ABSTRACT
Sound designers and Broadway have a complicated relationship. This chapter offers a brief historical overview of the introduction of amplification on Broadway in the Golden Age, followed by a more in-depth discussion of the numerous changes amplification brought to the sound of Broadway after 1970. It outlines how amplification changed the sound of Broadway by bringing different vocal and musical styles to the stage, how the process of amplifying the Broadway stage has developed dramatically since the 1970s, and the aesthetic changes amplification has had on productions in the new millennium. Music-making features prominently throughout the show in the form of jam sessions that serve as scene transitions, and performances set in pubs and recording studios. The chapter concludes with a series of case studies of recent Broadway musicals and their sound designs, offering “close listenings” of musical numbers to reveal the kind of information contemporary sound design is now capable of conveying.
