It sounded great.
One of the odd things about the Broadway transfer of the Delacorte production was that new orchestrations were created for the Delacorte, with strings pretty much eliminated because (at least so I gather) string instruments can't stay in tune very long that close to the water. I had hoped that for Broadway they would go back to the original orchestrations, but for some reason they stuck with the Delacorte version, which sounded pretty bad in places. Strings were really missed. |
