A Chorus Line No. 37 - Buzz Brauner

Original Broadway Musician 1975-1983

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Buzz Brauner in front of the Shubert Theatre. Photo by Rich Gigli - Bergen Record - 1980

“My father, Buzz, played 2nd reed in the orchestra of A Chorus Line from its conception at the public theater until the record-breaking gala performance in 1983. At that time, he left the show after 8 years due to the onset of Parkinson's disease. (I'm sure he would have played the entire run if he remained healthy)  Well....the pit of the Shubert Theater was covered in black cloth so that the audience could not see the orchestra, thus creating the illusion of an audition. In fact, ACL was one of the first shows to include the musician's names in the Playbill so that the audience would realize it was a live orchestra. 

“During many of the performances, audience members in the first row would lose various personal items into the orchestra pit through a gap in the cloth. Items like umbrellas, playbills, and even shoes would make their way under the cloth covering dropping into the pit, only to be passed back to the theater goers by a musician from underneath.  My father used to joke that ‘This was the only gig on Broadway where you risked catching 'Athlete's Hair', due to the contact with the patrons' feet.’ 

“Another funny anecdote was that my dad Buzz was initially hesitant to take an ‘off-Broadway' show like A Chorus Line, after playing many hit Broadway shows such as Hello Dolly and 1776 for years during a long successful Broadway career.  Well shortly after opening downtown at the Shakespeare Festival public theater, ACL moved up town to the Shubert, and the rest as they say is history.  Job security indeed….”

Submitted by son Steve Brauner

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Woodwind Master Enjoys Steady Work

by Elaine D’Aurizio

7/3/1980

In 1945, 15-year-old Stanley Brauner lugged his saxophone onto a bus in Brooklyn and headed for Palisades Amusement Park in Cliffside Park to play in Art Mooney's band. Before he was 20, Brauner was playing engagements across the country with the Dorsey Brothers and Les Elgart.

"It was impossible to get a musician during the war - all the eligible men were of draft age," recalls Brauner, who was old enough to blow into a sax but too young to play taps.

Today, with many musicians looking for steady work, Stanley "Buzz" Brauner is still earning a living with his music. Six nights a week he leaves his split-level home in Paramus and beads for Shubert Alley in Manhattan. For the last six years he's been in the orchestra of the hit musical "A Chorus Line."

Brauner's work is also heard on television commercials such as "Reach Out and Touch Someone" (for Bell Telephone), "We Bring Good Things to You" (General Electric), and for other products ranging from flea powder to dog food

Proficient on 22 woodwind instruments, Brauner never had to drop his art to pick up a paycheck. "I feel lucky that I've always loved my work," he said.

Reputation System

At 50, Brauner has earned a good name and made plenty of connections. "This is a business where jobs are basically based on a reputation system," he said. Brauner was lucky to break into the business when there was a shortage of musicians, but the rest wasn't so easy. There were years of one-nighters, seven days a week, 10 months a year, with big bands across the country. "I used to think they threw darts on a board to arrange those bookings." Band members would check into hotels in the morning, sleep all day, get on the bus, and repeat the routine the next day. The musicians changed on the bus, hanging their suits on a pole in the back. That formed a screen behind which the female vocalist changed.

Corporal Buzz Brauner keeping his flute chops up in the Fort Dix barracks. Tommy Dorsey had his vacated tenor sax chair waiting for him after his discharge from the service.

Working with the Dorsey Brothers, Ted Lewis, Buddy Morrow, and Elgart was understand. ably exciting. "People would throng around the band and swing — you knew they got the musical message."

Brauner was drafted in the mid 1950's and worked on a television program at Fort Dix called "The Soldier Parade." After his discharge, he got his job back with Tommy Dorsey. Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey brothers died within a year of each other and at 30, Brauner began to look for roots and stability.

Broadway Musician

"The only real alternative was [performing in] theaters," be said. So Brauner set out to establish himself as a Broadway musician, playing engagements at the Roxy, Radio City Music Hall, and spots with television bands on the "Tonight Show" and Merv Griffin's television program.

He married his wife, Marilyn, In the early 1960s while playing in the pit band for "Bravo Giovanni," his first Broadway show, Between engagements, he filled in playing at bar mitzvahs and weddings.

Audiences have heard Brauner in performances of "Fiddler on the Roof," "1776," "See-Saw," and "Hello, Dolly!" But "A Chorus Line" has been his longest run.

A musician playing one instrument starts at $425 a week. Brauner plays six for "Chorus Line"

"One of the hardest things is to maintain the musical excitement, the freshness, and the vigor that you had when the play first opened," Brauner says. "But in this show, the music is very varied so I never get bored."