Where is the orchestra located in a Broadway theater? 

No, I’m not talking about orchestra seats; I’m talking about the band of musicians who play a musical’s score.

Nowadays, they’re not always found in the aptly-named “orchestra pit” between the front row and the stage. Rather, they’re often at the rear of the stage, behind the actors, usually hidden by a curtain.

Obviously sound-design technology has come a long way…but for a form of artistic expression that’s rooted in corporeal proximity, being in the same room as the art…might this shift upstage dampen the audience’s immersive relationship to the music…in a musical?

Is it a coincidence that Lempicka sounded louder…because the orchestra was placed in the boxes on both sides of the audience’s ears??