Live concert experiences of the music for , , and , with full orchestras, are nothing new. Screenings with a full onstage orchestra celebrate watershed scores, create communal experiences of beloved musical themes, and get people to see live music — to say nothing of a hellacious way to end It’s not surprising that a juggernaut film like “ ” would eventually have a North American amphitheater tour of film screenings with a live orchestra. But IndieWire is happy to report that “Barbie’s” concert era has come together in the most “ ” way possible.
Folks looking to see the film with a live instrumental performance of Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s score — their songs — will be treated to the Barbieland Sinfonietta, an all-female orchestra conducted by Macy Schmidt. Schmidt, the first woman of color to work as a Broadway orchestrator, has taken her love of music, musicals, and particularly the instrumental overtures of musicals into the worlds of TV and film before; the Sinfonietta, also made up predominantly of women of color, performed an orchestral, live version of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” in New York last year. That experience solidified for Schmidt what the true pleasures of live concert screenings are, and also areas where the experience could be made more immersive.
“There’s obviously an established tradition of these kinds of live score events, often with legacy composers and very serious scores,” Schmidt told IndieWire. .