West Side Story piano reduction: rehearsal pianist or learn it yourself?
The short answer is: yes to both.
Having gone back and forth over that decision for five months, and having ended up doing both, I can now see that — assuming you have reasonable keyboard skills – it’s the only way.
Basically, we didn’t have budget to pay anyone, and this is firmly the most preposterous thing about our production. Of all the shows, of all the scores, West Side Story is the one where you most need a rehearsal pianist.
But we didn’t have one, so we got by with me hamfistedly accompanying all the songs.
Without much time to practice anything, I don’t quite know what I thought we’d do when it got to having to run all the dances etc without the CD. And as you approach the show, it just doesn’t wash doing all the dances with recorded playing. You need live accompaniment as much as possible.
Around the same time I started to learn it, we had the good fortune to secure a first rate player (who was even prepared to do it for free). But this was sort of my problem, and it was one of pride.
Sure, it was great when we was there, but he couldn’t be at every rehearsal. Yet the expectation that we would rehearse any and all numbers, with live accompaniment, then became an added pressure on me, not to mention an embarrassment on some occasions. I ended up rather wishing that I’d invested the time upfront.
But then there are the advantages. Apart from the fact that everyone will think you’re super talented if you can play the reduction, as far as getting to know the score goes — no better way than with familiarity of the reduction.
Cues are now leaping out at me when I conduct from the full score. I’m feeling the timing and rhythm and general spirit of the Prologue and Dance at the Gym and the Rumble much more than I was before I could play them.
But if there’s one lesson I’ve learnt it’s that you shouldn’t allow the weight of expectation, or lack of funds, to force you into something that isn’t in your job description; a talented conductor is not necessarily a gifted pianist or accompanist, nor should s/he be expected to be.
Stand your ground, and insist there is budget for this. And then learn it anyway, because it’s cool.
Categories: West Side Story
