Changing Keys for Understudies?

I'm not sure about normal understudies, but I remember when Carly Rae Jepsen took over for Laura Osnes they lowered all of the keys. Her alternate, Jessica Hershberg, could sing it at the original keys that Osnes did, but I'm pretty sure she sang it similar to Carly. I guess just for the sake of the orchestra/ensemble?

It depends on the case. Usually keys are only changed for replacements, but theres an exception here and there.

These days you are going to start seeing more and more key changes made for replacements as necessary (though probably not as often as understudies, unless it's a case where they understudied the original actor and it works better to keep them in that original key, rather than learning the replacement's new key). With the advent of computer scoring programs it can now be done way faster than in the days when it all had to be written out by hand.

Personally, I'm all for finding keys that the actor is going to be most comfortable with. I know that people often like to view the "original" keys as sacred, but I would remind you that key changes are often made throughout the rehearsal process as the creative team works to find the keys that strike the right balance between the abilities of the originator of the role and the needs of the song/show (sometimes changing the key too far in one direction or the other can indeed drastically change the sound of a song).

My guess is that when he was the understudy, he sang the songs in the original key and then they changed them when he took over the role full time. I would imagine that the current understudies sing it in whichever key is best for them, and the conductor tells the orchestra which versions of the songs to have up before each performance.  It would be unusual to have new sets of orchestrations made just for the understudy; but if multiple versions already exist, it makes sense to use whichever key works best for each person (remember that every role has at least two people covering.)

When Faith Prince took over in "Little Mermaid", the keys for her songs were lowered quite a bit. Heidi Blickenstaff remained the understudy, and when she went on, still did the songs in the keys she always had.

It is a lot easier than it used to be to create transposed orchestrations, but there is still a bit of labor and cost involved. A new set of parts needs to be printed and bound and distributed, and changing the key can affect things like the synthesizer programming where you often have split patches and the left hand plays one sound while the right hand plays another. Changing the key may mean that a note that used to be on the RH oboe sound is now on the LH cymbal sound, for instance. 

Updated On: 9/29/15 at 12:15 PM

I don't think they normally change keys for an understudy. In the case of Andy Kelso, he sang the same key as Stark when he went on for him. The key change was made after he took over the role, which in actuality was the original key they were written in. They were changed for Stark, then changed back to the originals for Andy (since they were a better fit for him).

I believe the key can be changed for understudies IF only they are singing. For example, in Kinky Boots, Step One could be changed, but not Soul of a Man because if affects the actors singing back up. Same with Lola's songs, Hold Me In Your Heart can be lowered.