All the post-opera-season Broadway musicals produced at the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 2013 to 2023 (including "Oklahoma!", "The Sound of Music," "Carousel," "The King and I," "My Fair Lady," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "West Side Story") all featured sound designers with all the actors on microphones. In fact, the Lyric had to add curtains to the auditorium walls to improve acoustics for the musical theater productions because all that electronically enhanced sound was problematic in a space originally designed for un-amplified sound.
The only major opera company in recent memory that I recall experimenting with no amplification for Broadway musicals was the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, N.Y. Its Alice Busch Opera Theater is under 950 seats. |
