Lawrence Goldberg is a conductor and music director who works regularly on Broadway (The Drowsy Chaperone, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Phantom of the Opera, Carousel) and on national tours (The Producers, Les Misérables, Sunset Blvd., Cats).  In San Francisco, Mr. Goldberg was Associate Conductor for the original run of The Phantom of the Opera at the Curran Theatre. He also was Music Director for the Boston Pops concert versions of Carousel, A Little Night Music, and A Richard Rodgers Celebration. As a composer, Goldberg has written music and lyrics for the shows Big Bad Wolf and the Endangered Forest and Grounded For Life, as well as the song “Seize the Day,” recorded by Petula Clark. An acclaimed pianist, he is a native of New York City and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

How large is the orchestra for the national tour of South Pacific? How many musicians will travel with the tour and how many will be hired in each city?

We’re fortunate enough to be using 25 pieces, the largest orchestra I’ve ever had for a touring show! We’re traveling with three musicians, and picking up the remaining 22 locally. Most tours travel with a keyboard player who also plays for rehearsals and is the back-up conductor, but since South Pacific has no keyboard part in the orchestration, it creates some challenges. So among our three traveling musicians is a bassoonist who also conducts, and a harpist who can also play piano for rehearsals. The other traveler is our lead violinist. The other challenge is to fit all 25 players into the orchestra pit!

What are your responsibilities as your prepare to open the show in San Francisco and then once it is up and running?

Ted Sperling directed the music for the current Broadway production brilliantly. He is in rehearsal alongside me, and to his credit, he is allowing me to have real creative input as we work together to teach the cast the music and help them learn to use the singing as an integral part of their dramatic characterizations. Once we’re out on the road, the job becomes a lot more about rehearsing the local orchestras and of course conducting the performances, though it’s also my responsibility to make sure the cast continues to sing the music properly.

What is the most exhilarating aspect of conducting this, the original, score of South Pacific? And, the most challenging aspect?

Well, having this large an orchestra is certainly exhilarating, especially with the sizeable string section we have. Live strings are an extremely expressive element of an orchestra, and sadly, they are disappearing from Broadway show pits. When you see the show, be sure to listen for how the strings enhance the dramatic experience. I always enjoy conducting shows that are more emotionally expressive, as opposed to those that are more razzle-dazzle entertainment. Just knowing that I have the power to help manipulate an entire audience’s emotional experience is perhaps the greatest exhilaration a conductor can feel. This score is so rich with expressive opportunities that the greatest challenge is perhaps keeping on top of them all and shaping them in just the right way. Every performance will be slightly different in that regard, and I can’t imagine ever feeling like it was artistically perfect.

What do you think sets SOUTH PACIFIC apart from other Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals?

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musicals are all so poetically crafted that each is a gem unto itself. But the one obvious thing that sets South Pacific apart from the others is its contemporaneous setting. This show was written barely four years after the end of World War II, so R&H were truly writing for characters and situations of their time. Add to that the tremendous influence that the war had on American society, and you have a piece that had a whole lot to say about its own time and culture.

If you could chat with SOUTH PACIFIC orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett and to Trude Rittmann, who arranged the original dance and incidental music, what would you ask?

Interesting question!  Most people don’t realize the profound contributions made to musicals by such artists as these. In the case of Mr. Bennett, the orchestrator, I’d be interested to know how much of the “inner workings” of the music were supplied by Rodgers, and how much of that he was allowed to invent. Theater composers typically write songs for a piano to play, and it’s the orchestrator’s job to flesh it out for a full orchestra. In the case of Ms. Rittmann, perhaps the most interesting question would be about what it was like to work as one of the only women doing that sort of work at that time.

At what age did you start piano lessons? What other instruments do you play?

My uncle is a professional composer, and he started teaching me music theory at the piano when I was four years old, but I didn’t begin formal piano lessons until I was 7. Of course, conductors need to know a lot about all the instruments, but I never learned to play any others, except for the French Horn in grade school band. I can’t even play guitar very well, which is really a shame!

What are the qualities a musician must possess to become a music director and conductor for the musical theater?

Of course, musical skill is important. But maybe even more important is passion and dramatic instincts. It’s not easy playing the same three hours of music eight times a week every week. One has to feel that the world of the play transports you each time, and that you’re eager to take that ride!

Who is your mentor and what is the most valuable piece of advice you received?

I don’t really have a single mentor. I’ve been fortunate to assist many well-established conductors, and I’ve learned something different from each one of them, whether it’s a technical conducting move, or interpreting a song from a dramatic perspective, or simply dealing with singers in the most effective way. Often I’ve learned what not to do by assisting other conductors as well! The most valuable thing I’ve learned is that music written for the theater is conceived to be more a dramatic entity than a musical one, and one must keep that in mind when shaping a musical performance.

When it comes to listening to music, do you have any guilty pleasures?

Well, the musical playing a few blocks down Market St. is one — I absolutely love the score to Wicked, though I have yet to have an opportunity to work on that show. My other long-standing guilty pleasure is the music of ABBA — I was a closet fan long before Mamma Mia! made them popular again! There’s an unbelievable amount of musical craft in their seemingly bubble-gum disco songs!

Photos: New York Production shots by Joan Marcus.
Lawrence Goldberg conducting in the pit by Cece Hugo; rehearsal at New 42nd
Street Studios in New York by BBO.
Archival photos of Robert Russell Bennett and Trude Rittmann courtesy of the R & H Organization.

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