In this episode, we talk with Broadway musical director and arranger David Loud on his recently published memoir, Facing the Music, in which he recounts his wildly entertaining and deeply poignant trek through the wilderness of his childhood and the edge-of-your-seat drama of a career on, in, under, and around Broadway for decades.
David Loud (born November 28, 1961, in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American music supervisor, music director, conductor, vocal and dance arranger, pianist and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with and interpretations of the music of both Kander and Ebb and Stephen Sondheim.
He received a degree in music from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. It was during his sophomore year at Yale that Loud auditioned for and was cast in Harold Prince’s original 1981 Broadway production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along as Ted, the onstage pianist. The production ran for 52 previews and 16 performances before closing; Loud returned to Yale to finish his degree.[3] Returning to New York in 1984, he was cast as the Narrator/Pianist in a production of Billy Bishop Goes to War, starring then-actor Scott Ellis. His association with Ellis led to many of his subsequent collaborations. In 1995 he originated the role of Manny in the original Broadway production of Terrence McNally’s Master Class, starring Zoe Caldwell and Audra McDonald (wikipedia)
ABOUT THE BOOK (Simon & Schuster) …
Musical Director and arranger David Loud, a legendary Broadway talent, recounts his wildly entertaining and deeply poignant trek through the wilderness of his childhood and the edge-of-your-seat drama of a career on, in, under, and around Broadway for decades. He reveals his struggle against the ravages of Parkinson’s and triumphs repeatedly. This memoir is also a remarkable love letter to music. Loud is the ‘Ted Lasso’ of the theater business, ever the optimist. An inspiration to all!
“‘Music has consequences,’ a wise teacher once told a young David Loud; so does a story well-told and a life fully-lived. I lost count of how many times I laughed, cried, and laugh-cried reading this wonderful, wry, intimate, and inspiring book. David wields a pen like he wields a baton, with perfect timing, exquisite phrasing, and enormous heart.”
— David Hyde Pierce, actor, Frasier, Spamalot, Curtains
“Beautifully written, filled with vivid details, braided with love and loss and wit and the perspective of someone with an utterly unique story to tell.”
— Lynn Ahrens, lyricist, Ragtime, Once on This Island, Anastasia
“Luminous and surprising, an extremely honest memoir of a life lived in the world of Broadway musicals, by one of the theatre’s most gifted conductors. I can’t think of another book quite like it.”
— John Kander, composer, Cabaret, Chicago, New York, New York
Unforgettably entertaining and emotionally revealing, Loud is pitch-perfect as he describes his path to the podium, from a stage-struck kid growing up at a school devoted to organic farming and mountain climbing, to the searing formative challenges he faces during adolescence, to the remarkable behind-the-scenes stories of his Broadway trials and triumphs. Skilled at masking his fears, Loud achieves his dream until one fateful opening night, when in the midst of a merry, dressing room celebration, he can no longer deny reality and must suddenly, truly, face the music.
David Loud Remembers Some of Broadway’s Best Musicals in ‘Facing the Music’ (Observer.com)
“As a title, it would be hard to top the one David Loud came up with for his memoir. After all, Facing the Music is precisely what he has been doing for 34 years, conducting some of Broadway’s best musicals. The title also works in the negative, coming to grips with incipient Parkinson’s—a career-stopper for any profession, let alone conducting.”
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