Local orchestras tackle stash of show tunes

RUMMAGING through the music library that dominates large areas of his home, Gordon Gregory discovered that he had orchestral arrangements for no fewer than nine famous works of musical theatre.
“To be honest, I had no idea that we had accumulated so many,” says the musician/conductor who, after decades of leading music events, knows just how much audiences enjoy a cracking show tune.
Having the orchestral music, however, doesn’t necessarily mean the songs can be performed in full — music and lyrics are often owned by separate publishers.
So Gregory got together with Musical Theatre Gisborne president Peter Grealish to work out just how many of the more than 40 songs available could be used without infringing copyright.
They ended up with so many that they had to do some ruthless editing to come up with the programme for this weekend’s concert, The Sounds of Musicals.
But there are still more than 40 songs remaining, all of which will be presented by the Gisborne Youth and Civic orchestras, together with an ensemble of more than 20 Gisborne Musical Theatre singers.
Musical director Gregory (pictured) hopes that, despite having around 50 performers on hand, they won’t have to do all of the work.
“One of the reasons we decided to do the show is that people love musical theatre, and they love singing along,” he said.
And they don’t even have to know the words. A powerpoint presentation has been prepared to feed audience members the lyrics as they are required.
Among the songs, Gregory’s personal favourites can be found in the earlier pieces, especially 1940s and 1950s works Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Sound Of Music and The King And I, all by prolific duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.
Other items likely to be popular are songs from the musicals Oliver (1960); Fiddler On The Roof (1964); and Abba (1976); plus Andrew Lloyd Webber’s symphonic reflections (from Evita, Joseph and Cats); and four numbers from Jerome Robins’ Broadway anthology.
“These are songs that people really enjoy singing with enduring melodies that the young musicians really enjoy playing,” Gordon Gregory said.
“Our aim was to devise a concert performance of some of the most popular musical theatre songs of all time.”
■ The Sounds Of Musicals — with Gisborne Youth and Civic orchestras, and the Musical Theatre Gisborne chorus — will be on at Lawson Field Theatre on Saturday (7pm) and Sunday (2pm). Tickets at Stephen’s PhotoPlus or at the door.