A guest blog entry from Michael Shaieb, writer of The Astonishing Return of... The Protagonists! to be presented at this year's Festival of New Musicals.
About fifteen years ago when I
graduated from the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program, I was faced
with the reality of what I would do for a living. I had some recording
equipment and thought that perhaps I could start a recording studio. When I met
my partner, Brent Lord, who had the technical knowledge, we formed a company
which later became FatLab Music. We specialized in recording demos for music
theatre writers and performers.
When I began writing The
Protagonists with my collaborator, Kevin del Aguila, the question was how
do we record our show to convey the different stylistic choices we created for
our world. The Protagonists contains a world of
funk, classic pop and epic
superhero music. It’s difficult to showcase this on just a piano. So as Kevin
and I were writing, I built the song tracks using the many tools of my trade to
create the demo that we have today. 
As far as the vocals go, we invited our actors in separately
and recorded them one at a time which gave us more flexibility during the
mixing process. And because it’s our own
space, we have the leisure of taking the time we need since we’re not on the
clock at another studio.
Regarding the use of instruments, real or sampled, I always
ask the question "Can a listener understand the world of the show with just a
piano?" Believe me, I would prefer the ease of doing a demo with just piano and
vocals. But when the style of the show is also a character, I think that the
extra time and effort is definitely worthwhile.
So here we are, demo in hand, about to showcase The Protagonists at NAMT. We are very thankful for this
opportunity. I have to admit, my
favorite thing is being in the recording studio, and I’m very excited to share
our demo with everyone.
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