Where’s the microphones

I can remember as a callow youth in the early 60s being in a high school production of Oklahoma. Being very proud of the whole experience I was talking to my father after the show who complained “I had trouble hearing them, why weren’t they miked?” I threw my very young hands up in horror exclaiming “Miked, legitimate music theatre actor are never miked”, this was, I might add about 1962. At that time it was still considered that to mike a musical was just ‘not done”. A good performer should be able to project to the back row of any size theatre with ease. I mean isn’t that what Ethel Merman always did? Who ever miked the Merm?

I can remember as a callow youth in the early 60s being in a high school production of Oklahoma. Being very proud of the whole experience I was talking to my father after the show who complained “I had trouble hearing them, why weren’t they miked?” I threw my very young hands up in horror exclaiming “Miked, legitimate music theatre actor are never miked”, this was, I might add about 1962. At that time it was still considered that to mike a musical was just ‘not done”. A good performer should be able to project to the back row of any size theatre with ease. I mean isn’t that what Ethel Merman always did? Who ever miked the Merm?

I can’t remember (and I would love it if someone could tell me) exactly which show started the big change. I do remember that when Jill Perryman used to belt ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’ every night in Funny Girl, there were no hidden mikes on her head or in her dress and the most electronic assistance  legit shows in the 60s ever had was some occasional floor miking.

When it all started to change was when the shows started to get very loud. By the time the Australian production of Promises Promises reached our shores with a semi pop score by Bacharach, it would have been hard to hear the singers over the band without miking. Then, along came Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar and suddenly, everyone was using mikes.

From that point on, no matter what the musical everyone was miked whether the show was a rock opera or a Lerner and Lowe musical. It didn’t take long for our ears to become adjusted to it and actors for the first time didn’t feel the need to tire their voices out so much. These days many music theatre singers, with voices that would just never have projected to the back row, can sound like they have incredible pipes by the use of electronic assistance. Is it a bad thing? No, I love it, we are so much more a part of the show. We can hear every word regardless where in the theatre we are seated. I know the Opera world still tend to get very stroppy about it when the company does a musical and mikes are planted on the actors.

The truth is, that our ears have now grown accustomed to miking, So, if any production doesn’t use mikes they are immediately at a disadvantage with the audience. I have recently seen a few small musicals in smallish theatres who made  the decision not to use a mike and somehow there seems to be something lacking from the production. The generation of audiences of today expect to hear every sound crisply and clearly that come from the actors, so I think it is a big mistake if a small production (no matter the size of the theatre) doesn’t use a mike.

We are so used to miking, that last year, at their showcase performances, students from WAAPA performed with  mikes in their hands. I thought that choice was more than a little clumsy and I am hoping this year, they will go the one step more and body mike the actors so they look and sound as they would in a full professional production.

At the end of the day, an audience arrives at the theatre with a degree of expectation and part of that expectation is that they will hear clearly what is being said and sung and that nowadays takes them into the world of the show. It’s the way of modern technology and like it or hate it, a microphone is here to stay in the theatre. I think my father with his rather crude idea of theatre, was right all those years ago. !! You have to pump up the volume