On Broadway: This musician is in the pits, but far from blue

On one of his daily walks across Manhattan, Jeffrey Lee Campbell pauses in front of the Gershwin Theatre on West 51st Street. Standing beneath the theater’s signs for the musical “Wicked,” he peers into the lobby. Decades ago, he worked the concession stand here alongside a young Aaron Sorkin, the now-famous writer and director. 

“See that black door there, the checkroom? I was standing in that room in 1987 when Prince walked through here,” marvels Mr. Campbell. “When I walk to these places that are still standing, I try to look for ‘1987 Jeff’ standing in that door to remind me to stay humble.”

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Campbell has been an in-demand guitarist for Broadway musicals. But when the pandemic shut down the Great White Way, he had the humbling experience of being unemployed for a year and a half. Many people in his industry abandoned the city. To lift his spirits, Mr. Campbell adopted the routine of a daily walk. 

The guitar player recently invited the Monitor to join him for a trek of New York’s musical landmarks, including those in his own storied career. In a four-hour conversation spanning more than 45 blocks, the guitarist offered insights into the lives of musicians who toil in “the pit” beneath the stage. Longevity in the competitive profession requires qualities that helped him weather the pandemic: periodic reinvention, flexibility, and a willingness to check one’s ego at the stage door. They’re innate to Mr. Campbell, says saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who has known Mr. Campbell for three decades.

“The Broadway of now is not the Broadway of my childhood,” says Mr. Marsalis. “It’s a lot of pop music and folk music. ... You have to be able to play a lot of different styles. And you have to play in a way that you understand that there are singers and talkers and dancers onstage. It’s such a perfect thing for Jeffrey.”

Mr. Campbell begins his walking journey near Times Square and heads uptown. His pace, a lingering vestige of his North Carolina upbringing, is as leisurely as the ascent of the December sun overhead. As the guitarist passes billboards for “The Music Man” and “Caroline, or Change,” he admits he had zero interest in musical theater when he moved to New York. 

When he arrives at 1776 Broadway, he proclaims, “This is the building that changed my life.” It was here that he first met the manager for Sting. Mr. Campbell successfully auditioned to become the guitar player for the rock star’s 1987-88 tour – a feat for a newcomer. Sting told him, “I’m going to make you famous.”

Matthew Murphy

The musical “MJ,” starring Myles Frost as Michael Jackson, is in previews and aims to open Feb. 1. Band member Jeffrey Lee Campbell says the show has revived his joy for music.

Mr. Campbell toured the world in private jets, played a spotlight solo on “Saturday Night Live,” and hung out with the likes of Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen. But afterward, Sting hired an entirely new band for the next album and tour. Mr. Campbell went from playing Madison Square Garden to performing in a wedding band on weekends. 

“I thought I had cracked the code of showbiz,” says the musician. “As I joke to people, ‘I spent the next 35 years working my way down the ladder of success.’” 

Resuming his walk, the musician tells the story about his next big break. A decade later, on the recommendation of a friend, he got added to a list of substitute musicians for Broadway shows. 

“I’ve had guys call me at quarter to 8 and say, ‘Can you play the show tonight?’” he recalls. “I’d take my food out of the oven and put on my clothes, and I’m there 10 minutes later, ready to play.” 

It’s a difficult circuit to break into. Staying on the list of approved subs means you have to impress conductors in the orchestra pits. Mr. Campbell prepared with the same fastidious attention to detail that he’d applied to the Sting audition. 

“He wasn’t a flashy instrumentalist, but he was a musician,” recalls Mr. Marsalis, who was on the same tour with Sting. “He knew how to play guitar to accompany the band and to support Sting’s music, which means that you’re essentially invisible. If you’re doing your job well, no one notices you.” 

Being comfortable with anonymity is requisite for Broadway musicians. They play unseen in an orchestra pit. After several years of subbing, Mr. Campbell landed his first full-time gig on “Saturday Night Fever.” His subsequent credits include “Seussical” and “School of Rock.” He played on “Mamma Mia!” for 14 years. Mr. Campbell’s philosophy, as noted in one of his books, is “Stay positive. You’re always exactly where you’re supposed to be.”

Strolling through Central Park, where our noses perk up at the aroma of a street vendor’s roasted peanuts, Mr. Campbell says that playing shows – eight per week across six days – is a meditative experience. He’s so attuned to his musical cues that he can read a book between songs. But he challenges himself to play better each performance.

“I have friends who would not want to play the same music night after night, but as my fellow guitarist in ‘Mamma Mia!’ said, ‘Go on the road with Lady Gaga and let me know how much the music changes every night,’” he says.

In March 2020, after just his third performance in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” Broadway shuttered. During the seemingly endless hiatus, he revisited an avenue of creativity that he’s found invigorating and rewarding: writing. He’s almost finished a memoir titled “The Fuzz Box Diaries.” It’s a follow-up to his 2018 book, “Do Stand So Close: My Improbable Adventure as Sting’s Guitarist.” The books are a result of him contemplating his legacy. “I would trade every note I’ve ever played to say I wrote ‘Crazy’ by Willie Nelson or ‘Every Breath You Take’ by Sting,” says Mr. Campbell. “My fantasy was always to hear a car going on the street blasting a song I’d written.”

But he’s arrived at a feeling of gratitude for achieving a career in music.

“You can be on the New York Yankees and still not be Mickey Mantle,” he says. “The hardest threshold to cross is being a full-time musician, to not have a day job. Most people end up still having to work somewhere else and they play music for fun.” 

The guitarist’s circuitous walk ends outside the Neil Simon Theatre on 52nd Street. The marquee features a silhouette image of Michael Jackson for the musical “MJ.” It’s a brand-new show, slated to officially open Feb. 1. Mr. Campbell is its rhythm guitarist. 

Two days earlier, on his way to the musical’s first preview performance, Mr. Campbell wondered why there was a line of people around the block. It dawned on him that they’d come to see “MJ.” During the standing ovations, the catharsis was similar to when “Mamma Mia!” resumed days after the attacks of Sept. 11. Maybe more so, he says. 

His emotions have also been heightened by this show’s material. Once music became a vocation, he’d lost some of the innocent joy he first felt as a budding guitarist. Michael Jackson’s catalog has revived it. 

“When I start playing that opening guitar lick on ‘I Want You Back,’ I’m 10 years old again,” says Mr. Campbell. “And the intention and the passion that I play it [with], and the memories that come flooding back to me from playing those songs, it’s just overwhelming.”