For those of you that may or may not know (doesn’t matter), THE MIGHTY TIN PAN recently rocked the Wonderneath Show at the House of Yes…
A swirling good time of flying women, giant human eating plants, silk tentacles spewing scantly clad girls overhead, and Baby Hands smiling profoundly at learning of the mystical dance move known simply as the “Box Step”.
Jesse & I met with the cast early in the run and started working with the girls to pick the correct tunes and reshape them to fit the show. It was really fantastic that the Lady Circus gravitated to mostly original Tin Pan songs and it was great to write new lyrics to Jesse’s melodies to allow them to tell the narrative of our heroine.
For my part, I was busy catching transitions, mood, story arc, & choreography to begin working on underscoring ideas and musical direction for the dance numbers. I always love working in the theater and get a kick out of the split second musical choices that drive the action on stage home and really pride myself on creating the right sounds to convey the scene’s intent without drawing attention to the musicians*.
It was great to use much of our current repertory but I hope that the next time we score a show it allows for more original parts & arrangements. I feel that between Jesse’s songwriting chops & my theatrical scoring we could really give Andrew Lloyd Webber a run for his money!
I was super tickled with a particular section of the show I call “Tin Pan in Turkey”:
While 3 lovely ladies danced with fist-fulls of fire, Jesse was holding down the proverbial fort with a serious djembe & tambourine-snare-esque groove while I joined in with some Whirling Dervish strumming upon my trusty ol’ National guitar. I told
Stefan to get busy serenading the spitting cobras that dance in his mind by playing some SERIOUS Cor Anglais (The English Horn or “Oboe Gordo”).
But the most miraculous and unexpected part of this new little step into the soundworld of the Tin Pan was the UNABASHED, UNWARRANTED, & TOTALLY KILLING Double Bass soloing of one Peter “Baby Hands” Maness…
Yes, you heard right: The Benevolent Dictator actually requested, approved, & outright enjoyed a Five minute arco bass extravaganza!!!
With both a bass solo & Saints Super Bowl victory happening so close to each other I can hear legions of “Left Behind” readers running to get on the mythical “Escalator to Heaven”…
All in all a great experience & one I hope Tin Pan gets to repeat soon & with much regularity!
Here are some fun pics & a short review from Atlantic Records Art Director, Alex Kirzhner:
And let it be known that I totally rocked the French Horn every night of the run!
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*For more on this topic see: “PSYCHO Shower Scene” score by Bernard Herrmann.
Greetings from Scotland. 🙂