Leads understudying another slightly bigger lead — Page 3

Yes, iluvtheatretrash, Patti Cohenour was mentioned eight and fourteen posts back.

"Whoever is playing Franz Liebkin (sp?) in The Producers understudies Max and Roger."

Back when Jim Borstelman played Franz, that was true. He still understudies those roles, but now he's reverted to his original role(s).

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet -- Schele Williams played Nehebka for four years in Aida, and was the second understudy for Aida. She went on quite a bit, and I saw her, in her last performance actually, as Aida, two weeks before closing.

The whole Raoul u/s the Phantom is ridiculous. I don't know when they started doing this, but it is wrong. They are two completely different voice types. Great oppotunity for those who can do it, but it eliminates potential Raoul's just because they can't squeal like the Phantom. Just an opinion.

And on tour, as well. I saw Tim Martin Gleason as both and thought he made a better Phantom, actually.

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"Nehebka is a tiny role, though. She sings a few lines each in GLN and DOTR, and has a line or two that she speaks in Not Me, and one line ("I am Aida!") before she sacrifices herself. It makes sense for an actress playing a role that small to understudy the lead."

Eh, not so sure. I mean, I guess that might make sense? But it just seems weird, that as there are really only eight principal roles in Aida, and only three of them star, that the other principals would play just that part, and not have a bigger role and then have to have someone else fill that slot.

"But she's not considered one of the eight principal characters. She never got her own bow on Broadway."

she didn't? I thought she did.

But she's definitely one of the eight -- who'd be other?
(Aida, Radames, Amneris, Mereb, Pharoah, Amonasro, Zoser, Nehebka...)

weird that amonasro and pharoah, who do basically nothing, are considered principals, but nehebka, who was 1/4 of two songs, isn't.
*sigh*

sorry for the slightly off-topic bit of thread.

a suggested pair; richard h. blake and amy spanger should cover robbie and julia in the wedding singer

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