how much for a musical?

[Manny]

a piano player I know has gotten me interested in playing with him in some high school musicals. this is the first time I would be playing outside of my own school musical, and it is the first time they're offering to pay for it...

so my question is how much should I get? the actual musical is tues through sat. with a matenee on saturday. theres about 2 weeks of practice before that for about 3-4 hours a day. Since this is my first one and I am not a professional, I can understand it being low paying; also since the budget would be small for a many musicals...I was thinking maybe 50 dollars?? I really don't know, It is possible that I might do it for free just for the experience the first few times.

[MojoBari]

You probably should just have them pay you whatever they think is fair. You may get more than $50 if they do some quick math of the hours you are logging vs minimum wage.

I our area, pit players get up to $50 per performance and rehearsal. There is typically only 2 rehearsals (that gives you an idea of the caliber of players) with the full pit and 4 performances. That comes to $300/person. Considering the time put in, this is 1/2 to 1/3 what a pro musician would normally get per night for gig.

Some schools in our area pay half this rate ($150) and then can only get players who can not really cover all the parts. Plus, there is usually more rehearsals. So now there is more time involved, less pay, and lower caliber players. I'll take these jobs if they are only a few minutes drive from my house. I like playing school shows and interacting with the students. They do usually make enough money to pay the pit, but not always.

[TerraNova]

Manny,

I play sax and flute in musicals in my city (in Oz), and for the musical we are leading up to now, I will get paid minimum AU$200, maybe up AU$400... Thats about US$140-$280... Not bad for a bit of light entertainment and some sight reading on the side. :)