For the trained singers or anyone in the know...Is 8 shows a week too much for your voice?

I was following a thread on the West End board about Connie Fisher (the How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? gal). The debate being that 8 shows a week in The Sound of Music is too taxing for any performer (some making the arguement that it's too taxing in any show). What would the educated among you say?

For some shows, yes. Sometimes the role is just too taxing, and you get things like having another actor always play the matinees. But for the most part, I'd say no, as long as proper vocal technique and health is used.

It totally depends on the individuals. Some people couldn't do it with all the training in the world, while others can do it with no training whatsoever. Training always helps, though. It also depends on the show and role. It's much easier to last while singing mid-range than it is while belting high.

I don't know how the women who have portrayed AIDA could've done that role 8 times a week... i always thought there should've been an alternate... but those women have some powerhouse voices!

I will repeat on here what i said over on our West End thread

I did 8 shows a week for years, yes it can be a strain on the voice and after remaing with a show for a long time it can become a little too much, but thats the job!

Doctors can work over 20 hrs a day, having to save lives etc, performers do a few hrs a night.
Most performers will feel strain on their voices in to a long run, but its the off stage (how you take care of your voices that count)

It all comes down to training as well, when someone like Connie who won a reality show walks in to a west end show and proclaims 'i can do 8 shows a week' well she should know what you are getting yourself in to.

I think most performers who start from the bottom up (ensemble work) get to train their voices and their bodies that way, your stamina grows with every show

Of course some shows are more vocally demanding and sometimes you are going to have to call out sick, but most times performers just get on with it.

I performed through flu, broken fingers, broken toe, sore throat etc, but you get through it. If its to much you take a persoanl day and thats fine

People like Connie however had lengthy amounts of time off due to her going in to the west end in a lead role, through a reality show, without having built up her stamina first.

I think if perfomers get the chance to have an alternate then they will take it (they would be stupid not too) but most time that 3 hrs a night is really not that bad

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I have to agree with songanddance man re: taking care of your whole body and your voice off-stage. I know I'd have a very tough time resting my voice off-stage the way it would need to be if I ever wanted to sing professionally.

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I know a lot of people aren't fans of hers, but I have to say that it sounds like Patti LuPone takes excellent care of her voice and body when she's in a show. She says she doesn't talk all day before a performance, gets lots of sleep, and stretches in her dressing room. And I've never seen her when she was in bad voice, so I guess it's working.

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EdMottershead, I've heard that story too. The character of Emile has 14 minutes of singing in the whole show.

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People for whom eight shows a week was not too much:

Ethel Merman
Mary Martin
Robert Preston
Alfred Drake
Carol Channing
Chita Rivera
Angela Lansbury
Lauren Bacall
Katharine Hepburn

.... hmm, I am seeing a trend here.

For me personally, when I am doing 8 shows a week and its a vocally challenging show there are times where I have to "play it safe" in order to save my voice for the next show. When I played Radames in Aida its a very taxing role vocally and there are some riffs and extra high notes I would normally sing but if I had to sing the show again the day or 2 times the next day sometimes I didn't sing them. But again it depended on the day completely. Most days I'd say 7 out of 8 shows I'd sing it. Training especially breathing is the most important things for endurance in shows. Luckily for me I have a lot of opera training which has really helped me because some of the operas I have been in have been 3-4 hours long and I played the lead in 2, 4 hour long operas, so learning endurance is something that has come over time. But for each role/person it is different.

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Training is an absolute must over the long haul of a career because 8 shows a week can due gradual damage to the Reliable performers know that proper rest, proper nutrition and hydration and conserving the voice (i.e., not doing a lot of talking om performance days) are essentials. Ethel Merman said that doing a Broadway musical is "like taking the veil" because you have to focus your life on doing 8 shows a week. And Merman was reknowned for never missing a performance. Nowadays, less dedicated performers miss shows willy-nilly because the commitment and professionalism isn't there.

Songs used to be tailored to specific performers. They were written with their vocal abilities, or lack thereof, in mind. They weren't just set in comfortable keys.

Also, most Broadway stars weren't asked to SING. They were asked to perform. Very few were judged on vocal ability alone. (Zero Mostel? Carol Channing? Yul Brynner?)

Today, few Broadway shows are written with performers in mind. They're hoping for long runs and a revolving nameless/faceless cast. The show is the only real star. And the current trend in theatre music is to have singers screeching at the top of their ranges. The words "alto" and "baritone" have all but been removed from dictionary for leading characters. But a high tenor or belting soprano seems to get the fans clapping and standing on their feet. Not acting. Not interpreting a song. Not personality.

So eight shows a week of extremely high belted notes, or sustained "yelling" can do a lot of damage.

It's Broadway that has changed. Not the stamina of the performers.

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First a quick clarification about Connie Fisher. She didn't keep missing a ton of performances--she did 8 shows a week for close to three months and then got a bad cold which made her miss some shows, which finally led to a vocal injury. She was then out two weeks to recover, and when she came back into the show she was reduced to 6 shows per week and stayed with the show for another year, missing very few shows after she came back from the injury.

About the general issue, I think it depends. I was talking to a singer friend of mine recently about how a lot of musical theatre peformers do 8 shows per week, and she sounded slightly horrified. She's mostly trained in opera, though, and I don't think opera singers do 8 shows per week. I think that proper training does help people prepare to sing lots of shows, but there are lots of other factors that contribute to whether a performer can do 8 shows a week or even 6. There are many performers today who only do 6, but others who do 8.

I don't know if the lists of "golden age" performers who rarely missed shows is really that helpful, because there are also performers like Julie Andrews who ended up with wrecked voices. I think a lot of it depends on how people are built. Some people seem to have cast-iron vocal cords while others don't, and I don't think that this makes the ones who can do 8 shows without wrecking their voices better than those who can't. There are some very talented and wonderful performers who don't do 8 shows a week regularly, and I don't think they should be disqualified from doing musical theatre. Many parts have a standby or alternate these days, and I don't see that as a bad thing. It may even be better because it gives more people a chance to perform the lead roles, and it also helps save the voices of those in the main part.