Broadway Star Joined: 2/6/08
Whoever the understudy was for NYC Opera's most recent The Most Happy Fella was leaps and bounds better than Sorvino. Sorvino was painful to watch and even more painful to listen to.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/29/04
"jonathan crombie as man in chair - the drowsy chaperone"
Crombie was a replacement, not an understudy.
Unfortunately I never got to see Norbert Leo Butz in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels but I do have to give kudos to Jason Gillman for his performance on the night I saw the show - he was hilarious!
I'm very aware that Lisa Brescia is the Elphaba standby, not understudy. I wasn't being literal. Other people have mentioned standbys (Maureen Moore, for example).
Nikki Renee Daniels as Fantine in the recent Les Mis revival.
I thought that Jon Patrick Walker was a better Dr. Frankenstein than Roger Bart. I think it's because I saw Roger in that role a lot that it was time for a change.
Updated On: 6/24/08 at 07:52 PM
Pamela Jordan as Sheila in A Chorus Line
Katie Adams as Glinda in Wicked (over Annaleigh)
Emily Rozek as Glinda (over Kendra)
Leading Actor Joined: 5/6/06
I've seen LB both times Becky Gulsvig as Elle and I prefer her.
I enjoyed Brandi Chavonne Massey as Elphaba more than Eden Espinosa, just not a big Eden fan. Last but not least Lindsay K. Northen as Glinda!!!!! I think she's a lot better than Kendra Kassebaum. Also Lisa Brescia is amazing but Stephanie had that little edge over her.
Cicily Daniels as Ursula in The Little Mermaid.
She was 1000x better than Sherie.
Featured Actor Joined: 5/20/08
I saw both Donna Vivino and Carmen Cusack in the WICKED tour and I liked Donna better.
I preferred Katie Rose Clarke to Kelli O'Hara as Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza.
Wicked London - Cassidy Janson was a better all rounded Elphaba (taking into account acting) than Kerry Ellis, which sometimes appeared, to me at least, a tad boring.
Broadway Star Joined: 5/15/03
How UNpopular we will be about this, A Fleur De Toi...but I couldn't agree more about Katie Rose Clark over Kelli O'Hara (particularly as Katie grew in the role so much during the second half of the tour).
Katie's current Glinda in Wicked is brilliant too - she is delightful.
ooh so great someone agrees with me :P Katie Rose Clarke is simply the cutest thing ever. You just feel like giving her a hug and her smile makes you feel all warm and nice inside haha.
She's the Glinda on tour now isnt she?
I preferred Katie Rose Clarke to Kelli O'Hara as Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza.
But she wasn't the understudy.
CAN NO ONE FOLLOW DIRECTIONS ANYMORE?!
aww easy sugar.
so she wasnt the understudy, my bad. Just pointing out someone who did the show later and whom i feel was better than the original broadway cast. sorry if that offends so bad. :)
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
Are you kidding? Katie was terrible vocally on Broadway.
She was MUCH better in the tour, though.
I would have liked to see Katie on the tour, but I have no complaints about Elena Shaddow, who was excellent. But when I saw the show on Broadway, Laura Griffiths (later the tour Franca) was on for Clara. It was her first time and she was superb.
When I saw Spring Awakening, the Wendla understudy, Phoebe Strole, was one of the best (only good?) things about the show.
Jenn Damiano was a far superior Ilse in every way than Lauren Pritchard was.
Broadway Star Joined: 2/1/06
Speaking of Randal Keith pre-Valjean, you can see him in the ensemble in a Sutton Foster video that shall not be named on the site that shall not be named.
^^"I saw Jon Walker Patrick in for Roger Bart in YF and thought he did a great job. I have not seen Roger Bart's performance so I don't have a point of comparison."
I also saw JWP in for Roger Bart in Young Frankenstein, and Heather Ayers in for Megan Mullally in the same performance. I thought both were outstanding and much preferred their live performances to the cast recording (haven't seen either RB or MM live).
(Offthread: can someone tell me how to italicize? because I simply cannot figure it out and the ^^ and quotation marks drive me a bit mad. Thanks.)
Stand-by Joined: 10/26/06
Ana Maria Andricain as Eva in the "Evita" tour
Alice Ripley as Mrs. Walker in "Tommy"
Shayna Steele as Mary Magdalene in "JCS"
Jon Patrick Walker > Roger Bart.
Patti Murin as Clio/Kira in Xanadu
I was disappointed when that slip of paper fell out of my playbill, but I loved her performance and she has a killer voice that I prefer to Kerry on the cast recording.
(Offthread: can someone tell me how to italicize? because I simply cannot figure it out and the ^^ and quotation marks drive me a bit mad. Thanks.)
http://www.ncsu.edu/cc/edu/html_trng/basic_commands.html
Chorus Member Joined: 8/10/07
Here's one that hasn't been mentioned -- Many years ago, when it was still fairly early in its run, I saw "Miss Saigon" on a Wednesday night and Jarrod Emick, who was then also part of the ensemble, went on as Chris. I don't know who actually had the role at the time (I know it wasn't the original actor), but his performance was so wonderful that I couldn't imagine anyone doing a better job than he did. I thought to myself "this guy won't be stuck in ensembles for very long". I guess I was right!
Updated On: 6/26/08 at 08:47 AM
Videos