Leads understudying another slightly bigger lead- Page 3

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 4/28/06 at 12:02pm

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).

[misto625]

Posted: 4/28/06 at 4:55pm

Actually Jim Borstelman never was a full-time Franz, only 2x a week. Playbills messed that up. When Brad Oscar played Franz, he understudied Roger. I think John Treacy Egan did too. He played the role when Gary Beach went to LA. Jim Borstelman's "original role" is a swing. What he is playing now are the roles originated by Jeffry Denman.

[darkmist115]

Posted: 4/28/06 at 11:00pm

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.

[Alie]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 9:30am

Probably won't interest most people here, but in The Far Pavilions in the West End last year, Simon Gleeson (who played Walter - second largest male character after the lead) was first cover for Ash (the lead). He had to go on for a while only a few weeks into the run, I think Hadley was having some major voice troubles.

[JBSinger]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 10:07am

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.

[mrkringas]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 11:01am

More than a few Raouls have returned to the London production as Phantoms in their own right. Just many years later!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 8:46pm

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

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 10:38pm

"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. "

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.

[darkmist115]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 10:52pm

"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.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 10:56pm

But she's not considered one of the principal characters (they would be Aida, Radames, Amneris, Zoser, Mereb, Pharaoh, and Amonasro). Nehebka doesn't do enough, as I already mentioned, to be considered a principal role. She never got her own bow on Broadway- she bowed with the ensemble.
Updated On: 5/2/06 at 10:56 PM

[darkmist115]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 10:57pm

"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...)

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 10:59pm

I wasn't clear in the last post, and went back and edited it. No, she most definitely never bowed alone on Broadway0 she bowed with the ensemble. Only seven principal roles.

[darkmist115]

Posted: 5/2/06 at 11:02pm

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.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/3/06 at 10:47pm

Amonasro and Pharaoh do a lot more than Nehebka does. She sings a couple of bars in two songs, not 1/4 of them. And she has about two lines. The other two have actual scenes to do.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 5/3/06 at 11:42pm

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