Posted: 7/11/18 at 11:03am
The way Elaine Stritch relayed that story it was Ethel Merman talking about musical theatre generally. Kristin Chenoweth said the same thing. She thought The Apple Tree was the hardest thing she had done until she did On the Twentieth Century. She has been open about her daily regimen when she does an 8-show a week schedule. She doesn't do much other than prepare for the performance, do her voice lessons, shower, and not speak until like the afternoon.
I don't know what roles you played or how demanding they were to you. Maybe you just have a higher constitution than many leading ladies, but it's not as if it's a rare occurrence when veteran stage performers talk about the 8 show schedule and how they have to cloister themselves to ensure they can give a consistent performance.
There were some posts about movie actors being weaker or whatever, and maybe it's not the same stamina ask that doing 8 shows a week is, but I'm sure film acting has its own challenges that is unique to that medium. I remember watching audio commentary of The Hours and Meryl Streep talked about having to do her big crying scene over and over again until she looked like hamburger just to get the right look for the camera and then having to do it again in different angles and said how nothing in theatre asks for that from an actor. Television schedules are also pretty grueling as well, especially for an old-school network program that has like 24 episodes a season.
Updated On: 7/11/18 at 11:03 AM
