The Musicians of Back to the Future

November 1, 2024

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Traveling Musicians Thrive in a Nomadic Lifestyle

Performing on a national Broadway tour in different cities across the country sounds like an exciting and rewarding job. According to the four diverse musicians who travel with the Back to the Future: The Musical (BTTF) tour, it is indeed those things—but it also presents unique challenges. Things like living out of a suitcase, missing friends and family, staying healthy both physically and mentally, and finding decent coffee are daily hurdles.

The tour hires five local musicians in each city, providing local work opportunities, while presenting interesting challenges in working with new musicians at every tour stop. The International Musician spoke with each of the four core traveling musicians, all from different backgrounds, to find out what motivated them to join the tour, get their take on a typical day, and their thoughts on the encroachment of electronics like KeyComp.

KeyComp is the latest iteration of tech in the theater pit. The show’s score is recorded with real musicians and then broken down into individual beats, which allow a keyboard player to make changes in tempo without altering pitch. An entire musical score can be loaded onto KeyComp and played by a few keyboardists. For more on this topic, see this month’s columns by Theatre Musicians Association President Heather Boehm, and George Fiddler, AFM director of the Theatre/Touring/Booking Division. Fiddler stresses that such musician replacement technology presents a threat to local players that needs to be addressed in each local with the renewal of their theater agreements.

Matt “The Slayer” Doebler, Local 802 (New York City)

I’m the tour’s music director. I’m originally from the suburbs of Allentown, Pennsylvania. In college at Penn State. there was a brand-new musical theater program, and I was able to cut my conducting teeth there. My first show was The Mystery of Edwin Drood with a 20-piece orchestra. It was a trial by fire, and I learned a lot by doing the job.

BTTF isn’t my first road show. While I was music director of the Jagged Little Pill national tour, I heard that BTTF was coming to Broadway, followed by a national tour. I saw the show in New York and loved it, so I wrote the musical team and humbly asked to be involved somehow. They turned around and asked me to be the tour’s music director. It worked out perfectly, because my other tour ended shortly before the BTTF tour started rehearsals. To get a head start, I was able to conduct a couple performances of the Broadway version, which was a total blast.

As conductor and music director, I’m also responsible for teaching the show to the five local musicians we pick up in each city. The show takes on a trumpet/flugelhorn; trombone/bass trombone; reed 2 covering flute, clarinet, tenor, and baritone sax; a bass on electric and upright; and a guitar on electric and acoustic. We also hire a local keyboard 2 sub to cover the book when my wonderful associate Emily Orr conducts. I conduct seven shows a week and then I sit out in the house to monitor the show once a week. I play what is essentially a keyboard 1 part.

There are times when I wish I had a third hand! Each city, and sometimes each venue, has its own local contractor who determines the best match from the local pool of musicians, does the hiring, and sends me a list of the names ahead of our arrival. Sometimes, if I’ve had a positive experience on a previous tour with a certain player, I’ll specifically request that person.

Nine musicians in the pit is obviously a massive reduction from the 18 musicians on the Broadway show, with KeyComp replacing so many players. As a result, the touring books are extremely demanding and much more difficult than the Broadway books.

We only have five hours to rehearse with the local musicians in each city. I roadmap each song first, highlighting vamps, tricky spots, and style considerations. Then, we play through the song, I give feedback and rehearse any areas as needed, and we move on. Next, we have 90 minutes of sound checks for the band and the cast, and then we perform the show that very same night. It is certainly exhausting, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the brass players bring ice packs for their lips!

Ever since synthesizers were first introduced, there has been concern over replacing musicians with technology. Indeed, electronics have led to the virtual disappearance of, say, a harp chair in modern musicals, and certainly countless string desks. Really, the threat to the availability of work has been around for decades now.

KeyComp is basically the next evolution of this practice. It has the ability to replicate larger sections of an orchestra, and in many cases, it’s alarmingly convincing. I would say the growing concerns over artificial intelligence in other fields are similar to our concerns in the pit. KeyComp is just another means to accomplish what has already been happening with producers’ continued demands to cut down on the number of musicians in an orchestra. I know we are in a commercial business, but I’ve never understood why we end up cutting down the “music” part of a musical.

On the plus side, performing under the AFM’s Pamphlet B touring agreement is an enormous boon, and benefits us in every way possible. Aside from the union wages, we get health care contributions, pension contributions, overages, and load-in/load-out pay. We also get rehearsal breaks just like the Equity [Actors’ Equity Association] cast does. If the travel schedule is extreme, we get penalty compensation. And if there’s a safety issue, we have the union protection to back us up. I’ve heard from colleagues what a nonunion tour can be like, and it’s night and day compared to Pamphlet B.

For me, a typical day means sleeping in until 11 a.m., since sleep is a priority. Unlike many other touring musicians, I drive myself on the tour. So, on a free day, I’ll play tourist and explore whichever city we’re in. Sometimes I’ll go to a local bar after the show with the company. Many cities throw us an “opening night” party—but when you switch cities as often as we do, that’s a lot of partying!

Staying healthy and sane on the road is certainly a challenge. The constant uprooting and moving around can be tough for some. Fortunately, there are well-timed layoff weeks to provide a break right when you need it. Challenges aside, Back to the Future is one of my all-time favorite movies. I’ve always been obsessed with the soundtrack, and now I get to go on the same musical adventure, live every night!

Emily Orr, Local 802 (New York City)

I grew up in a musical family in Wichita, Kansas. I first connected with BTTF’s Broadway production in 2023. At the time, I was on the musical theater faculty at Penn State University, while completing my MFA. I submitted my resume and was welcomed aboard the Broadway team that summer as the music assistant. Once the tour began hiring, I applied for the job, and “the rest … is chemistry!” Sorry, I had to throw a Back to the Future quote in there.

As associate music director and keyboard 2 (KeyComp), my favorite part of the tour is conducting the show. On the Broadway production, I sat in on all the orchestra rehearsals at the Winter Garden Theatre, and I have fond memories of hearing the orchestration live for the first time. I learned so much from observing that process, so it’s a dream to be able to play and conduct the show all over the country, with different local musicians, in so many incredible venues.

A typical day for me on tour will involve a rehearsal in the afternoon, dinner break, and playing the show in the evening. Monday is a travel day, and we either fly or drive to the next city and get settled into new accommodations. On Tuesday, we get to the theater around 9 a.m., set up the keyboards, and launch into the long day that Matt described, working with the local musicians who are hired for the run. By then, I’m on my third shot—of espresso—and ready to play the first show. When I conduct the show once a week, that espresso intake doubles!

As for daily life, I try to cook as much as possible. The walks to and from the theater each day have become a ritual that I look forward to. I’ve been fortunate that my husband and my dog can travel with me. It has been life-changing to have them on the road to share the experience of seeing so much of the country.

Jaren Angud, Local 802 (New York City)

Growing up in New Jersey, I came to drums and percussion via piano lessons from the age of six. Joining the BTTF tour started with a recommendation from my friend Dan Berkery [also of Local 802], one of the most sought-after drummers working on Broadway. BTTF was looking for a drummer for the upcoming touring version, and Dan thought of me. Literally 15 minutes later, I received a text from Matt, aka Slayer, offering me the drum chair. I took about four weeks to learn the drum book, and subbed for my first show on Broadway in 2024. That was also my Broadway debut!

We perform eight shows a week, typically one-show days Tuesday through Friday, and two-show days on Saturday and Sunday, with Monday being dark. I take a pretty different approach to touring: my wife and I are living and traveling in our own RV for the duration. I’m beyond grateful that I can be on this tour with her. She’s technically not part of the company but definitely part of the adventure! Every touring company provides musicians with accommodations, but you can opt out of them—we call this “taking the buyout”—and find your own. I could write a whole book on the RV lifestyle. We unhitch the RV at the campground and use the truck for daily commuting. If it’s not a travel or load-in day, we spend a few hours researching things to do in each city, book our next few campgrounds, and plan our routes from city to city.

Like Matt, I try to prioritize getting enough sleep. My metabolism and my liver ain’t what they used to be, so I try to limit alcohol to social outings once or twice a week at the most. Staying mentally focused during a show can be challenging, especially if you’ve played it over a hundred times. One way I keep engaged is focusing on something different in the show and hearing how it fits into the context musically. You might not believe it, but I discover something new every time!

William Leary, Local 369 (Las Vegas, NV)

As reed 1 on the tour, I play oboe, English horn, and alto and tenor saxophone. I grew up in Delmar, New York, just outside of Albany. Right before the BTTF tour, I was freelancing in Las Vegas. A former teacher was actually playing my book on Broadway. I reached out to him to ask if they had found anyone for the upcoming tour. He put me in contact with the right people, and here we are!

As the others have explained, a new city on a Tuesday means rehearsals with the new local musicians hired in each city. They are sent the music via PDFs and a conductor video several weeks before we arrive. As the only traveling wind player, I do my best to lead the way as far as articulation, phrasing, and dynamics. I’ll suggest some stylistic aspects that the orchestration doesn’t completely address. All the local players have been great at picking up on my suggestions.

I can concur with Matt in that I hope my lips don’t fall off on that first day. But before any of this, the first thing is making a pour-over coffee with a little travel kit I take on the road, as well as working on oboe reeds. Post-show, I’ll usually throw on “Sports Center.” This past summer I’ve been able to get to four baseball games—one of my favorite tour activities.

On this tour, we are usually in each city for two to four weeks. It’s a nice way to get the lay of the land and find great coffee. Have I mentioned coffee yet? Another reason it’s great to have local players in the pit is that I can pick their brains for the best coffee shops. It’s also helpful to have FaceTime and Skype to see friends and family who we can’t visit in person. I can’t imagine how difficult it was touring before cell phones and the internet.

My favorite part of the tour is being a part of something so big! I do miss playing in a bit more of a variety of musical situations, but it’s a solid tradeoff. We are our own traveling community, and it’s a blast getting to work with different local musicians in each city. New players and new theaters keep things continually interesting, because the show is never the same from week to week.

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To find upcoming locations for the Back to the Future: The Musical tour, visit: backtothefuturemusical.com/northamerica/tour-dates/

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