Smoking on Stage?

I've seen people smoke on stage in a lot of shows. Hedwig, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Bonnie and Clyde come to mind. Is there a trick to this? Do they just like inhale it a little and immediately exhale or something? I've never smoked so I'm not entirely sure how the mechanics of a cigarette work, but I can't imagine that these actors are smoking on stage eight times a week (or seven in the case of Hedwig, or six/two in the case of many JCS productions)

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "There are fake cigarettes but most people feel they look really bad. (It looked like E-cigs were being used during Lempicka, possibly?)

Usually people use herbal cigarettes,and the amount that they inhale depends on the actor, but they ARE smoking.

Keeping it in your mouth (cigar-style) instead of letting it go down into your lungs could be a strategy as well."

That would make a whole lot of sense. I do wonder, can smoking herbal cigarettes still damage the lungs or throat? I mean, in a show like Bonnie and Clyde where you have so many songs that require incredible endurance and a consistently high tessitura, how do they manage smoking?

I've been a smoker in my life, but before that, I had to smoke on stage for a play. I discovered the best thing to do to make it look realistic is to take a puff, hold the smoke in your mouth, lift your soft palate and then exhale the smoke through your nose. Smoking coming out of the nose just makes it feel more realistic.

I think smoking on stage has become a distraction. No matter what is being smoked (even when nothing is actually being smoked but there is some kind of 'smoke' visible) there's a Pavlovian response in audiences with people throughout the auditorium coughing. It takes me right out of it.

When I used to house manage in the city we had an instance where a pregnant audience member demanded to be changed to a seat farther away from the front of the stage because she was pregnant and a lot of the characters were smoking. We explained they were herbal cigs but she kept insisting we refund the difference of her ticket, yelling during intermission that she knew they were real cigarettes because she could smell them. Our manager then tried to explain that they legally couldn't be real cigarettes. She also insisted the show needed to warn people of their use. She ended up not staying for act 2.

There are companies that make herbal cigarettes that are used in Film, TV, Theater etc. One of the leading brands is Honey Rose. I’ve directed numerous plays that required smoking and we’d always let the actors (both smokers and non-smokers) choose which flavor/ ingredients they preferred we get for them. Some tasted good, some bad, they all smelled awful and the smoke clouds lingered way longer than a normal cigarette! We also invested in a very good and quiet HEPA Air Purifier. By far the most popular ones among actors I’ve worked with were made from Marshmallow and Rosemary.


I have had actors who were smokers sneak real cigarettes into the packs but it would always be extremely obvious by smell. When I directed Annie Bakers THE ALIENS in a small 50 seat black box we had to open a new pack every performance and so we’d have to carefully remove the cellophane from the bottom of a pack of cigarettes and refill the pack with the herbal smokes then carefully put the cellophane back over the cigarette box without tearing it and seal the bottom it with a sticker. It was a pain!