The "actor-muso" style refers to a show, typically a musical, where the actors provide their own musical accompaniment rather than relying on a separate group of musicians. In a conventional musical, the actors will sing the lyrics of a musical number, while an orchestra in the orchestra pit plays the instruments. In an actor-muso show, the actors play the characters on stage and play all the musical instruments used in the show's score.
This can be an artistic choice. A director can deploy Significant Double Casting and Rule of Symbolism by having a particular character play a certain instrument. It can also be a case of economising on the number of people needed to mount a particular production, although that does potentially leave you with the challenge of recruiting people who can sing, dance, act and play all the required instruments between them.
There are no hard and fast rules on whether or not the instruments are part of the Audio Diegesis. In the same play, you could have a character give an In-Universe performance with their instrument and another where that same character delivers some diegetic dialogue while simultaneously playing a non-diegetic underscore to the conversation.
Examples:
Literature
- Brokeback Mountain: Downplayed in the 2023 "play with music" theatrical adaptation. The Balladeer who sings lead on the songs also plays Jack's mother in one scene towards the end of the play. Similarly, one of the backup singers plays Lureen when she appears onstage in one scene during a phone call.
Live-Action TV
- Glee: Since most of the musical performances are sung in-universe, the backing music is usually accounted for, whether it's a boombox or live musicians like Brad the pianist or various band kids (though they're never given characterization; they're just...there). Also, several of the Glee kids play instruments based on their actors' real-life talents—Sam plays guitar, Finn plays the drums, Blaine plays piano, etc.—and these often factor into their performances.
Theatre
- Amélie: The 2019-2021 production that toured the UK and ran in Newbury and London used this approach. Amélie herself does not play any instruments until fairly late in the action of the story.
- The 2022 Curve Leicester production
of the Carole King musical Beautiful uses this approach.
- Cabaret: Possible the first example of this, the 1966 original had a mini band onstage that did play, but to be fair, the 1998 Broadway Revival is a better example.
- The Cheviot The Stag And The Black Black Oil: The original touring cast of the play also doubled as The Force Ten Gaels, a Scottish country dance band who would provide musical accompaniment for the show and the after-show ceilidh.
- Company (Sondheim): The 2006 John Doyle Broadway production had all the characters except Bobby playing instruments as a metaphor for his perpetually single state. At the end, once he is finally ready to take the first step toward commitment, he accompanies himself on the piano.
- The Hired Man: The trailer for the 2019 Queen's Theatre Hornchurch production shows a backing band with a piano and guitar immediately behind the main turntable stage, but most of the other instruments appear to have been played by the cast.
- Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 uses this approach. Pierre in particular is seated at the piano for much of the show, and playing accordion when not seated. The original Pierre was the composer and music director Dave Malloy. Josh Groban had to learn the accordion when he stepped into the role.
- Once: All the songs are diegetic in-universe performances.
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: The John Doyle production of the show that ran on the West and Broadway in the early 2000s used this approach.
- Sunset Boulevard: There was a revival in 2008-09 which reimagined the piece as intimate and the cast doing this trope.
- Return to the Forbidden Planet: Conceived as a Rock & Roll Jukebox Musical, the actors in the cast typically also play all the instruments used in the songs in the style of a rock band (guitar, keyboard, drums, etc.).
