Is DEI Destroying the Core of Broadway's Pit Orchestras?
Beneath the bright lights of Broadway lies a hiring culture that, while historically competitive and merit-driven, is now being reshaped by ideology and orthodoxy. In my recent podcast episode, I explore how Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) initiatives in Broadway’s pit orchestras are no longer about fairness or merit; they’re actively promoting discrimination.
The Reality of Pit Orchestra Hiring
Landing a Broadway pit gig has never been easy. It’s not your typical job application with a résumé and audition process. It’s based on relationships, reputation, proven skill, and an organic network built over years of hard work, dedication, and persistence. Contractors, music directors, and often music supervisors who are members of the AFM (American Federation of Musicians) are responsible for hiring the music department and musicians for each production. Fewer than 400 musicians are hired each season out of more than 5,400 union members. It’s competitive for a reason: these are high-stakes, and the top of the commercial theatre food chain.
Aspiring musicians don’t get handed these jobs. They grind and persist. Many study privately with current players, attend countless shows, and network relentlessly. I know, because I did this in my 20s. I used the AFM directory and cold-emailed dozens of music directors, sat in pits, learned the culture, and absorbed as much information as possible. There are no shortcuts to this and it could take years before getting on a sub list to play a show.
How Other Institutions Do It
Contrast this with how other top-tier institutions handle hiring. The Metropolitan Opera uses blind auditions and applicants play behind a screen where those who are responsible for choosing a musician only hears the sound. No one sees your face, your gender, or your skin color—just your skill. Radio City’s orchestra holds formal auditions every year for the Christmas Spectacular around August to September. An email goes out notifying all the AFM members of the opportunity and invites musicians to apply and audition. It's also highly competitive, but it’s transparent and there is a formal audition and application process. Perhaps Broadway’s informal process ought to adopt a similar approach to hiring pit musicians.
Enter DEIA... Ideology Over Ability
Now, organizations like The Dramatists Guild, MUSE, Rise Theatre, Maestra Music, Inc., BIPOC Arts, ICOC and a seemingly never ending slew of organizations and arts companies are pushing to reshape and devolve the industry. They collect and use demographic data to promote identity-first directories and encourage contractors to prioritize “representation” over readiness. This isn’t equity—it’s social engineering and discriminatory.
Let’s be honest: if a white, male musician were selected because of race and gender, it would be called discrimination. So why is it acceptable when the inverse occurs? DEIA programs attempt to fix disparities not by expanding opportunity but by artificially shifting outcomes, ignoring the years of discipline and craft that musicians have invested.
The Assumptions Behind the Ideology
DEIA initiatives are based on a flawed assumption that all demographic statistical disparities are the result of implicit bias. How do we quantify that assumption? Blindly acting on assumptions without knowing the "why" is reckless, premature, and a dangerous message to send. If we applied that logic consistently, we’d be accusing the NBA, tech startups, or construction crews of systemic implicit bias too. Here are some more statistics within the United States:
77% of Teachers are Female (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/24/key-facts-about-public-school-teachers-in-the-u-s/)
75.4% of Dancers & Choreographers are Female (https://datausa.io/profile/soc/dancers-choreographers)
88.5% of Nurses are Female (https://www.registerednursing.org/articles/50-nursing-statistics/)
93.8% of Construction Workers are Male (https://www.ceacisp.org/news/construction-worker-demographics-us)
70.4% of NBA Players are Black Men (https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38156961/nba-grade-racial-gender-hiring-practices)
~70% of Stage Managers are Women (https://www.stagemanagersurvey.com/uploads/6/4/6/6/6466686/2023survey_english.pdf)
93% of Prisoners are Men (https://www.ussc.gov/research/quick-facts/individuals-federal-bureau-prisons)
Are we really expected to impose demographic parity in every field where numbers aren't evenly split? Are we to assume every imbalance is proof of bias or active discrimination? By that logic, maybe more women should commit crimes to balance out the prison population. (Relax—I'm being facetious.) The truth is, disparities exist for a lot of reasons: culture, interest, education, experience, personal choice, desire. But DEIA reduces all of that complexity to race and gender, as if identity alone explains everything. It doesn’t, and basing decisions solely on numbers is reckless, intellectually lazy, and completely detached from reality.
I challenged these assumptions directly at a recent TRU (Theatre Resources Unlimited) Zoom roundtable. I pointed out how labeling someone “underrepresented” based purely on appearance is prejudiced and reductive. It ignores the full context of someone’s upbringing, access, mental health status, willingness to learn and improve. It’s a shallow metric—and a dangerous one.
The Real Diversity Problem Is in The Audience
If Broadway truly wants to diversify, it should start with the audience. According to the Broadway League’s 2023–2024 report, 84% of attendees aged 25+ have a college degree, and the average household income is $276,375. Over 70% of ticket buyers come from outside NYC and women make up 65% of the audience demographics. (https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Broadway-League-Releases-Annual-Demographics-Report-For-2023-24-Season-20250204)
Broadway has a class and economic problem, where average ticket prices are around $157.60 each, according to the Broadway League report. The highest ticket prices currently are around $900 (Othello) and the lowest being around $85 for TKTS. Although, since 70% of the audience is from out-of-town, they may not be aware of the TKTS discounts or want to risk last-minute purchases if they are paying to come to NYC.
These organizations and outreach should focus on lowering economic and cultural barriers to the art form itself through ticket subsidies, school outreach, and community-based programming. That’s real accessibility. That's where the work needs to happen. These organizations only seek to satisfy themselves and their agenda by excluding groups who don't identify with their own.
Being Silenced and Censored
Perhaps the most revealing part of this entire shift is how dissent is treated. Criticism of DEIA—no matter how reasoned, respectful, or evidence-based—isn’t debated, it’s punished. Silence. Censorship. Legal threats. Being blocked, blacklisted, or accused of defamation. I’ve been told outright that I don’t deserve a seat at the table because I’m a white man, as if my identity alone disqualifies me from participating in the conversation. That is discrimination & prejudice; full stop.
Once upon a time, disagreement was the engine of intellectual progress. Now, it’s treated like a moral crime. When a system can’t tolerate questions, it usually means the foundation is fragile. If there’s truly nothing to hide, then why run away from scrutiny? Why silence voices rather than answer them?
Don’t Mistake Optics for Justice
If Broadway genuinely wants to pursue equity, it must be merit based and devoid of identity. DEI, as it stands, doesn’t dismantle bias, it repackages it under a new banner and punishes anyone who attempts to challenge it. It replaces individual excellence with ideological orthodoxy, demanding conformity to collective identity over personal skill, craft, and hard work all in the name of progress.
Fairness has never meant guaranteed outcomes. It means equal opportunity for all regardless of race, gender, identity. Not engineered and forced results based on numbers without knowing “why”. There has never been a direct pipeline to Broadway pit work. These jobs weren’t gifted to people, they were earned through obsession, sacrifice, and relentless persistence. No spreadsheet of demographic data can account for the late nights, the missed birthdays, the unpaid gigs, or the years spent building trust and skill behind the scenes. To ignore that grind is to spit in the face of every musician who gave up comfort, stability, and even a family to be part of this industry.
If Broadway’s idea of evolution is replacing excellence with ideology, it’s not evolving. It’s collapsing.
Skill built this industry, and appeasement will kill it.