GUILD STATEMENTS - The Broadway Musical
The Dramatists Guild of America was founded to protect the artistic integrity of the works created by America’s playwrights, composers, and lyricists. In the case of composers writing for the Broadway stage, that artistic integrity can only be protected when the music they write is played by live musicians.
At issue in the current dispute is the number of musicians who will play that music.
Composers want audiences to hear the richness and complexity of their music. Accordingly, while they are not concerned they will be coerced into having their music played by too many musicians, they are deeply concerned they will be coerced into having their music played by too few.
We, the members of the Dramatists Guild, have something to say about Broadway musicals. We write them. We want them to re-open, soon, with enough live musicians in the pit to make them sound, and sing, and live, the way we wrote them. Broadway audiences deserve more than pared-down, bare-bones, minimalist mini-orchestras which are electronically “enhanced.”
These are troubled times – for the world, for the nation, for our beleaguered city. A prolonged Broadway blackout would be tragic. We urge both sides of the negotiating table to resolve this dispute—and quickly.
The Broadway Musical is a living national treasure. Keep it alive.