Understudies:biggest disappointments/best surprises- Page 2

[promisespromises2]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 3:40pm

Same with the Beautiful post... I saw Sara when Anika was out. Thought she was lovely!

The best experience with missing a lead was visiting London and seeing Wicked. Both leads were out so I got to see Hayley Gallivan as Elphaba and Lucy Van Gasse as Glinda. Hayley was AMAZING and Lucy was not. I saw it again the next day because I really wanted to see Louise Dearman in the part.

Hayley and Louise played such different Elphabas, but I loved Hayley's singing more and I loved Louise's acting more.

[RachelJean]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 4:20pm

A week after winning the Tony, James Monroe Iglehart was out of Aladdin for the weekend. Michael James Scott was on, and he was phenomenal. He's just as talented as Iglehart, if not better!

[PepperedShepherd]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 4:30pm

A couple of "Best Surprises" popped into my head the minute I saw the thread title -- so imagine my shock at seeing one of them listed as a "Biggest Disappointment" instead. That would be Chris Holland in the West End LES MIZ. Unlike hanschens, I thought Chris was excellent: Spot-on vocally, as well as doing a terrific job of actually *acting* the role (instead of merely striking poses while singing). He may not attain the heights of Colm or Ramin, but he was still pretty damn good.

Another "Best Surprise" was Ryan Bondy as Elder Price in MORMON at the Pantages last May. I was initially bummed that David Larsen was not on that night -- David being one of my favorite Prices -- but Ryan quickly put my qualms to rest. He was so good, in fact, I did something I almost never do: Went back to the stage door to tell him! (It turned out that it was only his 13th performance in the role, which made it even more impressive to me.)

Although I have one or two candidates for "Biggest Disappointment", I think I'll keep those to myself. Being an understudy is tough enough, without me adding any flak. Now, if we were talking "Biggest Disappointment by a NON-Understudy", I would have more to say....

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 6:44pm

Best Surprises: Billy Thighe as Lewis in Pippin. Emily Rozek, Victoria Matlock, and Nicolas Dromard in Wicked (which I went into expecting the worst, as all 3 leads were out)

[Matt1]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 7:12pm

Yes, Lilla Crawford seemed old for the role but she sang so much better than Taylor. Taylor acted the role better.

[Jersey Girl2]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 9:11pm

I always get a bit worried when the little white papers fall out of the program. When I saw Bullets Over Broadway Zach Braff was out. I never looked at the playbill until after the show. I had no idea Andy Jones was an understudy. He was fantastic!

[eyehrtfood]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 9:17pm

Two understudies I've seen have stuck with me for years... Janine LaManna - who went on for Chita in Spider Woman during its Chicago tour run, when Chita broke her leg(?), was fantastic. Didn't realize "no Chita" until the curtain rose... and she definitely won audience over (Carole Lawrence was soon brought in to finish run).

And Barbara Marineau was on for (the terrific) Betsy Joslyn in the Cincinnati run of the Into the Wood tour one night - and thought she was perhaps the best of the 6-7 Witches I saw (including Bernadette, Phylicia, Dussault, Cleo, Joslyn, etc...)

Finally, more recently, I was as stunned by Aaron Walpole's super Valjean, in the Toronto run of Les MIS, as by the trick the production pulled by printing an entirely new cast insert for that day's performance, which listed Valjean as Walpole, without noting he was either Ramin 's understudy, nor that Ramin wasn't there. Even the cast board in the lobby noted Ramin would be on at that performance - as that's the first thing I checked - and there was no announcement, etc... Only noticed the Walpole trick seconds before the show started - and was a bit angry at the deceit - but Walpole was so good - buy any measure - that it was hard not to love him. (this was not a scheduled/announced Raman Thursday off, day off, etc... it seemingly was a missed Sat night they tried to hide as he was there all surrounding performances.

Updated On: 9/17/14 at 09:17 PM

[MiMiMina]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 9:39pm

Mine is also from a recent trip to POTO. Norm Lewis was out (not one of the scheduled days). Laird Mackintosh was on as the Phantom. At first, I was pretty sad & wished I had picked another day. But by the end of the night, I was Laird's newest fangirl.
And I still got to see Norm eventually, so that worked out well.

Updated On: 9/17/14 at 09:39 PM

[Producer2]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 9:42pm

Sutton was out of Thoroughly Modern Millie! Big disappointment!
Sandy Duncan out of Chicago- the only reason I went back again!
And of course, poor Stockard!

[Pootie2]

Posted: 9/17/14 at 9:51pm

"Sutton was out of Thoroughly Modern Millie! Big disappointment! Sandy Duncan out of Chicago- the only reason I went back again! And of course, poor Stockard!"

You seem to have a comprehension problem with the thread topic/question...

[binau]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 6:00am

Do they? It is consistent with the "biggest disappointment" theme (an additional question was best surprises, but clearly this person has decided not to answer that component).

I missed Patina in PIPPIN .

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 7:03am

I never really had any understudy disappointment. At least none that mattered much. For surprise, I saw Rent twice during Mel B's run. Both times she was out and I got the joy to see both the understudies. The one was pretty good but the other was FANTASTIC. Bonus for dodged the Scary Spice bullet not once, but twice.

Adding this in because it's where my real disappointments were. Replacement disappointment. Those times that I bought tickets far in advance, only to have someone announce their departure before my ticket date. Had that happen twice. First time was Spamalot with Tim Curry (though in the end that worked out because that was the performance that got delayed because of the transit strike and Eric Idle showed up to entertain us... http://www.playbill.com/news/article/idle-chatter-spamalot-creator-ad-libs-while-actors-battle-transit-strike-tr ). The second was for the 2004 La Cage aux Folles Revival. God Love Robert Goulet he's a legend... but I happened to end up at his second performance and man oh man it was a struggle. He only knew about 75% his lines and he was constantly looking to the conductor for blocking directions. Singing voice was great but he needed about another week (or two) of rehearsals to get him comfortable in the show.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 10:13am

as by the trick the production pulled by printing an entirely new cast insert for that day's performance, which listed Valjean as Walpole, without noting he was either Ramin 's understudy, nor that Ramin wasn't there.

It's not a trick. Newsies, Rent, and Book of Mormon (and probably more) all do or did this. It makes for a cleaner list and you can see more accurately who's on for which role. It also avoids confetti of little square cast subs all over the floor.

Sure, the list format doesn't mention who's a cover and who's out, but you can figure that out by reading the cast list in the playbill. This also takes into account any cast changes that might've happened between the time the playbill was printed and when the curtain goes up.

Updated On: 9/18/14 at 10:13 AM

[The Other One]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 10:54am

Biggest surprise? Seeing Sheryl Lee Ralph's understudy go on as Deena Jones around five months into the run of "Dreamgirls." She was brilliant. She was then known as Phylicia Ayers Allen. She was soon known as Phylicia Rashad. I once met her and told her I'd seen her as Deena and she said "you DO go back a long way with me, don't you?". (I later saw Sheryl, and Phylicia was much more impressive.)

Biggest disappointment? I do not recall her name, but early in the run of "Miss Saigon" in London in the fall of 1989 I saw an understudy for Kim. There is so much about the show I did not like I do not know if seeing Lea Salonga would have made much of a difference, but so many people did love the show and Lea did become such a major theater star based on the performance that I have often wondered.

[Patash]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 11:47am

Years ago. Patti Lupone in Anything Goes. The show was late starting, and then later. Finally they made an announcement. Linda Hart would be playing the role of Reno Sweeney. The show started maybe a half hour late.

Gasp! I bet a third of the audience got up and left. The rest of us were treated to a WONDERFUL performance by Linda Hart!

[Pootie2]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 12:02pm

"Do they? It is consistent with the "biggest disappointment" theme (an additional question was best surprises, but clearly this person has decided not to answer that component)."

Yeah, no--The topic is obviously about understudies, not merely Taking Loud Personal Offense For Cast Being Out.

Per topic, (I haven't experienced this myself personally) but when Idina Menzel was out of IF/THEN due to illness particularly around Labor Day, those who stayed have said via social media that her understudy Jackie Burns' performance was still great, and as close to Menzel's performance as possible. Some may prefer her voice over Menzel's too. I expect tourists would be most disappointed in seeing an U/S compared to New Yorkers who can easily see shows multiple times, but this is just a reality of live theatre...

[mike_ant]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 12:08pm

I flew cross-continent for a weekend in NYC to see my muse, Sutton Foster, in "Anything Goes" only to find that she was out sick that particular day! The understudy was good, but she was not Sutton! (And they sung "You're the Top" so fast that it was incomprehensible. Weird!)

Good thing that I also had ticket to see my other hero, Lin-Manuel Miranda in NYCC Encores! "Merrily We Roll Along" and that was phenomenal! So not all was lost that day.

Looking forward to seeing Lin-Manuel's "Hamilton" later this season! :)

[Christoph]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 4:18pm

Like another poster mentioned, I was due to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels right after Norbert Leo Butz won the Tony and the announcement came that we had the understudy, which annoyed me. It turns out that Joe Cassidy was fantastic in the part and I did get to see Norbert in another Tony winning turn later in Catch Me If You Can. I missed Marin Mazzie in Kiss Me Kate and got Patty Goble instead, who was also good. Probably the most amazing instance of pleasant surprise was in the first touring version of the Chicago revival. Charlotte d'Amboise was injured and Belle Callaway replaced her for a few weeks. Callaway was near flawless as Roxie - she could dance, sing and act the hell out the part and was age appropriate to boot. She made co-star Jasmine Guy look like a foolish amateur in comparison. We raved about her to friends and returned a few weeks later with some of them to see the show. Alas, Charlotte was back and could not hold a candle to the understudy, which utterly left us all shocked.

Disappointments: Took my mother to see The Music Man, one of her favorite musicals, largely because of Craig Bierko's rave reviews. He was out and we got Jim Walton, who was pleasant but no where near dynamic enough to carry the show and we left thinking the show was lacking. We returned a few months later and got Bierko this time and the difference was palpable and the stage version ended up becoming one of my mother's favorite stage experiences. Also disappointing was when we had tickets to see the revival of West Side Story on its way to Broadway. I had heard Matt Cavenaugh sing on albums, the internet and TV before and was really interested in what he would do with the role of Tony, since I have been cursed never to have a particularly good Tony in any version I have seen. Unfortunately, Cavenaugh was out due to an injury suffered by a runaway piece of heavy scenery the night before and we got Matthew Hydzik, who was good-looking, pleasant and seemed like the very definition of a placeholder understudy. In this case, I did not get to see Cavenaugh to see his version.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 4:35pm

Carla Stickler as Elphaba was amazing


Eta: Christoph-- do not be disappointed you missed Matt Cavenaugh. I wish he was out of the show when I saw it. He was terrible.


Updated On: 9/18/14 at 04:35 PM

[Melissa25]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 5:18pm

I wish I could have seen Matthew Hydzik. I thought Matt Cavenaugh was miscast.

[JBradshaw]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 6:07pm

@Christoph Belle was nothing short of perfection as Roxie. I saw her in four cities as Roxie plus Broadway many times. Charlotte - injury aside - missed a lot in the late 90s, thankfully it gave Belle the chance to shine and be reviewed in Charlotte's place in some cities (DC)

Not really sure if it's a surprise or not. My first time seeing WICKED - April 2004 - I joked I'd probably miss Kristin (she was out when I saw Charlie Brown, I didn't care was a delightful show) cause a few friends who had recently seen it had Laura Bell as Glinda. I arrived had Kristin but Eden in Idina's place. Heard it was her second time on in the role. She was amazing.

[HighFlyingAdored97]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 6:23pm

I have to mention her because no one else did yet: Donna Vivino as Elphaba (she was the Broadway standby for 3 years.) HOLY SH*T. The girl can sing and riff like nobody's business. And her acting... so subtle and nuanced. During No Good Deed she would flip her hair (the "toss toss" from Popular.) She's one of my favorite Elphabas ever and definitely the best out of the three I saw - Lindsey Mendez, Teal Wicks, and her.

[Emobacca2]

Posted: 9/18/14 at 6:50pm

My first and only time seeing the OBC of Book of Mormon I had Jared Gertner on in place of Josh Gad. I thought the guy was an absolute star and I was so glad that he went on to open the 1NT and West End productions.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Posted: 9/20/14 at 10:19am

In roughly 1990 I saw a production of Big River at the Walnut Street Theater in Philly. They announced before the show that the actor starring as Huck Finn was unable to appear and that his replacement (it wasn't made clear if he was the understudy) had not rehearsed with the cast and did not know all the lines. He would be performing with the script in hand. I was pretty disappointed because I had been looking forward to seeing the original star and the whole script-in-hand thing felt second-rate.

It took maybe eight minutes into the show to completely forget that the script was on the stage. The actor was mesmerizing, in beautiful voice, and adorable. I'll never remember the name of the actor I had hoped to see, but I'll never forget his replacement . . . John Cameron Mitchell.

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 9/20/14 at 9:27pm

I saw Joey de Bettencourt on as Boy the first time I caught Peter and the Starcatchers, and honestly, I preferred him to Adam Chantler-Baret. He was just a little more "kiddish" and a little more outwardly innocent.

The most disappointing one I can think of is getting an understudy for Cassie in the last major Tour of A Chorus Line who just didn't have the magnetism to carry "Music and the Mirror".