Boy From Oz standby question

#1

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/28/10 at 9:42pm

Ok, so I'm looking at IBDB, and it has 4 people covering Hugh Jackman. Two standbys (Kevin Spirtas and Mark Halling) and two understudies (Brad Anderson and John Hill).

I have a playbill from April, it doesn't list either standby, and Anderson (who replaced Hill in his roles) is the only one listed.

My question is, did IBDB just mess up, or did they really have 4 people covering him?

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#2

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/28/10 at 9:44pm

Are those the opening night credits on the IBDB page you are looking at? Or is it also revealing the replacement credits?

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#3

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/28/10 at 9:51pm

Opening Night.

They also list, randomly, John Hill and Brad Anderson as playing Mark Herron.

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#4

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/28/10 at 10:56pm

It is not completely unknown for an understudy and/or standby to choose to be uncredited in the program, especially for a show like The Boy from Oz where the producers made it abundantly clear that they would cancel a performance rather than have one of them go on in Hugh Jackman's place, even going so far as to shut down completely for the two weeks that he was on vacation.

#5

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/28/10 at 11:13pm

so then what was the point of having an understudy/standby? just in case he couldn't do act II?

#6

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/28/10 at 11:18pm

^Yes.

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#7

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/29/10 at 12:47am

MICHAEL Halling, not Mark.

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#8

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/29/10 at 5:33am

And, I'm fairly sure, that Equity REQUIRES it.

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#9

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/29/10 at 5:40am

Interestingly, when John Hill ( who was an understudy for Hugh) was out I saw Hugh's standby, Kevin Spirtas, play John's role of Mark Heron for the evening.

In A STEADY RAIN, both Hugh and Daniel Craig had standbys/understudies, presumably also for EQUITY reasons. They never had a chance to play the roles during the limited run of the play.

Updated On: 8/29/10 at 05:40 AM

#10

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/29/10 at 11:38am

"And, I'm fairly sure, that Equity REQUIRES it."

In the case of Hugh Jackman, no, they didn't require it.

From the rulebook:
(A) All parts for which contracts are issued, except parts of stars and "bit" players, shall be covered by Understudies. Nothing contained herein shall require Chorus to be understudied.

Hugh Jackman definitely fit the "star" qualification for both The Boy from Oz and A Steady Rain. I don't attempt to know the reason producers hired and contracted understudies and standbys, but it wasn't because Equity forced them to.

#11

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/29/10 at 12:59pm

I'm sure they hired understudies/standbys with every intention of using them, but when they saw Hugh was pretty much the only reason people were seeing this show, they changed their minds on ever using them.

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#12

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/29/10 at 2:35pm

They also probably hired Stand-bys for rehearsal purposes. They couldn't expect Hugh to come in for every understudy rehearsal when someone new joined the cast or an understudy went on for another role.

#13

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/30/10 at 1:17am

Must have been one hell of a gig, getting paid essentially to do nothing.

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#14

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/30/10 at 9:45am

Actually, Hugh Jackman took less than two weeks' vacation. He was out Feb. 1-6 and March 28-April 2.

#15

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/30/10 at 10:49am

Fun fact:
My high school group went to New York for Spring Break 2004. When we booked, the three musicals we were going to see were Wicked, Boy From Oz and Rent. Wicked raised their prices (My director was afraid to face me without a ticket, so he bought me a ticket to see the show) and March 29 we were supposed to see Boy From Oz.

Instead we saw De La Guarda and Sly Fox.

But still, did they really have 4 people covering the role?

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#16

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/30/10 at 11:00am

"Actually, Hugh Jackman took less than two weeks' vacation. He was out Feb. 1-6 and March 28-April 2"

And both of those periods span six days, leaving us with two weeks that the show was dark, since the regular day off wouldn't be accounted for.

#17

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/30/10 at 12:15pm

I don't think they had four covers at once. Halling was not part of the OBC.

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#18

Boy From Oz standby question

Posted: 8/30/10 at 12:58pm

Ok, so that makes for another round of IBDB has some goofs then?

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