do you think the people in Phantom get tired of the show

I mean, I cannot understand why someone would want to be the "whip guy" for 5 years in a Broadway show.
Is this really what actors went to school for? To be the "whip guy" in a 20 yr old show?

It seems like Phantom is where actors go to kill their careers. I am not an actor and do not know, but I was just thinking that these kids go into school thinking about creating and making a name for themselves, and then they get cast in the Phantom tour or Broadway show and then live there for years because they can't get another gig. Maybe because they are really just singers and not actors anyway, or maybe fear of unemployment and uncertinty takes hold and they settle for massive mediocrity.

So all that they "learned" from CCM or Michigan or Carnegie Mellon, goes out the door with their innate creative abilities as their souls begin to crumble thinking of going to the theater again tonight to say "lot 665..thank you sir" for the 550th time.
If i were an actor and had to be in a show for 5 yrs i wonder which one it would be. I think Phantom might be my last choice, with My Fair Lady and Camelot a close second and third.

I think Urinetown might be first (because i believe it to be one of the best musicals in the past decade), followed closely by Sweeney. Shows that actually require acting abilities, unlike the masked man floating in a lagoon 8 times a week.

Thoughts?

They do get a paycheck every week.

Many of these actors have families to support in addition to themselves, and steady employment is more important than auditioning for new shows where they might risk becoming unemployed if it isn't a success.

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Yeah....

George Lee Andrews once told a great story about how he was very very tempted to go audition for Good Vibrations because he was "tired of doing Phantom"...

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the cast members probly call phantom there home.

You'd be surprised.

Every "whip guy" is different. You may have one who is very appreciative of being the whip guy because he realises that barely anyone makes it in the first place, and that there are hundreds of people dying to be the whip guy. But then there are others who are just dying to get out of there.

If I were in that situation I'd say, "F**k, if I have to be a whip guy, then I'm gonna be the best damn whip guy that I can be!" I think any actor who loves their job would take this approach. Most actors become very close to the show they're doing, and they kind of becoming a family. They have to be really miserable to not enjoy their job.

I know people in the audience do...

The Whip Guy is actually called the Slave Master. Many actors in Phantom stay for a long time because they are comfortable there and enjoy working with each other. Also, many people involved in Phantom are not necessarily musical theatre actors. Many have been experienced/trained opera singers or ballet dancers who are making a comfortable living, and when they eventually leave the show, they go back to their vocal performance world.

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I agree with what everyone else has said about it being a job and getting paid, so that is probably the main reason a lot of them stay. I just saw this show for the first time yesterday, and I bet they might keep people as long as they are willing to stay because you need to be a really strong singer for that show. And some of those girls need to be great ballet dancers too.

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"99.9% of performers who have worked on Broadway aren't Patti LuPone or Sutton Foster who are so famous they get offered roles or are able to jump from new original show to new original show."

For that matter, even Patti LuPone isn't able to jump from new original show to new original show. As she herself said in the Times Talk interview, she has rarely originated roles.

Think of the rewards. It is doing what they love to do, entertaining an audience 8 times a week.

Little-Lotte: "It's my belief that if an actor who graduated from the so-called 'big name theatre schools' is complaining because they only have a bit role in a Broadway show then, in my opinion, they don't deserve to be an actor and there are thousands of talented people who will happily take their place."

Well said. I couldn't have put it better myself :)

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I do wonder this also. I still love Phantom of the Opera because I have so many memories of going to the show with my grandfather when I was very young. However the last time I went I saw an understudy that had been in the show for 20 years. I can't believe that he's been doing that same show since I was 4 years old. Now that's job security.

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I don't know if Howard will ever get tired of the show =P haha. He is a really good phantom though, but it's about time for him to let someone else have the role.