Jaquel Spivey Sick/ Continuing to Miss Performances — Page 3

I don't have much to say about Jaquel and am not going to comment on his health, but there are some INSANE responses on this thread.

Those bringing up Patti LuPone in Evita - not the take you think it is.

A) She had an alternate and only performed 6x a week

B) She developed Nodes. This was partially because of the Evita experience. LuPone is one of very few individuals to fully recover from having nodes post-removal operation. People that have the node operation usually develop very different vocal sounds after surgery and many develop nodes a second time. You only get one set of vocal folds in your life and LuPone is the exception and not the rule when it comes to performance health.

Streisand's "A, B, and C" versions of Funny Girl involved cutting verses of songs and sometimes entire numbers. Streisand also still regularly missed performances near the end of her run when Linda Gerard was her understudy.

So to recap: Jaquel is apparently supposed to develop nodes and randomly cut the entirety of "Boundaries" and the second half of "Inner White Girl", as long as it keeps him on stage 8x a week. Also no one will complain when songs are cut without warning.

I will give you that attitudes towards attendance have changed. Attitudes towards responsible composing in Musical Theatre have also changed. Gone are the days when Merman had it negotiated in her contract exactly what her high note was and how many times per performance you could actually write for her to sing that high note.

I'm in complete agreement that they should announce an official alternate. Other people on the thread though are acting like it's ridiculous he's not showing up for all 8 performances every week and are offering ridiculous counter examples.

CreatureKitchen said: "RippedMan said: "I think both have proven that leading a show 8x a week at this highest caliber in theater just isn't for them at this point in their careers."

I think this is kind of the core of it. There are many roles in the past that have proven too difficult for one actor to do 8 times a week. If that is the case with Usher (as it seems to be), is it better for the production to just go on letting a standby/ understudy fill in when necessary, or is it better for them to announce an alternate and give the audience more transparency?

I understand the argument "it doesn't matter because Spivey is an unknown and the understudies are good", but I addressed my POV on that in my previous comments.

"

Yeah, I don't think there's any harm in announcing an alternate.

Was Owens out a lot at Playwrights? I haven't seen the show (hopefully this fall), but listening the recording there's not much that I think sounds super difficult vocally. But I kind of compare everything to Elphaba, ha. That to me is the most vocally demanding role.