Thinking today of my friend Karen, who has been playing violin in the “Phantom of the Opera” pit for 35 years (!) and in an hour will be playing there for the last time. Regardless of what you think about the show, it’s not a happy day. She’s losing a job, benefits, lifelong friends. Audiences are losing one of the very last big Broadway orchestras. Me? I would have lost my mind after Year Two of non-stop Andrew Lloyd Webber, but that just increases my respect for the (literally) unseen theater workers who make B’way behemoths happen and get thrown to the curb when the shows close.

npr.org/2023/04/15/1169…