If you had told any number of creatives that their jobs would be replaced by automation, even five years ago, you would have been met with incredulity. But in the 21st century, it seems that creatives are the largest faction of workers being displaced by digital means. First artists, then writers and now, even Broadway musicians are having to contend with a future in which they are edged out for more cost-effective replacements. That’s the predicament Tik Toker @sehainesmusic finds herself in.
The New York City-based musician has worked on a number of high-profile Broadway musicals, from Hadestown and Hamilton to Les Misérables. She has racked up more than a million likes for her beautiful violin melodies, and has a following of thousands who watch her content for the unusual privilege of seeing life from the orchestra pit. Music is clearly her passion, as you would expect from anyone who has spent their life pursuing a skill that takes hundreds of hours to gain proficiency in.
The musician is using her platform to sound the alarm over a startling betrayal of trust between composer and performer. David Byrne — former front man of the American New Wave band, The Talking Heads — musical theorist, and the producer of the up incoming Broadway musical, Here Lies Love, is turning his back on the foundation of Broadway — that is to say, live musical performances— in leu of far less expensive pre-recorded soundtracks.
In her video, Haines says that Byrne is calling it an “artistic choice” to use prerecorded music. The soundtrack will be recorded by 47 real, living musicians, who will then be used for every subsequent performance, replacing the pit orchestra musicians that traditionally play. The move directly violates agreements hashed out by The American Federation of Musicians, a union in place to fight for performers in the theatre industry. Just as Chat GPT is shaking creatives in the writing world, and AI generators are being used to displace working artists, this move comes as an unwelcome and aggressive move towards human obsolescence in an industry that should rely on human participation.
Haines continued, “Make no mistake. This could shape the future of Broadway pits. And then people like me will be out of the jobs our union fought so hard to preserve.”
It’s an icky idea to assume anyone who pays hundreds of dollars for a ticket could be satisfied with the inevitable distortion that comes with audio recordings. Haines hits the nail on the head, “Canned music is cheap and dilutes the live experience.” Anyone who has ever attended a live musical performance knows that the experience is far better than even the best-mixed recording.
Byrne believes that his musical should be allowed to circumvent the traditional rules of musical theatre with a “Special Situation” stipulation. Here Lies Love is described as a “disco-pop musical” and was inspired by the karaoke genre and the use of “track acts” in clubs, songs designed to keep partiers dancing. It centers on the story of the former first lady of the Philippines and was a concept developed 17 years ago by David Byrnes and Fatboy Slim, as per the Hollywood Reporter. Their push for synthetic music tracks with their history in the business, but it doesn’t necessarily jive with the Broadway experience theatregoers expect.
The production officials behind Here Lies Love have been open to the dissenting opinions surrounding their decision, but not open enough to reconsider it. Production spokesperson Adrian Bryan-Brown said, “This process is ongoing and may ultimately culminate in a final and binding arbitration decision, but until that time, we will continue to work in good faith with the union to move through the steps of the contractual process.”
While they may be playing by the rules, there is no small amount of unease around the decision. Haines is just one of many voices raising the call-to-action theatregoers. A petition against Here Lies Love and its break of more than 155 years of tradition is well on its way to its meager goal of 12,000 signatures, and Haines urges her followers to, “Please sign it and share, and comment on the public pages for Here Lies Love to tell them to do better and to honor our contract.”
In a news cycle focused on the death of the arts through AI, Broadway’s first venture toward a future free of human performers is just another step down a dark road of creative replacement.