Hi, my name is Lucille and I play the reed 3 book; the one with all the sizes of clarinets in the pit orchestra for Cinderella. I would say the normal sized clarinet and larger bass clarinet are fairly normal instruments, but the little Eb clarinet is like a piccolo version of a clarinet and sometimes even more out of tune. When I have the play the dastardly thing, I’m always playing a similar part to our resident pit orchestra piccolo (and flute and alto flute but not playing those instruments now) player, meaning that the high-pitched sound of the piccolo combines with a usually too sharp clarinet squeak. I feel bad for our clarinet/flute player who has to be in the middle of that.
I’ve played in the pit orchestra for 2 other musicals, so I understand that sometimes we must play for a very long time, but at one point we have to play for 30 minutes straight, and still have to have some sort of energy to our music throughout the entire thing. I hope the dancers at least get some moments of rest.
Although there are some very difficult parts, it is still very enjoyable to play the music, so I would imagine it would be very fun to watch. Yes, you are correct, you have been fooled, this is actually me convincing you to come see this very cool show. Please come see Cinderella, as thanks to everyone who have worked on the show it's going to turn out amazing. I hear there's this guy named Tofu (or Toffee? It's really unclear) and he rides on a very very real (not real) horse and there's this girl called Cellarinda of something of the sort and she sings. So, all pretty exciting stuff.
Please don't spoil the show. Not cool.