Hadestown Understudies — Page 21

Alexander Lamar said: "For the person next week, anything can happen by that time I think a number of people should be back including Lana and Reeve, hopefully Andre and Jessie as well. They should be in a better position than they are now, especially towards the end of the week."

Thanks! I’m trying to stay optimistic so this is comforting :) At this point I’m not too worried about there being a lot of understudies (though I’d love to see as much of the original cast as possible since this will be my first time seeing the show), I just hope the show goes forward!

ACL2006 said: "I need to see his costume!! Is "Yaya" out then? Doesn't make sense otherwise."

Yup, YaYa is out. I believe that them, Kay, and Emily were set to be Fates all week, due to a positive COVID case in regards to Jessie, and Jewelle being unable to play a Fate as she's Persephone this week.

However, T posted that he'll be either a Fate OR Hermes all weekend, which makes me think they either last-minute rehearsed a new Fate or YaYa will be able to return for certain shows? However I do know that T is on as a Fate tonight, which obviously means that YaYa is either out or maybe they're swinging a worker role? I think they were completely out last night.

Per her IG, Jewelle is back on as a fate tonight. I read a rumor that Amber might be stepping back in for Persephone…

Edit: I guess it’s true!

Updated On: 3/11/22 at 07:05 PM

Wonder who else is out to cause this?

March 11, 2022 breakdown:



Orpheus: IN: Jordan , OUT: Reeve

Eurydice: Eva

Persephone: IN: Amber , OUT: Lana

Hades: Patrick

Hermes: IN: T , OUT: Andre



Fates:

IN: Jewelle , Tomas, Mariand

OUT: Jessie , Kay



WORKERS:

IN: Sojourner , Afra , Timothy , Trent , Sayo

OUT: Emily , Malcom , Grace

———

Notes:

Tara - vacation (confirmed by T on IG)

YaYa - covid (confirmed on IG)

Mariand - through 3/18

Afra & Jordan - through 3/13

Grace - injury (confirmed on IG) , unk. return date

Updated On: 3/11/22 at 09:12 PM

I’m curious about all these people rejoining so last minute. Amber is no longer contracted with the show, so is she just rejoining by the will of her heart? Or did her previous contract cover being an emergency filler for the future? Hadestown is not like wicked of Hamilton yet where they have loads of people who can jump right back in, so I wonder if Amber might be getting a big payout from this?



also, interesting that the hadestown producers are risking exposing three other Broadway shows in order to keep going themselves.

Articles have come out this week about their understudy situation stating it's mostly due to COVID. Shows were doing this all throughout December and January. As for the risk of the three actors rehearsing for upcoming shows, I'm sure their agent told them of the situation as to why they were being called back to the show.

Jewelle is playing Persephone at the mat today.

Jordan is on for today's matinee.

Also curious if the weather is preventing actors from getting to the theater. Sounds like they ran out of "Workers" to do the show.

Tonight's performance has also been cancelled.

I commend the cast and crew for working so hard this week to try to make these shows happen, but it's getting really difficult not to get frustrated with the producers for the lack of transparency. People with tickets to upcoming shows shouldn't have to rely on message boards or journalist Twitter accounts to find out if a show is being cancelled or not. I understand why they don't want to cancel multiple shows days in advance, but I wish they would at least provide clearer updates on how many people are out with COVID vs. how many people are on vacation and have a set return date. Especially with spring break being next week, it feels like the producers aren't being respectful to the many people who travel from out of town to see these shows and aren't just a short subway/car ride away from Broadway.

I guess I'll keep hoping that this mostly resolves itself in the next few days, but I wish I definitively knew whether I should be cancelling my upcoming trip to NYC...