Seussical - Thomas Murphy
Thomas Murphy's percussion setup for Seussical at the Phoenix Theater Company in Phoenix, Arizona.
Thomas' write-up and gear list below photos.
Thomas:
"Seussical The Musical was an extremely fun show to play! It has a good mix of Latin, mallets, timpani and accessories with very little downtime. Vibes and glockenspiel needed to be in close proximity due to very fast changes. I elected to put the Latin station in the back due to quite a few fermatas on timpani and used a clip-on mirror for sight lines. Once the Latin portions got going, the tempo was very stable.
The two Miller Machines were indispensable. To leave clear access to all the auxiliary instruments, the LP Mini-Everything Rack was placed behind the tray table post at an angle. This still allowed dampening on the triangle. The Finger Cymbal Machine was especially useful in #22 Solla Sollew while I played with the djembe.
One main music stand was used with two secondary stands (vibes/chimes and Latin/timpani). The two clip on mirrors enabled good sight lines and were purchased from Amazon.
The marimba part was played on vibes during #26A Havin’ A Hunch Part 2, and on xylophone during the dictated section of #26B Havin’ A Hunch Part 3. There’s also one pop gun note in the show, but that number was cut from our production.
I typically use my Yamaha MXL-32AF Pit Xylophone, which works very well for tight setups. However the book had many passages with low range, so I borrowed a Musser M50 Xylophone. Also borrowed were the Zildjian crotales and Deagan chimes.
Special thanks to Phoenix Theater’s drummer Mark Stolper!
Equipment List:
- Acme Siren Whistle
- Clip-On Mirror VOXITA Brand 7.5" x 3.5" x 3.5" very useful!
- Cosmic Percussion Congas 12” and 13” (Remo Skyndeep Heads)
- Counter Bell
- Deagan Glockenspiel
- Djembe 12” (on Gibraltar Djembe Stand)
- LP Aspire Cowbell 6”
- LP Cabasa
- LP Generation III Bongos
- LP Granite Blocks (only need the top row of three)
- LP Jam Tamb
- LP Percussion Table LP760A (only main table, no side extensions)
- LP Salsa Cowbell 8”
- LP Timbale 13"
- LP Timbale Cowbell
- LP Tri-Tone Samba Whistle
- LP Twist Shakers, Loud-Red, Medium-Blue, Soft-Yellow
- LP Vibraslap
- Ludwig Timpani 29” & 26”
- Miller Machine with Tibetan Finger Cymbal
- Miller Machine with Alan Abel Triangle
- Musser Chimes
- Musser M50 Xylophone
- Musser M55 Vibraphone
- Rainstick (in Galaxy Mallet Bag on floor between timpani)
- Ratchet (mounted to edge of tray table)
- Sleigh Bells (suspended)
- Steve Weiss Bell Tree
- Tambourine (headless)
- TreeWorks Chimes
- Washboard (used for the three scrapes)
- Zildjian Constantinople 17” Suspended Cymbal
- Zildjian Crotales
