Hi
Not got our MD sorted yet and have no idea how to complete my initial budget for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum as I am not convinced that we need an orchestra of 19. Can anybody help me as to suggesting how many may be needed to do the show justice please.
I have seen it done with just 3 which may be too small for our auditorium but any constructive advice would help. We are fortunate to have our own Yamaha Tyros keyboard which may help us.
Looking forward to your replies.
Cheers
Scooptag

We did forum a few years ago. I was on-stage rather than MD-ing so I can't recollect exactly how many we had; memory suggests it was 8 or 9 and it's almost impossible to get any more into our tiny stage. I can probably look up the orchestra info somewhere, although I have no idea how our MD did the reduction to that many parts.

I directed this at school a few years ago, and as far as I remember we only had 7 or 8 in the band: keyboard, percussion and reeds. The keyboard used the vocal scoore and did all the brass fanfares, which worked quite well. Great fun for a school production.

Mike.

I've done it twice - with two synths and drums - worked fine because the keyboard players worked together a lot, and had almost developed telepathic communication between the two of them!

Hi there,

Last time I contracted Forum I used 13 + Piano:

Violins 1 & 2
Viola
Cello
Bass
4 Reeds
2 Trumpets
Trombone
Percussion

Hope this helps.

We did it April and although I am far from having any knowledge of music or orchestration I'm sure we didn't have that many.

Incidentally although well received by those who came and hugely enjoyed by the small cast it was a dismal financial flop with one of the largest losses we have sustained in the 20 yers I have been with the group.

We even blocked off the back 350 seats of our 750 seat auditorium to make it more cosy for the audience. Possibly only about 1800 sales against a target of 4,500.

Contrast with say Oliver when we sold out 3 nights and a matinee !!! plus 3 other performances