What are the differences between designing sound for a play and a musical?
Much has been made of that, but often it’s just a matter of scale. One good example is the play I was just talking about, Hollywood Arms, which is now at the Court Theater. It’s a sizeable play. There are lots of little sound effects in it. We have eight or ten speakers on stage for various localized effects, and a full sound system for voice reinforcement. So we have proscenium coverage for three levels, there’s a center cluster, there are fill speakers for under boxes and behind boxes, along with underbalcony speakers for two levels, and then left and right surround zones for three levels. Now, that’s all for a play! But it could easily be the system for a light musical, and with some additional subs, just about any musical. So I think overall the approach is pretty much the same as far as the basics. But it is true that for a musical you have the added dimensions of thinking about orchestra pits, expanded mixing capabilities, RF racks and monitoring—things that are essentially based
