Posted by Hmmmm..... on July 08, 2002 at 10:21:30:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Rehearsal Horror Stories posted by js on July 07, 2002 at 00:33:47:
I don't think anybody is being too hard on Joe. He's shown that he can take care of himself. However, in his original post, he made some remarks that I find questionable. I agree with Broadway Musician that having a reputation for being a great sight-reader has nothing to do with Joe's actual complaint. You sight-read only once. Also, from my experience with many hundreds of performances both on Broadway and on the road, I agree with BM in that road books are not more difficult than NYC books...just different. Also, he claims that the conductor made "a nasty NYC-ish smartass remark" to him, implying (in my interpretation of his post) that he receives some sort of attitude from New Yorkers in general. Then he backpedaled to say he had only had problems with this one particular conductor. Maybe he could make up HIS mind about that...
If I ran into a situation like this when playing a show, I would confront the conductor in the most professional manner (let him be an ass if he wants, but there's no need to be an ass back at him) and say, "show me exactly where you want me to play, then have your librarian cut and paste this into one book that I'll be more than happy to play." Joe, did you actually ask the asst. conductor/librarian to fix the book? I've been a librarian on the road, and generally was paid a couple of hundred dollars extra every week to set the books out, and pick them up when we left. I know that if a local musician had come to me with a similar problem, then I would have been happy to spend a couple of hours at Kinko's to fix up a book that could be easily played from. From the other side of the fence, if I was playing such a book, and the librarian and conductor were unconcerned that it was difficult to play from, then I would take the time away from beating dents out of sousaphones (you've made it clear that you prefer this sort of work over fine custom jobs) to fix the book, then present the Kinko's receipt to the company manager. I'm sure he would have been happy to reimburse you. Then you would have the satisfaction that the other poor shmoes later in the tour wouldn't have to suffer like you did.
As for all the other people jumping to Joe's defense, why not let Joe defend himself? Both he and B'way Musician made good points in their posts. I thought Joe's remarks were pretty abrasive, however. Maybe he'd do well in "Smart-ass NYC."
Another "anonymous and happy to remain so as long as Sean allows it" Broadway Musician