When it comes to jukebox musicals on Broadway, the common assumption is that what you hear onstage will sound just like (or pretty close to) what you鈥檝e heard on the radio. But that鈥檚 not the case for the hit Broadway musical & Juliet. The musical uses the songs of pop songwriter Max Martin, including the many hits he鈥檚 written for the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and countless others. When the show鈥檚 orchestrators Dominic Fallacaro and Bill Sherman first met with Martin in 2017 about the musical, they were given permission to 鈥渕ess with鈥� the songs, says Sherman.
鈥淭he songs are so iconic and so important to people. To have been given the job to mess with them, essentially, and given free rein to do that is a blessing you never get as an orchestrator and arranger,鈥� says Sherman.
Sherman and Fallacaro are both Tony nominated for Best Orchestrations for their work in & Juliet鈥�where they reorchestrated well-known pop songs into something that could be played by a live seven-piece orchestra. Modern pop tunes and Shakespeare sound so incongruous, but these are the orchestrations that helped marry those two disparate worlds together.
鈥淭he idea was always, like, how do you take the best pop songs of the past 25 years and create a score? That was the challenge,鈥� says Sherman, with visible excitement. For the two orchestrators, it was using instruments that the audience associate with being classic and 鈥減eriod,鈥� such as violins and cellos鈥攁long with more modern instruments such as drums and synthesizers. 鈥淭hat would be some sort of glue that held the whole thing together,鈥� explains Sherman.
The sonic world of & Juliet can be divided into two camps. One is the songs that are arranged similarly to how they were when they were originally recorded; think the talk box in 鈥淟arger Than Life鈥濃攚hat Fallacaro calls 鈥渟onic candy that you know and love.鈥� Then there are the songs that veer completely away from the originals, such as the show鈥檚 version of 鈥�...Baby One More Time,鈥� which was slowed down into a dramatic ballad. These are versions of the song that are 鈥渇ar away from what you know.鈥�
Explains Fallacaro of the orchestration process: 鈥淔or the stuff that we went very different on, we got to be very imaginative and think about what strings are doing, what pipe organs and harpsichord has to do, what an acoustic guitar does in a situation where it was never supposed to be. And then for the things that are closer to the things you know and love, it's not just our approximation of it. We have access to the vault and someone [Martin] that remembers the exact synthesizer preset that they made it with.鈥�
Fallacaro also plays the keyboard during the show and acts as the show鈥檚 conductor. He says that 鈥渢he fact that we are putting the world of a Broadway pit together with a synthesizer, it鈥檚 one of my favorite parts of the gig.鈥�
Sherman and Fallacaro both met while working on Sesame Street鈥擲herman is the music director on the show, and he brought Fallacaro onto it after the latter won a Grammy Award for Best Children鈥檚 Album. Sherman has experience on Broadway, having been the orchestrator for In the Heights and music supervisor on Freestyle Love Supreme. Meanwhile, & Juliet is Fallacaro鈥檚 Broadway debut. For the two, the most surprising, and gratifying part of the gig, hasn鈥檛 just been the Tony nomination. It鈥檚 when pop stars (they won鈥檛 say who) tell them, 鈥淚t sounds better than my record,鈥� recalls Sherman. 鈥淏eing given the keys to take someone鈥檚 song that's so iconic and flip it鈥攊t鈥檚 a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And we don't take it for granted.鈥�
Below, Fallacaro and Sherman walk us through the thought process behind the orchestrations of a few songs in the show鈥攇iving an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the art of orchestration and why different instruments inspire different feelings. Spoilers, obviously.
鈥�...Baby One More Time鈥�
Say the words 鈥�...Baby One More Time鈥� and immediately, the first three notes of the song burst into your head, 鈥淏om Bom Bom.鈥� In & Juliet, this song takes place when Juliet wakes up and realizes Romeo is dead, and she sings, 鈥�...Baby One More Time鈥� while trying to decide what to do next: kill herself or stay alive. Obviously, a bubblegum pop tune would seem out of place with the seriousness of the moment. It was book writer David West Read who suggested that the Britney Spears tune be reimagined as a ballad.
READ: David West Read Has Had a Wild Broadway Career
For the orchestrators, the first order of business was: what should those first three notes sound like now? They can鈥檛 be played on a keyboard like in the original version. So instead, the team opted for strings. And they slowed it down. Those 鈥淏om Bom Bom鈥� aren't just catchy notes. 鈥淚t's Juliet鈥檚 heartbeat. She's stressed out, she's having a tough time just trying to figure out who she is, and what she's done,鈥� explains Sherman. Those heartbeats, played by drums, also repeat themselves throughout the song, putting the audience into Juliet鈥檚 headspace and what she鈥檚 feeling.
鈥�...Baby One More Time鈥� is also an important moment in the show because it鈥檚 the first song in the show that sounds markedly different from its original. The opening numbers of 鈥淟arger Than Life鈥� and 鈥淚 Want It That Way鈥� sound similar to the original Backstreet Boys versions. But according to Sherman, 鈥溾楤aby One More Time鈥� is the first major departure and also introduces the audience to what we're about to do. They hear the opening stuff, and then it goes 鈥楤om Bom Bom,鈥� but they don't necessarily recognize that as 鈥楤aby One More Time.鈥� But then she starts to sing, and people will sometimes giggle, or they'll gasp, like, 鈥業 can't believe it!鈥� To me, that was the best way to introduce our show, where people would understand what kind of ride they're about to get on.鈥�
Adds Sherman, with satisfaction, 鈥淭hat's the beauty of & Juliet, it鈥檚 a constant surprise after surprise.鈥�
鈥淧roblem/Can鈥檛 Feel My Face鈥�
This mashup of the Ariana Grande song 鈥淧roblem鈥� and the Weeknd鈥檚 鈥淐an鈥檛 Feel My Face鈥� occurs when Romeo has come back from the dead, but Juliet is uncertain if she still wants to be with him. So Juliet sings 鈥淧roblem鈥� while Romeo responds with unyielding devotion in 鈥淐an鈥檛 Feel My Face.鈥�
The song begins with Juliet singing 鈥淓ven though I hate ya, I wanna love ya鈥� from 鈥淧roblem,鈥� at a slower tempo. Then the song builds when Romeo responds with, 鈥淎nd I know she鈥檒l be the death of me,鈥� from 鈥淐an鈥檛 Feel My Face.鈥� Then the two songs are battling each other through music. Explains Fallacaro of the conception, 鈥淲e start from a super-introspective place鈥uliet starts super in her feelings. And then it sort of gets bigger and bigger and the whole thing escalates鈥e go full Super Bowl halftime show by the end.鈥�
One aspect of 鈥淧roblem鈥� that needed to be problem-solved was what to do with the saxophone in the chorus. Explains Fallacaro, 鈥淚n the original version of 鈥楶roblem,鈥� the iconic thing is the saxophone. No shade to brass and woodwinds, but that color didn't exist anywhere else in the score. We weren't going to just put a saxophone on loop for the song. So it's one of those things of, how can we take the DNA that you know, and put it in our world and, like, distribute those melodies? So we talked about, can it function within the guitars and the piano? Can it exist in the vocals as well?鈥�
So in the mashup, the melody that would usually be played by a saxophone is performed by the guitars and piano, and vocalized by the singers. They also sing the phrase 鈥淥ne less problem without you," a line that is traditionally spoken and whispered. Says Sherman, 鈥淗ere's an Easter egg. It's the only time in the entire show that we change a Max Martin melody鈥t's sort of hard on a Broadway stage to make a whisper chorus鈥攜ou can do that on record, it's pretty hard to do that in front of thousands of people. And so, we made it a song and it worked.鈥�
鈥淓惫别谤测产辞诲测鈥�
You might think that the song with the phrase 鈥淏ackstreet鈥檚 back鈥� would not fit inside of & Juliet. But somehow book writer Read makes it work (we won鈥檛 spoil how). Suffice it to say, this song is pure fan service, and it being incongruous is part of the pleasure. But that doesn鈥檛 mean Fallacaro and Sherman were just going to plop the 鈥�90s hit wholecloth into the show. In fact, the & Juliet version of the song is half the length of the original Backstreet Boys version.
Explains Sherman, 鈥淪o much of pop music is repetitive鈥攖he verses repeat themselves or the choruses repeat themselves. For Broadway and other musicals, every word needs to be accounted for.鈥� That means & Juliet doesn鈥檛 contain very many full versions of pop songs with every verse, chorus, and bridge. 鈥淲e never wanted to waste a moment on something that was repetitive or didn't further our story鈥e always had to say it was 鈥榓ll killer, no filler.鈥� It was like, if it didn't help our story, we would cut it.鈥�
As for the way the song sounds, yes there are synthesizers and drum machines in it, but Fallacaro also emphasizes that the show鈥檚 band plays the rest of it live. It creates a fuller sound than the original recorded version. 鈥淚t's not just the drum machine on loop to that song, which, again, is iconic鈥攚e love. But our band is giving dynamic shape to all these things鈥t is using our strings to complement melodies as they go along. And so it is taking all of the musical DNA that you know, and using our band as the engine behind it as well.鈥�
To the orchestrators, these combinations of pop sounds with musical theatre flourishes set & Juliet apart. And the fact that the musical has been so celebrated, receiving nine Tony nominations, is a testament to how much it鈥檚 pushing the sonic envelope of Broadway.
Says Sherman, 鈥淲hen people say something's 鈥楤roadway鈥欌t bums me out because clearly with the Hamiltons of the world, In the Heights, clearly there's other sounds that are permeating theatre and Broadway鈥 think that if there's one goal that we could have, it's just to make that even bigger and keep on incorporating new music and new sounds and new ideas into it.鈥�
Adds Fallacaro, 鈥淚 love that this show contains both the beeps boops and lasers of synthesizers and all the computer music, and that it has a string section that we do think of as coming from a Broadway pit. All these things, there's a really big room for. And I think that's the magic of & Juliet.鈥�
