Radio Workshop

Strike the Music (Transcript)

by Laura Santini

Santini: Outside the Marriott Marquis, the stage for Thoroughly Modern Millie, members of Musicians' Union Local 802 are picketing tonight's performance. Mary Whittaker, a violinist in Thoroughly Modern Millie's 25-member orchestra, says they are ready for a lenghty strike.

Whittaker: We've been outside the theater picketing since 7:30 because there was a work call that went out notifying us that the virtual orchestra that will be replacing us was loaded in this morning. That virtual orchestra consists of two people--one a conductor, one person tapping on a keyboard.

Santini: Allan Wan, who plays the saxophone, bass clarinet and flute for Thoroughly Modern Millie, says he hopes to save not only his job, but future jobs. Wann smiles to passersby, but says the current controvery is represents the diminishing of art for dollars.

Wan: Are you trying to sterilize and shrink everything down to soundbites, to make it so packaged? It's ridiculous. When I was in school studying music, I still had teachers who were alive at the beginning of the last century who studied with the greats who came from the century before. So they passed on a certain knowledge and appreciation for art, for music and for life in general. These guys have no regard for that.

Santini: The musicians hope the strike will raise awareness with tourists coming from around the world to take in the live musical experience offered on Broadway. Massachusettes resident Nancy Dunham is in town this weekend with her sister and niece to see Hairspray and the Lion King. She says she didn't know about the strike until this afternoon.

Dunham: I think if you're paying all this money to hear canned music, you'd be very disappointed, and you'd think, I'm spending all this money, I could just watch it on TV, you know, and get the same experience really, so.

Santini: Union members agree audiences will have the final word over whether virtual orchestras are just as rewarding to listen to as live musicians. But the strike may not affect Nancy Dunham and her family. Talks continue. Producers and union members have said the strike could still be resolved before tonight's curtain.

Laura Santini for Columbia Radio News.

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