Understudies Need Some Love

Greetings, fellow Phans! Well, the semester is officially over for me. I'm now enjoying summer vacation and should be able to blog here more frequently. Also, I'll be going to see POTO in Las Vegas in a little over a month, so you can expect a review of that performance. I'm definitely excited to see the stage show again, and I've heard great things about the cast! Speaking of stage show casts...

Earlier this year, there was a bit of antagonism over at the British entertainment site The Stage regarding a series of letters from theatre fans complaining about seeing understudies at performances. The most prominent was this one from Paul Hanson. Actress Gina Beck (who formerly played Christine in the West End production of POTO) wrote impassioned defenses of understudies on Twitter and The Stage's Newsblog.

Personally, I agree with Gina Beck's points. Understudies are typically just as talented as the main stars -- in fact, some are arguably more so, since they have to be able to cover multiple roles. The only thing many of them lack is name recognition, which they can get if they make a good impression when covering for the principal actors. I've only gotten to see POTO live once, but at that performance, we had an understudy Auctioneer who I thought was excellent. In addition, there are some understudies I've heard in various other casts who I ended up preferring to the "stars."

And then there are standby performers... I wasn't clear on what the difference was between a "standby" and an "understudy," but according to some posts on BroadwayWorld's forums, the main difference is that a standby covers for just one role, whereas the understudy normally performs in the ensemble and only goes on in a leading role if the principal and standby are both out. In any case, last year, I went to a performance of "Wicked" (as detailed here.) As you can see from that post, I really, really liked the standby I saw in the leading role. Now maybe the principal would have blown me away as well; I have no way of knowing unless a chance to see her live comes along (though I did hear clips of her and liked her a lot).

In any case, my main point here is that understudies and standbys can be just as great as the principal actors. Perhaps the prevalent trend of "stunt casting" -- putting popular film, TV, or pop music stars with little (if any) musical theatre experience in the leading roles -- may have something to do with the recent rush of understudies (if the problem is nearly as bad as the writers to The Stage have commented; I have my doubts on that). I don't think too many people who saw Rob Evan rather than David Hasselhoff in Jekyll & Hyde came away disappointed, after all. But anyway... if you see a live show and an understudy is going to be playing the main part, send him/her some good thoughts. Even if that person is standing in for a star you really like, I recommend you go in with an open mind. Maybe that person will be your cup of tea, or maybe not... but in the end, understudies and standbys are necessary to helping the show continue. Many of today's stars were yesterday's understudies, and as a brilliant theatrical personality once wrote, the show must go on.


I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.