When the lights go down for a musical theater production, most of the shine goes to the actors belting their ballads for the audience. The highs of the stage production, however, would be nothing without those left in the darkness. While the lights are dim for the pit orchestra beneath the stage, the sound is why it’s called a musical, making it of the utmost importance for the unit to be top-notch.
The Santa Monica High School Theater Pit Orchestra understood that assignment in spades for the spring of 2023 production of "The Drowsy Chaperone," earning a prestigious award for its efforts. Under the direction of Terry Sakow, the orchestra was recently bestowed with the Jerry Herman Award for Best Orchestra in a high school musical, besting 33 other Los Angeles area high schools for the honor. The accolade is the local offshoot of the National High School Musical Theater Awards, recognizing the best in areas like acting, technical direction and orchestra.
Now in his 34th year at Samohi, Sakow has seen the musical program evolve to this point of major recognition, and is amazed at the dedication his students put in year after year, never doing the same musical twice.
"Musicals are very time-consuming, there (are) a lot of moving parts … it’s not an easy thing to do at a high school, you’re doing professional-level music," Sakow said. "You’re doing two hours of music … a typical band concert, a band will prepare for maybe 15 minutes worth of music, and spend two months on it. (For musicals), you got like a couple months, maybe 3-4 weeks of rehearsal, to get together two, two and a half hours of music. It requires a lot of skill on the individual players, it’s no small feat."
The individual skill starts at the elementary school level, Sakow says, and the infrastructure of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District music program prepares students for anything before they begin high school productions. Having a bevy of talents to choose from, the director splits his orchestra into two groups, rotating them throughout the run of a musical. While the choice is logistical, as the Barnum Hall pit can only fit around 40 players, the decision also takes pressure off of those with heavy school work and extracurricular loads.
"I ran it kind of like a professional orchestra where you don’t have to be at every rehearsal, just tell me what’s going on," he said. "Because I do realize that this isn’t the focus of your life here. (I) try to be flexible so kids can do it, that it’s not a stressful thing for them, it’s something they want to do."
The pit orchestra wanted to take on the rigors of "Chaperone," a 1920s-style jazz score that’s unlike the classical style played in classrooms. With rhythms featuring more syncopation, it took ample rehearsal to master the material, with Sakow stating that "once they got it," the group sounded "pretty darn close" to professional recordings. Another wrinkle for "Chaperone" was the musical lacking string parts, so Sakow implemented violins to play the flute part in the score, which he said "worked better" in some of the songs.
Another difficulty that was conquered by the orchestra was the unique challenge of playing alongside actors, instead of playing just within themselves.
"If the actor gets ahead, or gets behind, they automatically just go with (it)," Sakow said. "That’s a skill that you don’t have to worry about in a band concert, because you’re not accompanying anybody. A good pit orchestra, we’ll adjust to the singer on stage and cover the singer if there’s a problem."
Tackling the tricks of a musical production were rewarded with the Jerry Herman recognition, as judges came to the "Chaperone" show to evaluate all aspects. The musical theater program also earned a nomination for then-Samohi senior Hayley Mullane’s performance in the production, and took the win for the orchestra. Samohi Theater Director Kate Barraza noted that the judges and theater patrons in Santa Monica are a knowledgeable bunch, so the orchestra "better sound good," and credits Sakow and student leaders with accomplishing that goal.
"I think they deserve it … they’re definitely always on the radar in the area, as far as a really strong orchestra, so to finally get first place was really exciting … it’s just a structure that’s been working for a really long time. (In the spring), we just had a really strong group of people who worked really hard."
The orchestra director echoed his longtime musical partner, commending the effort of his students.
"We always try to put our best show on, whichever show it is … so we just kind of did our thing," Sakow said. "If the audience is pleased, we’re really happy about that. When we heard we were nominated, that was just icing on the cake. I didn’t really expect to win, because we did get nominated (before), and this time we got it. So that was pretty cool."
