One of the most unusual jobs I've ever done was in September, 1993. I'd just taken over the musical directorship of The Phantom of the Opera in Hamburg when our supervisory team from New York came over to record the entire show with our orchestra but without singers. Apparently, there was wage-based discontent brewing between the orchestra of the Kennedy Centre in Washington and their employers and the smart money was on the players using the visit of the American First National Tour of Phantom to strike and get management to cede. The musical company had no desire to be taken hostage like that and struck pre-emptively by having a version of the show on tape in case there were no musicians to play it. They spent two days recording and went back to the US to face the music.
As it happens, the orchestra did strike and hell was let loose. They managed a couple of performances with two pianos before the musical supervisor started conducting the singers with the tape. A keyboard player was flown in from New York to cover the tricky, recitative-like passages. The audience was informed several times before entering the theatre that the performance would take place with pre-recorded orchestral playing and, should they wish to have a refund would they please claim it before the show started. Virtually no-one left. This happy state of affairs would have continued had the music supervisor not had to leave for another production. The regular conductor (actually my predecessor in Hamburg) could, as a union member, not do it, so they needed someone from outside. It was decided that they'd ask me to do it and, if I accepted, my predecessor would go back to Hamburg for the remaining three weeks of the Washington run. New York phoned me at about 11pm after a show; everything was sorted out with the Hamburg management and all they needed was my OK. So I gave it. Next day I sorted out flight details with the office in NYC, asked them to have a recording Fed-Exed over to Hamburg so I could get started on learning the guide track, sorted out a catsitter and, a few days later, headed off to the airport.
I flew Business direct from Hamburg to Washington. I was not to be paid while in the US as I had no work permit in those days but was generously 'taken care of' with a very good per diem and direct billing in the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown, so I didn't have to spend a red cent my entire stay. That was also made easier by the fact that The Four Seasons had the best of everything, so I had no desire to eat anywhere else. We were moved into the Wyndham Bristol for the last few days as the supervisors had left. It was good, but a bit of a come down after my initial palatial accomodation. One of the nicest bits was having a strech limo at our disposal. This was our car. By 'our', I mean the keyboard player and I. Our driver, Sam, was in his eighties and still working to help put his grandchildren through college. Just like in Europe. Yeah, right...
Working with Americans in America is always impressive, particularly after the lacksadaisical, entitlement-polluted attitudes you find in Europe. The message was clear: do right by us and we'll do right by you. It's a simple message and, if followed intelligently, results in a win-win situation. Our collaboration was fruitful and joyous, even if I did have to keep my true identity secret, a strange ituation to be in. I was also assigned a bodyguard, as was the keyboard player, just in case any strikers spotted us and chose to get nasty. It didn't happen, of course, and we had a good laugh with Chris and Jon, who turned into good friends during the time we spent together. We would always enter and leave the theatre by the underground passage which opened out next to the Watergate Hotel and some Embassy. Seeing as it is illegal in the US to picket within a certain distance of an Embassy we always had a free run down in and out of the bowels of the Kennedy Centre, though we were instructed to keep our sunglasses on until inside. It seems a bit OTT in retrospect (did then, too) but it was a wonderful experience.
I finished my time in the US with a few days with my in-laws in New Jersey. Whilst there, we had a DC reunion in Manhattan: Chris, Jon, the keyboard player and I met up and had dinner with my father-in-law. There was a funny story to that evening, too. One of the Christines in Washington, Terri, was due to leave the show after the DC run and start in the show She Loves Me on Broadway. On our reunion night we found ourselves in the same street as the theatre where it was playing, and one of the group said: "Isn't that where Terri is, now?". Just at that moment, who should poke her head out of the emergency exit we were standing in front of but...yes, you've guessed it: Terri. So I said "And here she is: Ms Terri ...." She looked a little nonplussed, so I said "Terri, it's us, from Phantom in Washington DC". "Have you come to see the show?" she asked. "No", I said, we happened to be passing and you came out through that door; it's an extraordinary coincidence". "Do we know each other?" she asked me. "Terri, yes. Until four days ago we were looking at each other three hours every day, sometimes more if we also had a matinee performance. I was the conductor in DC". "OHMYGAAAD! Yes!" Hug, kiss, all that crap. When I told my colleague in Germany about it he went ballistic: "That's SO typical of her! She's not interested in anyone except herself. What a selfish cow" etc etc. I did find it a little strange, to be honest, but maybe I'd never encountered anyone so self-possessed, before.
I flew back to Hamburg a few days later. My most abiding memory of the Four Seasons was the service and the reaction of my room maid when she realised I'd left her a $50 tip (American dollar bills all look alike, you have to be careful). She caught me up in the corridor, went down on her knees and kissed my hand. I didn't know what to think, but it was clear that little bit extra meant an awful lot to her. Washington DC has a high black population and a lot of crime and poverty. I saw some of it when I went out to a suburban theatre performance with, funnily enough, the partner of the bloke replacing me in Hamburg while I was in the US. He knew Washington like the back of his hand but it was still a bit scary on occasions; not the kind of city I'd like to get lost in.
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