In recent years, a cappella singing has extended far beyond collegiate stages and into the mainstream. First came the American Idol-style TV show, The Sing-Off. That generated attention for the show’s winner, Pentatonix, now a fixture of the pop charts. Then came the movie Pitch Perfect and its sequel. It seemed that, all of a sudden, a cappella singing was cool.
Another indication of the genre’s popularity is Broadway’s first a cappella musical, In Transit, now in residence at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The show has garnered excellent reviews from such publications as Variety (“a rapturously harmonious and surprisingly moving experience”) and Entertainment Weekly (“showstopping and heart-pumping”).
CS sat down with one of the show’s writers, Sara Wordsworth, to ask her about the history of In Transit, the appeal of a cappella, and what opportunities the genre offers classically trained singers.
You and the other writers created the first incarnation of In Transit years ago. What prompted you to write the show and how did it develop from there?
In the early 2000s, I joined an a cappella group led by one of my co-writers, James-Allen Ford. Eventually he created a smaller professional group of six singers. We started singing around New York—any gig we could get, paid or unpaid. Later we decided that we wanted to sing our own musical theatre comedy songs instead of covers. We started peppering them into our set, and they went over really well, so we turned the songs into a cabaret set at the Duplex club. We starred in it, self-produced it, and self-funded it. That was the seed of In Transit.
We started writing more songs, and in 2003 we were accepted into the New York [International] Fringe Festival with the first version of the updated show, called Along the Way. The run went really well, and from there we started submitting it everywhere we could. We stopped gigging and focused on promoting the show and writing new songs. During that time, we also started to think about new characters, including Boxman, a beat-boxer who would not only supply additional vocal percussion, but also the unifying thread of the plot.
In 2008, we participated in the Eugene O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, where an amazing cast of seven performed the show—and where we attracted the attention of a producer.
What did the producer envision for the show?
He was targeting a commercial Off-Broadway run—one of those hits that sit off Broadway for a long time. But the economy fell, and no one wanted to put money in commercial theater. Consequently, he changed course and found a nonprofit Off-Broadway theater to partner with us. So we opened at Primary Stages in 2010, and the production went really well. Our cast even won the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble! We were pleased—and thought that was the end of the story.
What happened next?
An investor in the Off-Broadway production contacted us and said, “I think this is a Broadway show. And if you’ll trust me, I think I can get us there.” She asked us what we wanted, and we told her, “The best a cappella arranger in the world (Deke Sharon) and four more people in the cast.” She gave us both.
What took place between 2010 and 2016?
It took us six years to raise all the capital for Broadway. We kept doing readings and presentations of the show, attended by potential investors, and eventually we got the funding about two years ago and, more recently, the theater.
The show is drawing large audiences. What sort of reactions have you encountered from them?
Audiences have really gone along for the ride. One of the biggest compliments we get is when people say, “I forgot it was a cappella.” I think that everyone has a preconceived notion about a cappella, and we blow that apart.
We wanted the score to have the flavor of contemporary a cappella—but we also use motifs, transitional music, etc., that great Broadway scores should use. It’s just that the voices are doing them. It’s so well mixed that sometimes it sounds canned, but they’re doing it all live. It’s pretty cool.
The mixing and the technology are critical to the show’s success. How exactly does the process work?
We are the first Broadway show to use double in-ear monitors on the whole cast, which means that they’re getting their conductor in their ear the whole time and they’re also getting a mix of each other. Traditional musical theatre monitoring would be impossible, because our actors have to keep singing anytime they’re offstage and making costume changes, because they’re the band. So we have two mixers: one mixing the sound that the audience hears, and one that’s just mixing what the actors hear in their ears.
Why has a cappella become so popular in recent years?
Our arranger, Deke Sharon, had a lot to do with this. He was behind Pitch Perfect and The Sing-Off, both of which helped to popularize the modern a cappella movement. Even during our Off-Broadway run, a cappella was still considered a bit “dorky.” It’s become fun and cool. We always thought it would, but the rest of the world didn’t necessarily agree.
I also think that there is a societal reason for the growth in popularity. As we become more technologically advanced—we all have phones out on the table at all times—people are longing for human connection, that raw connection of just people singing together, without accompaniment.
You are married to an opera singer, your sister is an opera singer, and your brother-in-law used to be an opera singer. Is there a place for opera singers in a cappella?
Absolutely. During auditions for In Transit, I’d immediately look to the bottom of résumés to see where the actors were trained and what degrees and special skills they had. Then I’d look at the credits. When I saw that actors had extra training in pedagogy or theory, I knew they’d understand the special needs of this show. I always veered toward classically trained singers because they tend to have healthier voices and are better trained and better musicians.
A few of the individual plotlines in In Transit center on the adage “Do what you love and the money will follow,” which is something that a lot of classical singers think about. Given your own past experiences as a struggling musical theatre actor, what is your take on this adage?
When I get to the end of my days, I don’t want to look back and say I didn’t try. That said, I teach courses for actors in New York City on financial survival skills, so I have my own version of the adage: “You need to do what you love, but support yourself otherwise, whether that’s in the business or out of the business.” If you stop doing what you love, you’ll always regret it.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Yes. I don’t think there has to be such a divide between classical singing and theatrical singing, between opera and Broadway. We’re all telling stories through song. I have great respect for trained vocalists, and Broadway is all the better for the ones we have onstage.
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Crossing Genres
The kind of a cappella singing that is popular today is a far cry from Tallis or Palestrina, or even Christmas caroling. How do classically trained singers make a cappella work for them?
Mezzo-soprano Rachel Tedder has plenty to say on this matter. She recently established the group OperACappella, based in Germany. The group comprises five singers, most of whom have backgrounds in opera. Repertoire includes such mash-ups as “Let It Be” and “Vissi d’arte,” “A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay and “O du, mein holder Abendstern,” and “Wonderful Freude,” which combines the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth with “What a Wonderful World.”
Major technical adjustments aren’t necessary, according to Tedder. The singers do not scale back their vibrato, for example, except on rare occasions to create a certain effect. Diction, on the other hand, requires adjustment: the crisp consonants prized in classical singing become more relaxed. As Tedder explains, “You can use a classical technique, but you need more pop-American diction to sound authentic.”
The adjustments for alto Natalie Randall, who sings with the a cappella group Vocalosity (directed by Deke Sharon), relate to volume. “I can’t just rely on the sound person to lower the volume of my microphone,” she notes. “I have to actually listen and make sure to blend.”
Both Randall and Tedder note important similarities between the contemporary a cappella singing and opera. Each genre requires singing that is supported and grounded, says Randall, who adds, “You have to have a sharp ear and great technique to make it work in both realms.”
“Professional a cappella music is like opera,” says Tedder. “It is about exploring the limits of the human voice. The best a cappella singers are the ones who make the most unusual noises. Quite frankly, trained opera singers can do that with the best of them.” —Rachel A. Antman
