Last-minute replacement!!

I once saw a conductor sing Radames for the last act of AIDA. That was pretty thrilling and strange.

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During a production of "Joseph", an ex-cast member was pulled from the audience 15 minutes before curtain due to an actor running late. good thing he remembered the show.

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Just two months ago or so...Sara Jean Ford took the night off from playing Christine in Phantom and stepped into A Little Night Music on about 5 hour's notice (2 of which were spent finishing her day on Jury Duty) to play Petra. She had understudied the part several months earlier, but never performed it.

I was lucky to witness the final performance of August: Osage County where Rondi Reed was called in to play Mattie Fae when Elizabeth Ashley had to call out due to illness.

Marin Mazzie was a replacement understudy in the original production of Into The Woods. As I remember it, only about a week after she signed her contract, she had to go on for The Witch. She had been through music rehearsals and some blocking rehearsals, but she had to go on. She said she felt like she had been "shot out of a cannon" after it.

I did a regional production of Les Miserables where our Valjean fell and broke his ankle BAD only about 10 min into the first show on a two show day. We had to cancel the show, and as soon as the paramedics put him in the ambulance we immediately started a put in rehearsal for the understudy who then played the role that night. I think we had an hour off for dinner after the rehearsal was finally over. I was sitting next to the understudy when Valjean went down, and frankly I just don't know how to describe the color he turned.

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I didn't see this one, but I had seen the show and had heard about this particular performance: apparently during the Broadway run of BROOKLYN THE MUSICAL (2004-2005, starring Eden Espinosa), the actress playing "Paradice" was sick (presumably Ramona Keller) on a 2-show day. Unfortunately, I believe her only understudy was also sick, so they canceled the matinee. They proceeded to bring a new person into the cast (Haneefah Wood) who had that afternoon to learn the role. I know many on this site didn't like the show (or didn't get to see it), so if you don't know, each person in the cast had several different small roles, at least one larger role, and handled tons of props, costumes and set pieces. She ended up being ON BOOK through the evening show with at least one standby (Julie Reiber) helping to move all the sets/props and things.

I saw a performance of Dreamgirls in Philadelphia at the Prince Music Theatre at which both the actress playing Deena and the understudy were out, and the ensemble actress who played the role apparently started learning the part that day. She was incredible and I would never have known if I hadn't overheard some people talking about it afterwards.

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I didn't see this one, but I had seen the show and had heard about this particular performance: apparently during the Broadway run of BROOKLYN THE MUSICAL (2004-2005, starring Eden Espinosa), the actress playing "Paradice" was sick (presumably Ramona Keller) on a 2-show day. Unfortunately, I believe her only understudy was also sick, so they canceled the matinee. They proceeded to bring a new person into the cast (Haneefah Wood) who had that afternoon to learn the role.

Both Ramona Keller and understudy Haneefah Wood were sick. Romelda Benjamin (BARE) was brought in to perform as Paradice. Benjamin had been involved with the Denver production but did indeed have to go on with book-in-hand on Broadway. She later officially re-joined the show as a female cover for Keller and Olivo.

Didn't 'Next to Normal' have to call in Asa Somers once when both Louis Hobson AND J.Robert Spencer called out on the same day? I forget whether he went on as Dan or the doctors (I thought I heard it was Dan, but I'm not sure).

I remember reading something about Sean Ghazi having to be flown in from Germany to fill in as Angel in the London production of Rent. He'd never performed it in English before.

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I was in a pretty dreadful production of IRMA LA DOUCE at the now defunct Airport Playhouse on Long Island when the actress playing Irma lost her singing voice. As there were no understudies, the female musical director sang the part while Irma mouthed the words.

It made a bad production even worse.

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this probably doesnt really count but I was at Butz's first performance of SPEED-THE-PLOW and he was on book the entire time.. pretty awful

Question about the Marin Mazzie/"Into the Woods" anecdote: Why wouldn't Joy Franz have performed the role? She was also an understudy for the Witch at the same time as Marin Mazzie, and certainly knew the role better.

My anecdote to add to this discussion is Merle Dandridge filling in for Aida on Broadway one weekend while either Maya Days or Heather Headley was sick and the standby and understudy were also sick or on vacation, and Merle Dandridge was understudying the role on tour at the time.

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