Theatre Nerds: The success of a Broadway production might seem like it depends on its leading actor or a celebrity name, but the show literally could not go on without the extreme flexibility and talent of the understudy working in the ensemble night after night or the swing/standby backstage and on call, waiting for the stage manager to exclaim “ You’re on!” These four actors describe the good, the mishaps, and the hilarious behind the scenes antics of New York stage musicals.
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The job of an understudy sounds like an incredibly difficult one without all the glory of the usual actors. Learning multiple roles and being able to pull their choreography, lines, and songs off the top of your hat sounds like an interesting challenge. All of the actors seem to take pride in the fact that they can do that and they have the ability to truly affect the show. The last actress said that she really enjoyed playing a polar opposite type of characters her normal role one night. Actors travel or perform with shows for years at a time and this sounds like an awesome way to change it up to keep it interesting, and maybe they’ll even get their big break. THe other thing that is super impressive is their ability to quickly switch directions and inhabit a completely different role within a short amount of time to curtain. I can imagine it’s a thankless job much of the time, but it's necessary for the show to go on.
I think it is really awesome to hear what understudies, swings, standbys, and replacements think about their role in the theatrical process. I know of a few people who even make careers out of being really good ensemble swings (particularly dancers) because they really enjoy the work. One of the reasons I love the work we do is that it is constantly changing and posing new challenges, and what could be more challenging as a performer than having to prepare multiple characters and be just as good across the board? It is also nice to hear that the entire weight of the production didn't fall onto them, and that the creative and production teams were supportive and accommodating to the performers. Like many of the jobs in theatre, this is a thankless job but a vital one nonetheless, so it is great to hear from the performers themselves and give them the recognition they deserve.
I believe the difference between an amateur and a professional understudy is in whether they feel envious towards the leading actors or not. Despite the eagerness for obtaining a chance being certainly important, wishing evil to the leading actors is totally unacceptable. I have always thought that standbys are psychologically much more intense than the leading actors because they are always in unstable position and, of course, they have less practice of the leading roles. Moreover, under the circumstance, they must serve their daily roles perfectly as a precondition. Nevertheless, I love how the way four actors sharing their experiences is full of excitement. They are surely professional understudies fulfilling their mission.
In addition, their experiences emphasize the importance of how the stage and production managers interact with understudies. Managers and other crew members providing understudies the environment where they can stabilize their minds under stress is crucial for the shows to succeed.
This article paints an interesting and not so truthful picture of being an understudy, swing, standby or replacement or at least not a good way of showing the life of an understudy, swing, standby, or replacement. I think this article should be titled the awesome things of the understudy, swing, standby, or replacement. I know one of the people who was interviewed in this article and they have told me about how horrible it is waiting on a long-running show to play a role once or twice in a six month period. The life of an understudy in my understanding from friends is very boring. I think this article does a great job of showing the job of someone who gets to go on but does a poor job of actually telling the story of what the day to day life of an understudy, swing, standby, or replacement is. I understand that this article is on a website called “theatrenerds.com” and so people aren’t probably looking for a real answer but I hate these one sided articles that paint a gloried picture of the profession.
I've got to disagree with Alexander on this one, I think that this article views being an understudy, swing, and standby as being a good thing and it should be. Constantly, actors are being told how important being a standby is to a show, and it is! Yes, its not being a starring role in a show, and yes that may not be the goal of certain actors but hey its a job and if you want to originate a role or be a part of something in a higher role and don't care about being unemployed for possibly a while, go ahead and do it. Coming from a stage management standpoint, having these people in the company can be life saver and really does make the show go on. Really, it is a pivotal part of a company, and does not go under appreciated by anyone. Even now, Equity is going to raise the amount of required swings on a broadway show because they are highly necessary and in a business where people are expected to go on 6 days a week sometimes twice a day, swings make it possible for people to call in sick.
The role of the understudy is one that I believe the theatre community undermines greatly. The first impression of the role for many people is that it’s “second choice”, but an understudy works just as hard, if not harder than the actual lead role. For one of the shows I worked on, during one of the performances the lead actress lost her voice during the intermission. Luckily, the understudy was there and covered where she left off immediately. The understudy performed for her for almost every performance until her voice recovered for the final show. Stories from the article reminded me of this moment because it was right there when I realized how essential the position is for a show. The dedication and work the understudy puts into their role is admirable and is a challenge for any actor to accomplish. If an actor can pull off the role of understudy, they can pull off any role.
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