When the root word of “musical” is music, the people that play that music are pretty damn important to the art form.

Seriously, imagine a Broadway show without musicians.

You can’t, can you?  Because it wouldn’t be Broadway.  It’d be the company I worked for that did pop-up musicals for senior citizens in catering halls.  (Not that there was anything wrong with it, by the by, but you get my point.)

Because the instrumentalists in our industry are such an integral part of what we do, I wanted to hear The Musician’s Perspective, if you will, so I sat down with the guy in charge of them all, President of Local 802 (and former pit musician himself), Tino Gagliardi.

Tino and I had a great chat about all things musical, including how we both played the trumpet (I won’t be battling him anytime soon) and lots of other stuff like . . .

• The challenges of being a pit musician.
• How 802 embraces technology.
• What the 2003 Broadway musicians strike was all about and how Production-Union relations are now.
• What he’d want all Producers to do before they decide on an orchestra size (oh man did his answer to this question ring in my ears).
• The biggest myth about Broadway musicians and why it’s just not true.

Big thanks to Tino for sitting down with me to give me (and all of you) a literal and figurative look into The Pit . . . which, frankly, I think should be renamed The Heart.  Because music is the lifeblood of musicals, and it’s here where it gets pumped out to the rest of the stage.

Listen to it on iTunes here.  (And give me a rating, while you’re there!)

Download it here.

More labor leaders next week when I sit down with The President of Actors’ Equity Association, Kate Shindle!

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