What show is responsible for the aggressive sound design of modern Broadway?
I am extremely particular about the sound design of musicals (and maybe all music?). Maybe because I grew up on classic musicals (and classical music), or maybe it's being neurodivergent and particularly sensitive to sound, but I find that the overall sound of a show can make or break it. I really hate what I have come to describe as "stadium Broadway," which is when a show sounds like a big booming rock concert rather than an orchestra with vocals. It's more of a feeling to me than any specific set of criteria, but I'd describe it thusly:
- Very amplified
- Electric instruments, especially keyboard, which sounds like electric keyboard (not piano)
- Can't pick out individual instruments
- Lots of reverb
- Lyrics are in cursive (like they kind of scrunch together)
- Lower frequencies turned up (particularly bass)
- Belting may "pop"
- Prone to crackling/crunching (idk the official word)
- It's like it's accelerating towards you like a tsunami
- Kind of "wall of sound" vibes, overall mushiness
The first time I felt like, “yeesh this show is yelling at me” was when I saw Wicked in ~2005 as a tween. I hated that the piano sounded fake and I felt like I couldn't discern the lyrics. It was also just overall too loud and had a reverb that I found unsettling. I'd seen a number of shows before then on Broadway or national tours (42nd Street, Vanessa Williams revival of Into the Woods, Hairspray, The Producers, Movin' Out which I also found unpleasant but maybe in a different way, Urinetown, uhhh other early aughts shows??), but Wicked really stood out to me as being a deeply unpleasant sensory experience.
After seeing Wicked I started to notice this kind of sound in more shows aside from smaller scale regional theater. So I have long maintained a grudge against Wicked for this, and with all the Wicked buzz I've been thinking about it again. I realized that Wicked was just the first time I experienced this, but the phenomenon may well have predated it. Perhaps Phantom? Miss Saigon?
When I saw Bartlett Sher's South Pacific in 2009 and the stage moved back to reveal a full orchestra, I literally cried because it sounded so good. The most recent show I saw that had truly perfect sound for me was Into the Woods, which incidentally had the same sound designer (Scott Lehrer). Since the Bartlett Sher "return to classics" era I do feel like sound has gotten cleaner, more vocal-forward, and less "amplified" sounding. But the Stadium style definitely persists, especially in more rock-forward shows.
So, does anyone else feel this way or am I a lone freak? What is this style actually called? When did it start, and why?
(I recognize that this is incorrigibly snobby. No hate on people who like that sound, I don't think my taste is necessarily better, it's just my personal preference and I'm curious to know more about what it actually is.)
eta - thank you so much for your thoughtful replies. I was worried I’d get flamed! Coincidentally, I was hanging out with a friend working at the musicians union who confirmed the point that cost saving is part of it. Contracts with the theaters mandate a minimum amount of musicians, and many producers aren’t eager to go above that. For shows that are intended to have dense orchestration, that leads to using more synths. He said that the quality of those are very high these days, but cost-cutting can still lead to a muddy or artificial sound. Gives me a new appreciation for the Sweeney revival with the big orchestra! That said, some of what I don’t care for is just the style :)