The challenge:
To reinvent the sound of this iconic Broadway show to match the buzzing streets of a 1970s New York City.
The response:
I dived into the sound of the jazz-rock band Chicago, especially their first ten albums from the early 70s (they wrote ten albums in 6 years!!!) Inspired by their lineup, groove and horn writing, I was able to inflect Marvin Hamish’s amazingly articulate score with the attitude and funk of a band that combined classical music, jazz, R&B and pop just as the show does. The theatrical coup for the finale, "One" was a transformation of orchestration to match the gold costumes. For the first time in the evening, the audience hear violins fronting a full 26 piece orchestra.
A Chorus Line
Curve Theatre, Leicester
... the soul-shaking live music (orchestrated by David Shrubsole) Clare Brennan, The Observer
Marvin Hamlisch’s score (musically supervised by David Shrubsole) sounds phenomenal, above all in the rousing finale One. Dominic Cavendish, The Daily Telegraph.