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MU plans new protests over pre-recorded music in Dirty Dancing show
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 2 November 2016
The Musicians’ Union is planning more demonstrations outside of upcoming performances of the ‘Dirty Dancing’ live show when it arrives in Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton later this month. The organisation says that the current incarnation of the production features more recorded and less live music than before, even though ticket prices remain pretty much the same.
The MU doesn’t like it when theatre shows of this kind use pre-recorded rather than live music, and has already been protesting outside previous performances of the ‘Dirty Dancing’ UK tour.
Says the MU: “An unauthorised recording, made outside of the UK, is being used in this show instead of the live band of ten or eight musicians used in previous productions. This show features only five actor-musicians and, whilst there is some live music, the majority of what is heard ‘out front’ is a pre-recorded soundtrack”.
It adds: “This is not clear to the audience, who might expect the music in a theatre production to be played live. Despite this scaled-back production, ticket prices remain comparable with all previous tours of ‘Dirty Dancing’. The MU believes that live theatre should be just that: live”.
Though IQ notes that one of the show’s producers, Paul Elliott, has previously criticised the MU’s position on his production, telling the BBC that he can’t see the problem with using a “fully-licensed backing track from Italy in the UK”, before adding that: “Many other shows have used tracks on tour – many without employing any live musicians – without their producers suffering any of the current actions of the Musicians’ Union towards ‘Dirty Dancing'”.
