Conductor Emily Marshall said she has become a big Spider-Man fan since The Broadway Sinfonietta started its national tour of playing the score live for “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
The Broadway Sinfonietta will come to Thousand Oaks to play a hip hop-influenced score live during a special screening of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
The 11-member New York City orchestra, which is made up entirely of women and mostly of women of color, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9 at the Fred Kavli Theatre at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. Tickets for the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza concert cost $55 to $80. To purchase, go to bapacthousandoaks.com.
The concert, which will launch the American Theatre Guild’s Broadway in Thousand Oaks season, will shine the spotlight on The Broadway Sinfonietta as it plays composer Daniel Pemberton’s score on stage while the Oscar-winning 2018 animated movie is screened.
“You get to watch the movie and watch all the players,” said Marshall, conductor and keyboardist. “There’s something totally different about experiencing the music as it’s happening in the room. It’s bringing a score to life.”
Marshall, 34, said audience members are surprised when they watch the orchestra, which features a DJ scratching records on turntables.
“It’s not necessarily the standard orchestral instrumentation. It’s not a huge amount of strings,” she said. “People come in, hearing a rock element as opposed to the traditional orchestra sound.
“We have three percussionists on stage and live sound effects that were included in the film score,” she said, adding there will be drum and guitar solos. “I play a couple keyboard solos as well.”
Marshall praised her all-female orchestra.
“It’s really a special group of musicians. It’s been really fun to watch everyone bond,” she said. “All were hand-picked from over the country to be the official orchestra for ‘Spider-Verse.’”
The orchestra accompanies the Sony/Marvel Entertainment movie about Miles Morales, whose voice is done by Shameik Moore, a Brooklyn teenager and artist who becomes Spider-Man after being bit by a radioactive spider in a subway station. As he fights villains, Miles meets variations of Spider-Man from other universes — everyone from an older, burned-out Peter B. Parker, voiced by Jake Johnson, to an intelligent pig, Peter Porker/Spider-Ham, voiced of John Mulaney.
While swinging high to save the day, Miles falls for the heroic Spider-Woman, aka Gwen Stacy, acted by Hailee Steinfeld, a potential love interest in the drama/comedy.
The movie was followed by this year’s sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Universe,” which ended in a cliffhanger that will be resolved in the third film, “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.” The original March 2024 release date has been postponed indefinitely.
“I wasn’t a huge Marvel fan before this,” Marshall said. “I didn’t know much about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I saw some of the original Spider-Man movies.”
She noted Spider-Man has climbed high on her list of favorite superheroes since she and The Broadway Sinfonietta started the tour of more than 50 cities across the U.S.
Marshall said composer Pemberton’s experimentation with the score pairs well with the movie’s use of different forms of animation.
“There’s the normal soaring orchestral music and R&B and pop influences,” said Marshall, an Auburn, New York., native who earned her bachelor’s in music and theater at Ithaca College. “I think Daniel Pemberton did a great job in making the music emulate the action on the screen.”
Marshall said the orchestra’s brass section is heavily featured and that the distinctive horn melodies have impressed the musicians. “After the show, we’re walking around singing them. They get stuck in your head.”
She said audience members have told her after the concerts that they’re uncertain how they can go back to watching movies without a live orchestra.
“One of the cool moments is when the movie ends, and the credits turn into a (full-fledged) concert, featuring a lot of the orchestra.”
Dave Mason covers East County for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached atdave.mason@vcstar.com or 805-437-0232.
