Star power now leads museum-goers

LOS ANGELES — The hair is of biblical proportions: long and silvery, straight out of "The Ten Commandments"; the famous eyes scanning the script are Dr. Zhivago's. But the voice, softly evoking Egypt in a Beverly Hills hotel lobby, is unmistakably that of Omar Sharif, and he is preparing for a new role, this one entirely off-screen.

With just days to go before the L.A. opening of "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," Sharif was in town to lend his voice to a countryman, the boy king. In a few hours, he would head to a Santa Monica, Calif., studio to record the English-language version of the museum audio guide for Tut.

But first: Does Mr. Sharif know that when Tut's treasures last came to the United States, in the 1970s, the now-deceased Orson Welles recorded an audio guide for that show?

The actor, 73, groaned. "I can't compete with that," he joked.

Since Tut II opened June 16, exhibition organizers say 60-65 percent of visitors — twice the usual rate — to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art have plunked down $6, on top of the average $20 exhibition ticket price, to rent the guide and hear the Egyptian actor lead them through the treasures of the tombs.

What they get now, at Tut and most museum exhibits that offer a guide, is far removed from the straightforward recordings of the past. Changing expectations on the part of gallery-goers primed by a media-saturated society are prompting museums to demand Hollywood-style production values coupled with star power.

If you can watch a movie on your phone and tote your entire music library in an iPod, why should your audio guide be any less entertaining? And who better than a personality — recognizable, quirky or just cool — to meet the demands of an audience used to holding state-of-the-art entertainment, quite literally, in the palm of its hand?

"I think audio tours are much more sophisticated than they were even 10 years ago," said Bradley Klein, creative director of Acoustiguide Inc., a New York-based producer of museum and other audio guides and tours. "They grew out of gallery lectures, where you have a curator speaking, and it can come off rather dry. The goal for us now is to present a rich mix of voices that will be more entertaining and have a higher production value."

These days, guides are incorporating not only narration but also unscripted interviews, archival recordings, poetry, music and, in a few cases, images.

Jane Burton, curator of interpretation for the Tate Modern in London, said: "It has partly to do with public expectation — there are increases in what we expect on arts programming on TV, for instance. It's a reflection of changing views on the history of art."

Although anonymous voice actors are paid for their services, even the biggest stars generally donate their time — otherwise most nonprofit museums couldn't afford them.

Jane Burrell, assistant vice president for education at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, said that although it varies with each exhibition, the museum looks for "the voice of someone who is connected in some way, either as a collector, someone who is very interested in that area, or someone who speaks for that community."

The day after Sharif's recording session for Tut, another celebrity recorded the script for the show in Spanish: Jorge Ramos, a Miami-based evening news co-anchor for Univision Communications, the Spanish-language network. Ramos has no particular connection with Tut, but he believes he has the right voice for the diverse Spanish-speaking communities in the cities where Tut II will tour — Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Chicago; and Philadelphia — after the L.A. run ends Nov. 15. The guide is being offered in English and Spanish only; the Sharif and Ramos versions will travel with the show.

"Latinos are very sensitive to different accents," Ramos said from Miami, where he recorded. "I sort of lost my Mexican accent, and that's what they were looking for in this case — some sort of neutral accent that could be understood on both coasts and in different Hispanic communities: Puerto Ricans on the East Coast, Cubans in Fort Lauderdale and Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles."

Sharif's connection to Tut II is more personal: Along with being a longtime promoter of his nation's culture, he is a friend of Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief antiquities official and the person primarily responsible for the return tour of Tut's artifacts.

It seemed only natural, Sharif said, that just after playing Jethro in "The Ten Commandments" — a big-budget ABC miniseries to air next season — he would volunteer to read about 58 pages of Tut text, and agonize over the pronunciation of ancient Egyptian names. "Tutankhamun's wife's name was Ankhesenamun, and it's in there a few times," he said, eyebrows raised in mock horror. (The name is pronounced onk-sen-a-MOON.)

Not to worry. Larry Moss, a Santa Monica acting coach and veteran voice-over artist, visited the Tut exhibition and gave Sharif an A for his audio. "He has a very intimate connection: 'Come, I am going to give you a personal tour,' " Moss said by telephone, lapsing into an uncanny imitation of Sharif's hushed tone.

Because guides are expensive to produce and distribute, museums carefully project and monitor the "take-up" or "pickup" rate — that is, how many museum-goers will choose to use a particular one. Blockbuster exhibitions, with high attendance rates, are thus most likely to offer guides. They're also where they're most needed: It can be almost impossible to hear or follow a docent tour when the hordes storm the galleries.

Pamela Glintenkamp of Sandpail Productions, a Los Angeles company that produces audio guides, said that although a celebrity voice can be a draw, pickup rate is influenced more by the exhibition subject matter. The average museum-goer, she said, is more attracted to, say, the romantic stories of Impressionist painters than to theories of minimalist art, and so more likely to rent the recording.

For Tut II, with the pickup rate double what's typical, the museum has had to bring in additional player equipment, according to GolinHarris International, the PR firm handling publicity for Tut.