Leads in ensemble
Leads in ensemble
#1Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 12:24pm
Is it normal for leading actors/actresses to appear in ensemble? I was seeing Les Miz in London the other day to see Eva Noblezada's Eponine before Miss Saigon hits Broadway, and I was surprised to spot her in the ensemble during Lovely Ladies. I know in Miss Saigon the actress portraying Ellen sometimes plays one of the bar girls or someone accompanying GIs (depending on productions). But compared with Eponine, Ellen isn't as big a role for the show, and I think we can all agree Eponine is one of the leads in Les Miz. So this seems quite oddly interesting. In comparison, I haven't seen any leading actor/actress doing ensemble roles on Broadway and I've seen a lot. Does anyone notice this as well or have any insider information to share?
KathyNYC2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/2/10
#2Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 12:29pm
I believe that I I've seen the actresses playing both Miss Honey and Mrs. Phelps in the opening number of Matilda. I'm sure there are other situations...but I don't know if there is any "insider" info about this.
#3Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 12:31pm
Don't all of the principals in LES MIS (with the exceptions of Valjean, Javert and [sometimes] Fantine) have roles in the ensemble?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#4Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 12:32pm
I believe all the leads besides Jean Val Jean and Javert have ensemble tracks. Yes eponine is a larger role than Ellen, but the role certainly does not have lots to do in act one. It's a cost saving measure. I'm pretty sure wicked does the same. I'm sure others shows do it as well.
My father (AIDS)
My sister (AIDS)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS, AIDS, AIDS)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades
#5Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 12:32pm
Nikki M. James was also in the Lovely Ladies number in the last Les Miz revival. Not sure if it's a Les Miz thing since I remembered Sierra Boggess saying that when she was doing Fantine, she reappeared as one of the students during the barricade scene. I think in the case of Les Miz, these lead characters only has like 20% stage time of the whole show, so it would make sense they should fill the stage in other scenes.
Hairspray0901
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/29/08
#6Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 12:42pm
I believe Boq and Nessarose are in the Wicked ensemble for "No one mourns the wicked".
Tag
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/19/05
Dallas Theatre Fan
Stand-by Joined: 3/10/13
#8Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 1:29pm
Tag said: "^As is Fiyero. (he spins the bed)
Didn't Fiyero also play the Wizard during No One Mourns the Wicked when the show first opened??? I recall seeing David Ayers in a photo set wearing the wizards suit.
In the non-equity tour of Hairspray Amber and Penny are in the ensemble during Good Morning Baltimore.
jonartdesigns
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/04
#9Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 1:54pm
Fiyero did indeed play the wizard in No One Mourns the Wicked initially. I think they swapped it to an ensemble member when Ben Vareen played the wizard.
When I saw the tour years ago I spotted Fiyero, Nessa, and Dilliamond standing on the bridge in One Short Day
Edit: Also in Rent, Maureen traditionally appears in the ensemble for the title song.
"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel
Updated On: 9/7/16 at 01:54 PM
TrChSpHa
Understudy Joined: 7/15/09
#10Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 2:10pm
"Edit: Also in Rent, Maureen traditionally appears in the ensemble for the title song."
And a cop during "Christmas Bells."
#11Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 2:14pm
^Fiyero used to play the mother's lover in the opening, but that changed around the time they implemented the changes to the show circa 2006. In the Broadway production and the second national tour, Fiyero turns the bed, but on the first national tour for some reason he was simply just in the crowd.
Edit: All the principal performers in Les Mis sans Javert and Valjean appear in the ensemble including Eponine and Cosette in the factory scene as workers (along with Madame Thénardier) and Lovely Ladies, Fantine being apart of the barricade while Marius,Thénardier, and Enjolras appear as various roles before their respective sections of the show.
"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.
Updated On: 9/7/16 at 02:14 PM
pg1287
Chorus Member Joined: 5/23/16
#12Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 2:49pm
I know a few Book of Mormon leads also cover smaller roles too; The General also plays Satan in Spooky Mormon Hell Dream and Elder McKinley plays Elder Green and Moroni.
asmith0307
Broadway Star Joined: 8/5/14
#13Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 3:35pm
There is a pretty good story involving M&Ms of Andrea McArdle when she died on the barricade in Les Mis. I think she retold it for a Obsessed episode if anyone can find it.
broadwayguy2
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/03
#14Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 4:20pm
Re: Amber and Penny in Hairspray.
STRONGLY incorrect.
In all productions of original Hairspray, including the NETworks non-Equity tour, Penny, Seaweed, and Little Inez appeared in as those characters, not as members of the ensemble. They did not disguise who they are whatsoever.
On the NETworks no no-Equity, which had one white female swing to cover the council girls, Amber would sometimes serve as an ensemble member swing for GMB when when two girls were out of the show. THAT SAID, they again made no effort to hide her other to put her in a coat or sweater like ensemble girls. On rarer occasion, the actress playing Velma would serve that purpose instead and they generally DID disguise her by putting her in an ensemble costume and wig.
#15Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 4:37pm
Patti LuPone says in her book that she had no plans on being in the ensemble when she was off-stage as Fantine, so she used her role in the Cradle Will Rock as a good excuse but was put in one ensemble role (at the barricade) due to being seen by the director when trying to leave the theater (or something along those lines).
"Contentment, it seems, simply happens. It appears accompanied by no bravos and no tears."
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#16Leads in ensemble
Posted: 9/7/16 at 6:00pm
asmith0307 said: "There is a pretty good story involving M&Ms of Andrea McArdle when she died on the barricade in Les Mis. I think she retold it for a Obsessed episode if anyone can find it.
"
That story was also in "Making it on Broadway"
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