Bess Gets An Alternate

[wdwfreak]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 12:26pm

Audra McDonald will no longer play the Wednesday evening shows. Alicia Hall Moran will do so.

It seems odd that 6 months in the run it starts just for 3 more months.
Playbill

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:33pm

This reminds me of the random alternates they put on for Cassie towards the end of th 2006 revival of A Chorus Line. Wasn't there 3 different Cassie's every week?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:38pm

I'm really curious why this role requires an alternate. It's honestly not that big of a role.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:44pm

I think the role is as at least as punishing as Margaret in LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA. Didn't Clark reduce her schedule well into the run?

[dreaming]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:44pm

Jordan-It's a vocally (and arguably emotionally) taxing role. What I'm baffled about is why this hasn't happened from the start, if McDonald felt it was necessary-she likely knew the strain of the role (she played it out of town). Also, how come it's only one performance? (I know, less people will come when she's not there-but usually the alternate goes on for 2 performances.)

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:44pm

It seems like Audra has had some attendance issues.

[bdn223]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:44pm

The one thing I don't get is Audra is a professionally trained Opera singer...meaning her voice should be able to handle Porgy and Bess's score especially since they cut half of it out. It is not like she's Alice Ripply trying to use vibrato on every note of N2N's score or Catherine Zeta Jones who is not a trained singer, trying to perform a tricky Sondheim score 8x a week. Audra is performing exactly what her voice is trained for. Everyone/anyone else in the cast I could understand their voice giving out because they are not trained for an operatic score. If i had to bet its family issues...not that her and Will aren't getting a long..its just the first time in a while their family has been together. Remember Porgy and Bess was supposed to originally end its run last week and we all new Pricilla wasn't going to make it into the summer..meaning Audra and Will could have been planning on a summer of fun with their kids, since their kids are now out of school. Audra doesn't have to do a show 8x a week to make money..Will still might, but Audra can do maybe 3 concerts a month and make twice as much money as most people will make in a year.

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:46pm

Tony, Maria, and Anita also got alternates into the run of the WSS revival. If my memory is correct, they were one performance a week alternates as well, with the exception of Tony, who had an alternate for two performances a week.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:47pm

Except opera singers, even classically trained ones, aren't expected to do 8 shows a week on a consistent basis like this. When it comes to vocally demanding roles like this, it's incredibly difficult, no matter how good one's technique, to do it 8 times a week.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:49pm

I also thought this was probably more of a personal/family issue than a vocal one, or possibly a combination of the two. I thought Clark renegotiated her contract to have more time with her son as well.

[dreaming]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:50pm

bdn- Principal opera singers typically only perform 3 or 4 times a week in a full scale production. (Now, the chorus members may be contracted to other productions on those other days, but the principals are most likely resting their voices. They may do a concert in between as well. However, they do not perform eight shows a week.)

[bdn223]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:52pm

Didn't Kerry Butler do the same thing (if this is to spend more time with her family) in both Xanadu and Rock of Ages...?

Dreaming and Wizard thank you for the opera info..not really a fan of the art form...don't have the attention span, but thanks for the heads up. Updated On: 6/20/12 at 01:52 PM

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 1:56pm

There are a lot of reasons why. She maybe wanted an alternate earlier but they said no since they'd want Tony votes to see her and they feel it would look bad to have an alternate? She's probably missing just the one night because a lot of tickets are sold her name and subsequent award. Wednesday nights are usually less sold than weekens and there's a responsibility for her to show up to as many performances as possible.

Alternates rarely bother me and of all shows that have them this one seems perfectly reasonable vocally and emotionally. I'll never understand why Christine in Phantom is so taxing when the hardest parts are pre recorded and Elphaba doesn't have one. *shrug*

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 2:07pm

I thought she had an alternate all along. Giving her one performance off is surely a business thing, P&G is doing OK but not enough to loose patrons 2 or 3 times a week.

There are plenty of mothers and fathers doing 8 shows a week (or any job, for that matter), I remember when people were saying Danny and Jan were not going to LA to be with their kids, and that turned out to be completely false.
I am sure they are all fantastic parents (Audra's little doll was obviously crazy about her Mom at the TONYS, Will's boys looked like they wanted to be a baseball game).
The goal is to be as good a parent as you can, when you can, no matter what your profession.

It's better to know a performer will be out than being surprused and ask for your money back. (travel, eating expenses etc.).

[californiasnow]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 3:53pm

The article mentions that the info about having a Bess alternate is on the show's official website. Does anyone see it anywhere on there? I looked, but didn't see it.

[sopranobiz]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 4:09pm

Who's Alicia Hall Moran?
May need to go back and see this again.

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 4:16pm

californiasnow- It's on the "tickets" page.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 4:16pm

I'm pretty sure its on the home page. You might have to scroll down. I saw it there a few days ago (and posted about it on the Audra Out thread.)



Sorry: it's on the TICKET page


Link

Updated On: 6/20/12 at 04:16 PM

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 4:23pm

why only one performance a week?? I wonder if the producers are considering extending it again through the end of the year??

[amoni2]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 4:34pm

"or Catherine Zeta Jones who is not a trained singer, trying to perform a tricky Sondheim score 8x a week."

What are you talking about? Catherine Zeta Jones attended The Arts Educational School for musical theater and has been singing 8x a week in London since she was a kid.

[jdrye222]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 4:36pm

Updated On: 6/27/12 at 04:36 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 5:09pm

IIRC, the Houston Grand Opera production at what was then the Uris alternated THREE Besses back in the 1970s. This shouldn't be a surprise.

***

Some of Sondheim's roles may be "tricky", but Desiree is rather famously not one of them. It was written for Glynnis Johns and consists of two and a half songs with narrow ranges. If Zeta Jones had problems (and I don't know that she did), it wasn't because the score was so demanding.

[jv92]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 5:30pm

Desiree is not a tricky singing role. Zeta Jones over-sang it, in fact.

[rjm516]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 5:39pm

Zeta-Jones was also just bad.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 6/20/12 at 5:42pm

For the record, Victoria Clark did indeed state in an interview during Piazza that she cut down to six shows a week to spend more time with her young son. I actually saw her alternate, Patti Cohenhour, and she was FANTASTIC.

On that note, come see our production of Piazza here in Chicago! We will be adding three more shows before our July 14 closing!