So...they get paid to just...SIT there? — Page 2

PERform! The word is perform, not preform!

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To point out, Gavroche's final scene is the Finale, so wouldn't the actor have to stay until the very end? When I stage doored at the Broadhurst, I remember both the boys coming out.

Yes. I saw Kimberly go on, she was wonderful.

Her older sister Kristen was Baby Louise in the 1989 GYPSY revival.

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BILLY ELLIOT:

There is a sign in the foyer which indicates, before the show starts, which boy is playing Billy, which is playing Michael, and which girl is playing Debbie. There isn't a long-term schedule ahead of time for them anyway. Some have special regimes. For example, Liam Mower, late in his run, stopped doing Saturday Nights and Thurdsay nights altogether. There were, originally, three boys, but currently there are four. They live together, and often sort it out during the day that one, who might have, as of the short term schedule, have been due to perform, can't, and so another steps in. They do, of course, have a stand-by on all through every show.

There was once a problem, because two of the three Michaels were ill, and the third was in Scotland. They tried to get him down (alledgedly in a chopper), but the weather went against them. Liam Mower, normally Billy, actually played the role of Michael for that night.

There is a rule, with exceptions, in the UK that children shouldn't do more than 3 performances a week. In London, there are three gavroches, etc. in Les Mis.

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its smart to have them there though-even if they are sitting-when i saw TLK the 3rd time-at the start we had 1 nala and thne u could tell something happened because the other one went out and that was after they had a long pause

Beauty and the Beast: I know of at least a half-dozen occasions when one Chip came down with a fever or started throwing up after arriving at the theatre or starting the show, and the other kid jumped in. Then there are those times when the scheduled kid is stuck in the tunnel, and the other goes on. It is a great insurance policy to have double casting because of the understudy element. Also, in a long run, it is rare to have to change over two kids at the same time, so you always have one who knows the role well and one who is growing into it.

I've always wondered if Little Colehouse in Ragtime was making Equity minimum. Or how much he did make. At least Young Eponine gets to alternate with Young Cosette, but the actor playing Little Colehouse literally just ran out onstage for the last 30 seconds, and they still had an alternate.

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Tam is double-cast because you never can tell what a 4-year-old is gonna do.

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RE: Christine.
There's the main Christine. She does 6 shows a week for a certain salary. There's the Alternate Christine. She does 2 shows a week and picks up whatever shows the main Christine can't do. Her salary is less, but prorated for shows above and beyond 2. She's also the one who plays the "mirror bride" in the lair. Main Christine may be docked similarly for shows not done. There's yet another understudy to fill in when those two can't.
RE: Standbys
Audiences of The Pirate Queen got first-hand experience of why standbys are paid to stand by, when Ms. Block had to bail 1/4 through the show and Ms. Voytko stepped in, seamlessly by all accounts.

Would someone like to explain the GREY GARDENS issue? Why isn't Lee double cast?

Twice.

Updated On: 4/23/07 at 03:50 PM