How do Broadway stars stay interested?

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How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 6:52pm

8 shows a week sounds tough as hell. Makes me wonder..How do they do it? How do Broadway actors / actresses stay interested? Repeating the same lines, same songs, same dance routines hundreds and hundreds of times..

and people have bad days. A bad day for me means that I won't be able to put the same effort in things I do on a daily basis. How do they get through bad days?

Is it serious passion? Doing what they love more than anything? Do they have pep-talks before each show to keep the actors encouraged? What is it?

Updated On: 1/15/08 at 06:52 PM

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 6:57pm

8 shows a day? Wow, that is demanding!
Back in my day, they did 8 a week.

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 6:57pm

Well, if they are going to brave auditions and the entertainment business to begin with, I'd say they are passionate enough to do the show 8 times a week. If they're lucky, they'll adore the show they're doing. I've heard of some ensemble members not enjoying the show, but hey, it's their job and they are LUCKY to have it, and I'm sure they know that.

I mean, Denzel Washington? Gun to my head..of course.

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 6:59pm

8 shows a day? That DOES sound hard.

http://www.beintheheights.com/katnicole1 (Please click and help me win!) I chose, and my world was shaken- So what?
The choice may have been mistaken, The choosing was not... "Every day has the potential to be the greatest day of your life." - Lin-Manuel Miranda "And when Idina Menzel is singing, I'm always slightly worried that her teeth are going to jump out of her mouth and chase me." - Schmerg_the_Impaler

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 7:00pm

I spoke to one HUGE star who was in her show forEVER and she told me that it was the thought of seeing all the smiling faces at the stage door, hundreds of people just waiting to touch her waiting to take a picture of her, get just one more piece of her...that is what made her keep going.

PEACE.

Updated On: 1/15/08 at 07:00 PM

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 7:00pm

Actors need money too...

A little known fact is that in the original screenplay, Pan's Labyrinth was Pan's FLAByrinth. Hmmmmmmm...glad they changed it.

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 7:01pm

you know i meant 8 a week. sorry.

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 7:09pm

Money talks. But only if you're not doing a non-profit.

You can tell when many actors are phoning it in, especially if you've seen them at their peak.

It's impossible not to get bored at some point - that's why many actors change various line readings night-to-night.

Ethel Merman was notorious for, if nothing else (riiiight!), her consistency. She gave the same performance on closing nights that she did on opening nights.

Victoria Clark delivered a wide variety of stellar performances in Light in the Piazza. Some nights she'd tear up, some nights she'd sob...

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 7:21pm

8 shows a week is tough. But, if your doing Broadway then you know what it is your in for before you sign the contract.

Many of the actors on Broadway want to be there. They like performing in front of a live audience.

If your enjoying the show your in you find ways to make it enjoyable.

There are some actors who are doing one show for a long time because they love the show that they are doing even though they could easilly get another gig.

And there are actors who are doing a show for a long time and can't get another gig.

"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear" Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll

#10

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 7:29pm

It's your job, and you always have to remember that your audience, for the most part, hasn't seen it before.

You make it fresh everyday. It's called technique.

It helps if the material is great. Each performance can still find discovery.

"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx

#11

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 7:31pm

Carol Channing told me that they way she handles long runs is to imagine someone special out in the audience; someone who has never seen the show before. She does it at every performance and I've never seen her give less than 110%

"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)

#12

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 7:35pm

I feel that theatre is different from every other job. Flipping hamburgers 8 times a week is very different from performing a role live 8 times a week. There are always new things to draw from. A new audience can change the mood of a performance, a different inflection on a line from a fellow actor, etc... I think these are some of the things that keep performers going. Also, the performers (especially if in the ensemble), make faces at one another and such to help make it more fun, if they are having bad days. And everyone is allowed to have a bad, off, sick day...thats why they have understudies. But most of the people who are performing on Broadway are there because they are extremely passionate and want to be there. They get joy out of entertaining others and don't want to miss a day of work unless its a dire circumstance.

#13

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 8:04pm

2 answers:

1) As Sir Laurence Olivier once said: "It's called Acting."

2) Payday is Thursday.

"It's never too late to have a happy childhood. " - Tom Robbins

#14

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 8:39pm

Hey Bud.... you absolutely did not mention 8 shows a day in your post. It was the second person who wrote that in his message.
from RC in Austin, Texas...

"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)

#15

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 8:54pm

its called ACTING! Really listen to your castmates during perfomances, not just for cues, there's a human connection in the listening, keeping the reations true, and that keeps the performances real, hopefully... I just finished reading the Meisner book for acting class, and boy, am I full of this stuff...

What a night! I was in more laps than a napkin!

#16

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 9:52pm

cocaine.

#17

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 10:23pm

Haha well lets put it in perspective here. Even for the performers that don't love what they're doing; they are working like 3 hours a day for a *sometimes* nice paycheck (ok 6ish on some days; but they also get days off)

#18

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 11:25pm

My heart goes out to the performers when they have a headache or when the women are on their periods.

"Everytime you step on that stage it is somebody's first Broadway show and somebody's last Broadway show. Make it count."

#19

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 7:48am

A friend of mine once upon a time was a cab driver, and Betty Buckley got into his cab once. He asked her when she thought she would leave the show since she's been in it for a bit and it must be difficult. She paused dramatically and said in a brassy, rehearsed voice, "As soon as I get it right!"

#20

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 8:10am

It's simple, really....(cue music, with apologies...)

They're a special kind of people known as SHOW PEOPLE
They live in a world of their own
The audience paid plenty to sit there and clap
Hearing them sing, watching them tap

Did you know their dentist longs to be in show business
Their window washer wants to be a star
And though their analyst may
Never couch it that way
They all know how lucky they are!

They're a special kind of people known as SHOW PEOPLE
They live in a world of their own
Their days are tied to curtains
They rise and they fall
They're born every night
At half-hour call!

They can’t picture being anything but show people
Civilians find the whole thing quite bizarre
But that hop in their hearts
When the overture starts
Helps them know how lucky we are!

It’s an honor and a joy to be in show business
They feel that spotlight hit them and they're gone
At the last curtain call
They're the envy of all
So they know THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

"To love another person is to see the face of God!"

#21

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 8:54am

I have always wondered this myself.
Especially with some shows having weekends with two performances per day on Saturday and Sunday.

#22

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 11:22am

Many don't. They're just going through the motions and you can tell.

....but the world goes 'round

#23

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 11:45am

Because it's your JOB.

Hopefully it's a job you love and that you have passion for. I mean, why else go into a business where you are employed less than 20% of the time, and the other 80% is spent looking for work?

If you are one of the lucky few who get the Broadway role, you do it 100% every time. You leave your home problems at home, just like you do any other job. If you have problems on the job, you handle them appropriately.

But the audience has paid their hard-earned money to see the same show the critics saw on Opening Night ... or a better one! It is your job as a performer to make it so.

#24

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 12:06pm

ok 6ish on some days; but they also get days off

There's not a profession in the world where workers don't get time off. And mostly they're two days instead of just one.

"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife

#25

re: How do Broadway stars stay interested?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 1:14pm

They do what ANYONE who has a job that is the same night after night does.

"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>> “I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>> -whatever2

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