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Smallest stage time for an actor in a show? — Page 2

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#27

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Supposedly, Fantine now doubles as a boy at the barricade BECAUSE LuPone used to leave the theatre and go to a pub in London.

FDR in ANNIE only has one scene. In the original production, the actor had special permission through Equity to show up right at curtain time, rather than a half hour before. It still gave him 45 minutes to get ready. I think in later productions (tours, revivals) the actor playing FDR doubled in the ensemble.
#30

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Grizabella in CATS.

The actress basically spends the entire show in her dressing room.

One quick appearance to end Act 1, then again for a few minutes at the end of Act 2 to end the show.


She actually has a bit more onstage time than that : She's in Grizabella, The Glamour Cat in the middle of Act I and if I'm not wrong she's seen after The Moments of Happiness when they all sing Memory (at least at one point, the track had her in the background in that scene).



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#31

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

"Supposedly, Fantine now doubles as a boy at the barricade BECAUSE LuPone used to leave the theatre and go to a pub in London."

Actually, I believe that LuPone asked that she be given something else to do because she had so much time off-stage, and so they worked her into the barricade scene, and this has been followed by the subsequent Fantines in the various productions. The pub part is something she has stated in interviews (how habitual it was I don't know, but I'd be surprised if she did it more than a couple of times). But you'd have to ask her that.
"This is wanting something, this is reaching for it, This is wishing that a moment would arrive. This is taking chances, this is almost touching, what the beauty is." --The Light in the Piazza
#33

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Trix in The Drowsy Chaperone. She's there for the very beginning and very end.
"Chicago is it's own incredible theater town right there smack down in the middle of the heartland. What a great city! I can see why Oprah likes to live there!" - Dee Hoty :-D
#34

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Many straight plays have roles that require little stage time:
Barefoot in the Park has the Telephone Man and the Delivery Man.
Arms and the Man has a random soldier only appearing at the beginning.

For musicals, in addition to the ones mentioned above, there is Linda in Wedding Singer, Charlie Cowell in The Music Man, and currently Chef Louis in Little Mermaid.

Grizabella is on stage more then mentioned, she appears in the opening Prologue, Grizabella the Glamour Cat and its reprise, the three performances of Memory, and Journey to the Heaviside Layer. I think she is there for Moments of Happiness but I can't remember.

I don't think FDR doubles in the ensemble of Annie, at least he didn't in the last two Equity tours, as I asked Allan Baker and Raymond Thorne that question. Cool thread!
Dean: Can I tell you something? Lorraine: That depends on what it is. Dean: I think you're really really pretty. Lorraine: (after a pause) Ok, you can tell me that.
#35

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Interesting thread!!!
"I never had theatre producers run after me. Some people want to make more Broadway shows out of movies. But Elliot and I aren't going to do Batman: The Musical." - Julie Taymor 1999
#36

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

The Girl in The Pillowman and the cut dancers in A Chorus Line. Great jobs, I have to say - spend five minutes onstage and then just kick back for the rest of the show.
#37

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in Into the Woods. Blink and you'll miss them.
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#38

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Well the cut dancers in A Chorus Line sing along in the group numbers throughout the show from a singing booth, so they can't just kick back and relax.

I always thought Mufasa in Lion King doesn't have a lot of stage time, he has to make a good impression on the audience during They Live in You as that is his only solo song, and the stampede is coming soon after.
Dean: Can I tell you something? Lorraine: That depends on what it is. Dean: I think you're really really pretty. Lorraine: (after a pause) Ok, you can tell me that.
#39

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

I know it has been said but Little Coalhouse literally runs out at the end when they yell "Coalhouse" then Tateh sums up The Little Rascals and the show is done.
"Don't thank your parents, if you were raised in a nurturing environment you wouldnt be in show business"--Conan O'Brien at the 2006 Emmy Awards
#40

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

The first thought that came to mind was Trix from Drowsy. She sings a few lines in the opening number and then comes back out at the end of the show.
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#41

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Brooke in Legally Blonde.


People who should be on more is Robin in ITH, he has plenty of things but not enough, he's the highlight of the show.
#42

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot!
Although I wish she was in it more just so I could've heard Sara Ramirez sing more songs when I saw it.

Also, the actress playing Emily/The Angel in Angels In America isn't on stage very much in Millennium Approaches.
<-----Bernadette Peters and Alexander Hanson in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.

Send in the clowns...Send in the crowds!

"I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface."-Stephen Sondheim
#44

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

In the current GREASE, Stephen Buntrock comes out in an ice cream cone, sings one song, and then leaves (again in the ice cream cone.)

He is on stage for five minutes and makes a pretty damn good living. He doesn't even have to walk out on stage to earn his cash either, he is carried there.

Think about this: he works roughly forty minutes a week. (Of course, that doesn't include being at the theatre for the rest of the show, but I wouldn't exactly call that work.)
#46

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

"Brooke in Legally Blonde."

She's in the opening number as well. She (at least Nikki was) is in a long brunette wig and is in the bottom right or bottom second from the right window. she does the whole opening number, opens the door for Warner, and is then rolled off the stage on the set piece where she spend the rest of Act I preparing and warming up for the Act II opening. In act two shes on stage for roughly 25 minues of the second act.
#48

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

I was just in a production of City of Angels. That show is filled with bit parts with nothing else in between for the ensemble since there are no ensemble numbers. I don't know how we could have done it in a long run!

~Steven
#49

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Let me reiterate the roles of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White in INTO THE WOODS. They run in at the end of act 2, sigh, then run off.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#50

re: Smallest stage time for an actor in a show?

Dr Dillamond in Wicked is onstage in 2 short scenes in Act 1 and then a minute in Act 2. Although he's in the opening number I don't think he's in any other part of the show

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