Kirsti Carnahan (I hope I'm spelling it right), a woman whom some of you may know (she runs the StrawHats auditions) played Marta in KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN pretty much its entire run. I saw her twice (with Chita's understudy and Vanessa's understudy) and she didn't phone it in either time, which would have been easy to do. Maybe the fact that it wasn't too demanding (two small solos, a brief dialogue scene, and the finale) permitted her to focus more energy on it. At any rate, I think that shows that an actor who tries to find new things in a role can stay fresh in it for as long as he or she chooses to play it.
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."