How Difficult Is It To Balance A Broadway Show and Personal Life? — Page 2

It seems like that has the potential to be so stifling. But I guess you can let it out on stage.

I think Greg Jbara's reasons for leaving NY at this time fall right under this topic. He admittedly LOVES the theatre and loves NY. But he and his wife decided before he ever took the job with DRS that they would go back to California this summer. The reason couldn't have been any better - their oldest son would be starting first grade this year and they didn't want to move him once school started. As much as he loved it here, Greg said he probably wouldn't be back for another 15 years. (There's a younger son who'll be entering school in a couple of years.)

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who is it that ripped cerveris' heart out??

"And, as much as I lust after Michael Cerveris, I agree that his lonely single guy routine is a complete ruse. That guy isn't crying into his beer and lamenting his lack of girlfriends or a social life. The guy gets along juuuuust fine."

You know has it ever occured to people that Michael Cerveris says things like that because he WANTS his privacy and DOESN'T want to talk about who he is/isn't dating.

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guess Americans will complain no matter how good they get it. This topic should have about how difficult it is to actually get work and how to have an actual life when you can't ever get work.

*rolls eyes* of course. Never mind that statistically, American workers have longer hours and far less vacation time than any other country in the world, except for Japan. We're all just a bunch of whiners. Right.

Any job where you have a nontraditional schedule--be it Broadway, or driving a cab or being a reporter on the graveyard shift--can be a challenge. It isn't the hours necessarily; it's the fact that you're moving in a completely opposite direction as everyone else and you can find it really difficult to do things outside of work. Your friends work 9-5? Forget about ever seeing them. Want to date? Let's hope your SO can pick you up at 11 at night or take off work to see you. Kids? Well, maybe you can be there when they get home from school, but you'll likely be running out the door before dinnertime. Parties? Kiss them goodbye unless they're after hours.

Also, that 'you work for only 28 hours' isn't really true. Don't forget put-in rehearsals; photo shoots; all the promotional activities; all the voice classes, dance classes, working out and other maitenance they have to do to stay in shape to keep their jobs. A lot of B'way folks do voice-overs, industrials, etc. during the day. Not to mention that since most people aren't blessed to be in long-running shows, they also spend a lot of those daytime hours auditioning for the next gig.

Updated On: 8/7/06 at 04:51 PM

My mom took yoga classes for some time with a woman who did several tours of big-name shows back in the late '80s. She was fairly young then, met her husband in one of those shows, and as soon as his contract was up, he wanted OUT of the biz and now works in software. He makes enough now where she can do the soccer mom thing without having to work. She'll do the occasional benefit or two (I believe she's still in Equity and maybe once a year will perform in a musical), but that's it.

She's said it was WAY too hard to perform and raise a family. She told my mom there were a lot of great shows she wanted to audition for, but family came first. She might go back later, after her kids are older.

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Just wanted to add Sherie and Kurt to that list of people who have made it work. And a pregnant Sherie was in DRS rehearsals! Now THAT'S talent!

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When I interviewed Gwen Verdon many years ago, we discussed how you cannot balance a personal life if you are in the theater. She missed her mother's funeral because she was on Broadway.