"Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do something." That advice, from his first drum teacher, works well for Paul Gemignani, arguably Broadway's most prominent and accomplished musical director. "Anything that comes up, if in my heart I really feel I have to do it, I do it," he says.
His instincts have served him well. Since Follies in 1971, Gemignani has been the musical director, conductor, and/or musical supervisor for virtually every Stephen Sondheim musical, including A Little Night Music (1973), Pacific Overtures (1976, 2004 revival), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park With George (1984), Into the Woods (1987, 2002 revival), Assassins (1991 Off-Broadway, 2004 Broadway), Passion (1994), and The Frogs (2004). His other musical credits include Candide (1974), On the Twentieth Century (1978), Evita (1979), Jerome Robbins' Broadway (1989), Crazy for You (1992), 1776 (1997), Kiss Me, Kate (1999), and last year's all-star concert version of South Pacific at Carnegie Hall. On Feb. 9, Gemignani will debut as musical director of Encores! at New York City Center.
Encores!, which presents concert productions of rarely heard musicals, is often the hottest ticket in town. The 2006 season—the 13th—begins Feb. 9–12 with Kismet, featuring a score by Robert Wright and George Forrest based on the music of Alexander Borodin and starring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie. Following that are 70, Girls, 70, with a John Kander and Fred Ebb score (March 30–April 2), and Of Thee I Sing, with score by George and Ira Gershwin (May 11–14).
According to Gemignani, Encores! artistic director Jack Viertel phoned him shortly after Rob Fisher, the series' original music director, departed in 2005. "Paul is the greatest around," Viertel explains. "I assumed he'd say no, but he said, 'Yes, and let's do Kismet.' "
An affable man with an easy wit, Gemignani says, "I think maybe I offer a different view and different choices, different likes and dislikes. Kismet is an incredible score and very funny. Most people think it's old and stodgy. They remember the movie or the Broadway version, but it's never been done encompassing all the elements. It's sexy and romantic, beautiful, dramatic—all those things. It's a hard piece to do. If you don't have the orchestra or the number of people you need, don't do it. That's why Encores! is so good. I can walk in and say, 'Let's do Kismet,' and they say, 'Okay,' not 'What are you, nuts?' These types of musicals are part of our history. To hear Kismet with a live orchestra onstage—that's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Usually, even if it's the right size, an orchestra in a pit doesn't even sound like an orchestra."
He adds, "The main challenge is the time crunch. When you figure you're seeing a full-fledged performance [put together] in 10 days—with a huge show like Kismet, that's a challenge." Kismet is the largest show Encores! has done to date, with a 40-piece orchestra and 37 performers in the company. "The backstage crew has to be top-notch or we'd never be able to do this," he notes.
But speaking of notes, Gemignani's primary concern is the music: "A musical director does everything that has anything to do with the music. You have to be a good musician—that's primary. You need to understand what to do with the human voice in all aspects, know the human voice, what you can do with it, and what you can do with the lack of it. And you need to love the theatre and actors."
A native of San Francisco, Gemignani says his parents both worked in the school system and expected their son to be a teacher. "I always knew I wasn't going to become that. I was going to be a musician," he says. "I was a cellist first, then a drummer. After school I realized I could make a lot of money playing cello in the opera and drumming at the Hungry i [nightclub]. I also did some conducting in opera and ballet. It was all about making a living. I didn't know actually what I was going to do. A teacher at San Francisco State University, Earl Bernard Murray, told me, 'Don't worry about it. You're good. Eventually you'll get there.' "
Cut to 1969: "I came with a singer to Minneapolis, and, being a West Coast person, I was so close to New York that I got on a train and went to see my friend Ed Winter in Cabaret," he recalls. "I was blown away by the imagination, sound of the score, everything, and I thought this might be something I'd like to do. I thought maybe I could make the orchestra sound a little better—very egotistical on my part. Through Ed, I met the musical director, Hal Hastings. We talked, he asked me for a résumé, and he hired me to do Cabaret on the road as drummer and assistant conductor."
Gemignani says he didn't consider what the opportunity meant in the long term: "I hadn't thought that far, actually. I took the job because it would take me back to California. It just blossomed to other things. When I was on the road conducting Zorba, Hastings called and said, 'I have another show in New York I'd like you to do. It's called Follies. Would you consider coming back and playing drums?' I said, 'Absolutely not. I don't want to be a drummer anymore. I want to be a conductor, and that's what I'm going to do.' He said, 'This is important to your career.' 'Not if I'm a drummer,' I said. 'I can go to San Francisco and make twice the money playing drums as I do here.' So he said, 'You'll meet everybody you ever have to know in the theatre in this one show—Hal Prince, Michael Bennett, Stephen Sondheim.' I didn't know who Sondheim was. A friend in California told me, 'Don't be stupid: You can always come back,' so I went. And when Hastings left to do another show two months later, I took over."
Sadly, Hastings died suddenly at the age of 54 early in the run of Sondheim's next show, A Little Night Music, and Gemignani was again asked to take over. "Sondheim and I sort of hit it off, and I guess I must have done something right, because he called me for all the other shows." Offering a sample of his wit, he adds, "I guess it's the money I slipped under the table."
Gemignani has never looked back: "I didn't see myself going into the classical world because that seemed like a dead end to me," he says. "There's not as much opportunity to create. You're limited as to how you make the orchestra sound or how you might phrase arias with a singer. In musical theatre, you can have a lot to say about a lot of things. Most of the shows I've done have been from scratch, so that's really the part that fascinates me."
When the musical in question is of high quality, that is. Gemignani openly laments "the lack of simple, romantic ideas" in contemporary tuners—and his perception that there's "nothing but silliness now." It isn't a "lack of variety," but how "the real deal of romance and conflict between people is put aside…. I want to be touched. Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa—at least they're writing from inside, instead of goofy entertainment."
That's a good example of Gemignani's signature bluntness. "A lot of people in my job don't speak their mind," he explains. "Speaking your mind is a risk, but I don't even think about it. Something comes out because I want to say it. If it's wrong, I'll have to apologize for it, but I have to say what's on my mind. Maybe my manner is sometimes possibly gruff without intending to be. I do demand a certain level out of musicians without my having to say it a thousand times."
Nor does he expect to do that at Encores!: "I'm very, very excited about Kismet," he says. "I hope that the audience is emotionally involved. I'm not going to use the word 'entertained.' I want them to be moved, whatever that means. And if one producer says, 'Maybe we ought to think about doing something like that,' I'll feel really vindicated."
For more information on New York City Center's Encores! season, visit www.citycenter.org.