T.O.D.
Who actually writes the overture for a musical? And when? Is it the composer, or the orchestrator or the arranger? Is it written at the same time as the rest of the score, or do they wait to see which songs are successful?
Dumb question, I know, but I have always wondered.
DR TCB, here's what I can tell you:
In the past, when shows went out of town for tryouts, the overture used in the tryouts was later cut, so that the "official" overture was not written until just before the show opened on Broadway. This was because the tryout overtures usually included material that was cut during previews. The original preview overture often ended up as the Entr'Acte. There is a claim that Russell Bennett scored the overture to
The King & I early, but the overture includes "I Have Dreamed," which was written late in previews. Sometimes the overture was sketched out by the dance arranger and then given to the orchestrators. In the case of
The Roar of the Greasepaint, Philip Lang did the show's orchestrations, but Russell Bennett wrote the Broadway overture. In a lot of musicals, the orchestrator composed the framework, and the songs inside the framework were the dance arrangements within the show.
The overture to
Gypsy was the first thing written by the orchestrators, and Jule Styne did not see it until it was finished. He asked them to cut one song from it, and I've forgotten now what the song was. Leonard Bernstein composed the overture to
Candide, but i would bet he had plenty of thoughts about
Wonderful Town. He supposedly hated the overture to
On the Town, so I'm guessing he was considered too inexperienced at the time for anyone to care what he thought.
Sometimes the show's overture changed between the Broadway opening and the national tours. "I Enjoy Being a Girl" was added to the
Flower Drum Song overture because it became a hit, and I believe the same thing happened with "The Party's Over" being added to
Bells Are Ringing.
