i feel like Six is helping to change the reputation of understudies with all the alternates/ swings being treated the same as the rest of the cast by fans and fans getting excited to see each alternate as the different queens

One of my very favorite moments watching a Broadway show is when I saw Les Miserables and we had an Understudy Javert. And Understudy Javert was kinda nervous. At the end of "Stars", the big solo song, the lights came down and when he didn't think we could see, Understudy Javert did a little fist pump. We could all see, Understudy Javert, and we are so proud of you.

Can we talk about as well how almost every role you discussed here is female? Contemporary musical theatre often has female songs that are right at the break of chest and head voice and mix/belt ability is just expected of actors. They're expected to have incredible vocals but often no alternate or standby so they have to perform every show until their vocals are fried and they need to call out sick.

I think there should be awards given for understudies/alternates as well at the oliviers to show a more constant appreciation

Carrie performed in Heathers as one of the most vocally and physically demanding roles in theatre through tonsillitis for basically the entire back half of her run because she more or less wasn't allowed to be off because they had virtually no covers. Heathers is being insanely irresponsible by not having more covers. It's so blatantly a way to cut costs and it's gross and dangerous. Elphaba and Glinda both have standbys in all productions as well as u/s IIRC but I agree they should have straight alternates! Hamilton has an alt Ham bc it's a hard role to do 8 shows a week. Elphaba especially is one of the most demanding roles in theatre, she should DEFINITELY have an alternate for the exact reasons you specified.

The Six Broadway live album has a bonus track of the alternates singing a STUNNING version of Heart of Stone.💜

I remember Carrie Hope Fletcher and Oliver Ormson both making points about their Paul Taylor Mills shows being so understaffed so they were pressured to perform whilst ill because otherwise their shows wouldn't have run. Such a toxic environment for everyone! Hoping it will change soon!

When Carrie Hope Fletcher was in Heathers, she admitted that the role was gruelling, and I definitely think would have benefitted from having an alternate

I saw Georgia Tapp in Cinderella last week who is 2nd cover Cinderella and had only played the role once or twice before. She was perfectly marvellous in the role and almost distracted me from the gaping holes in the plot.

Another factor that shouldn’t be ignored is the financial compensation for understudies. I barely know anything about how understudies are paid, but I think the more tracks they cover, the more they are paid. Are these understudies learning a role last minute paid decently for this last minute extra track they needed to learn?

As amazingly talented as the swings and covers are, it horrifies me that they're put in that position with that amount of pressure on them. Learning a number during an interval shouldn't even be close to the standard expected of them. They deserve more recognition and less pressure put on them to be able to do everything.

Oh wow- I'm currently a swing on a show, covering a lead role and 8 roles in the ensemble (although expected to cover the whole cast in some capacity if things go awry)- reading through these comments gets me emotional! It's such a hard slog and things need to change, with covid and sickness a constant at the moment, swings are extremely overworked and often more burnt out than normal cast members, as we're going on with no rehearsal in a different character almost every night. Things really do need to change, cause this type of work just isn't sustainable. Thank you for bringing this to the forefront of people's minds!

Paul Taylor Mills did all of this on In The Heights as well, I remember going to see it on a night where after all the covers when on for leads there was 2 male and one female ensemble members left, all this to say Covid may be contributing to some of these problems now, but he is a producer thats been doing this for a long time.

I LOVE seeing understudies, it reminds me that every performance is totally unique and that’s what I love about theatre. Some of my most treasured theatre memories are seeing covers (eg the Toby Marlow Six concert, seeing Liv Alexander make her west end debut mid-show, Payal Mistry as Pi) and I appreciate them so much. But it must be so stressful for people to have to step in like that, especially if they feel pressure or like the show won’t happen without them playing a role they’re not ready for. The thing that really got me with Hannah Lowther going on for Heather Duke was that everyone was saying she had 4 hours rehearsal, but she mentioned on tiktok that she spent most of that time organising the cut show because she’s now the only dance captain since the last group of people left the show. That is BONKERS to me. Of course it’s her job and she’s amazing, but I can’t help feeling that this sort of situation creates unnecessary stress and damage to performers, especially as the more this kind of thing happens, the more it will become expected and normalised that understudies just do this without regard for their well-being

I was lucky enough to see Olivia Mitchell as Jenna in waitress last week and it totally hammered home the idea about giving drama school grads opportunity. She was a 2021 grad, this is her first professional job AND it was only her 3rd performance in the role and unless I had read all of that either online or in the programme you genuinely would have had no idea!

I've seen the argument for Heathers being that The Other Palace literally doesn't have enough room to have swings or a bigger ensemble - doesn't explain why they didn't have more at the Haymarket.

Your argument on Heather Duke always being played by a woman of colour reminds me of a conversation I had last year with a friend about Six. I was a bit skeptical on Cleves and Parr mostly being played by women of colour, although the real-life singers that inspired the roles are women of colour. I just felt a bit odd to only have white Howards and white Seymours and black/mixed Cleves and Parrs. I think Six understood that with its more recent casts. Like Jen being prinicpal Boleyn in the UK tour, just a hair colour change on a principal does change the show. On the current WE cast, having a 100% non-white cast for prinicpals is amazing. I think Six is one of the shows that learned the most about themselves and ended up improving their diversity... which is the whole point of the show

We have season tickets to a touring theater near me, and our show date lands usually on the last night of a tour run. I get understudies or alternates fairly often because of this, I have never ONCE been disappointed. I have a friend who started as a vacation swing (A VERY GOOD IDEA) on Broadway and was quickly promoted up to the main actress in a lead role. She covered several parts and got so much exposure doing this, and I think it’s a practice that should extend into the West End. It’s a fantastic training ground, especially if an actor is newer and producers or casting are concerned about an actor being “too green” to lead a show.

I love heathers but it pains me that they haven’t learnt their lessons about having enough covers and diversity. I also recently visited London and saw wicked, I was excited to see Lucie Jones after seeing her in waitress however we had both standbys on for Elphaba and Glinda. I’m not sure why they were both on but regardless they were both amazing and I would still love to go back and see it again. Also had the pleasure of seeing the alternate for Marty Mcfly in BTTF who was incredible and the cover for Jennifer. I’m lucky enough to have seen both Becca Wickes and May Tether play Veronica on tour and when I saw les mis in january we had the cover for cosette on. All of these shows and performers were incredible and I don’t see them as less in anyway just because the usual performers were not on for their roles, in fact I enjoyed some of these shows more than their normal usual versions (if that’s the right way to put it 😂)

While I agree that understudies/swings/alternates should be ‘uplifted’ and ‘celebrated’, I think we should also follow on incorporation and inclusion. Don’t let them feel like they’re not part of the cast, don’t exclude them from press calls and backstage videos etc. I think that would help break down this feeling of them being less than, or a last resort. Six has done that incredibly well (at least in Australia) - the swings are included in a lot of the promo and social media stuff and have as much of a following and a buzz as the main cast.

I teach musical theatre & I completely agree that the issue needs to be addressed from a systemic level. The understudies should not need to learn entire roles or tracks in less than a day. But would the understudies get the amazing press if they already knew the role? Like you say, they need to be uplifted all the time rather than the extraordinary circumstances in which they perform.

I was in a professional production of Guys and Dolls as a Hot Box Girl when our Adelaide got sick. I was called at 5:00 and asked to go on for her at 7:00. I was not an understudy and didn’t have a single rehearsal in her part and went on that night. I filled in for her for 5 nights and then went back to the Hot Box.

The last 3 shows I saw had understudies on and they were phenomenal. However, one thing that really annoys me (that so many people do) is say something along the lines of “well if the understudy was that good, how amazing must the proper actor be”!! It’s such a backhanded compliment to the understudy or alternate performing! I completely agree that just because someone is a cover, it doesn’t mean that they are any less talented. As a trainee, so many of my friends have the talent to be a Veronica or Javet, but only ever want to be ensemble or alternate, so when people say things like the previous quote or “understudies are conciliation prizes”, it really bugs me. I could ramble on for ages sorry, rant over Also, I love the points made in this video, I agree wholeheartedly

I think heathers could do with a standby for the heathers and an alternate for Veronica. Veronica is a massive sing, thats how Barrett ruined her voice and that's how Carrie got super sick. That way everyone is covered, gets a chance to rest up and the show can still go on without having to pull in old cast members and having ridiculously cut shows. However it was an amazing treat to see Charlotte as Miss Fleming in Bristol 🤣🤣🤣 forever grateful that I got to see the show in Bristol because of her :)

Phantom no longer has a standby since reopening. There are now 3 understudies (James Gant, Ashley Stillburn and James Hume). There are now two understudy Christine’s rather than just one too.

I live in Belgium and we had a wildly popular musical here (40-45). For this musical there were 2 seperate casts (although some roles were overlapping). So when you booked your tickets, you could choose to go see the "blue" or "green" cast. I think this was a great solution. the one cast wasn't viewed as less as the other and when someone was ill, someone of the other cast could fill in.

I fully think Six should have 2 full casts. The things that show asks of its performers are insane.

On that note, can we please make sure understudies are ready to go on for previews? I know it’s a lot to get them ready in time too, but I’ve heard of shows canceling previews because lead/featured actors have gone down and the understudy wasn’t ready (happened with Diana the Musical actually).

iirc Hannah had backlash on twitter after playing Heather Duke because she's white :( so -- excellent point you made that there shouldn't just be one cookie cutter role for a POC. purely a fault in producing/casting and a way bigger issue as a whole, so it was so sad that Hannah has constantly gone above and beyond (due to lack of swings!) and is the one getting criticised!!

I think there's a couple things at play here, but the biggest being "the show must go on" mentality. It commodifies actors and makes them objects at the disposal of the show and its producers. If you do not have the coverage you need in your company, you should have 2 options: 1) Hire more people, and 2) Cancel performances until you have enough people available to safely perform. Constantly bringing in people from other productions, having understudies go on for roles they don't cover or don't even know, while absolutely impressive, puts so many people at risk. After the past 2 years, and still being in the midst of a global pandemic, it's wholly irresponsible for producers to put their bottom line of making money ahead of the safety of their actors. I have many more thoughts on this, but this is what came to mind first. Thank you for posting this video. Happy to engage in discussions with anyone on this.

I liked what Six did with their Broadway cast album -- the last track is the alternates singing "Heart of Stone."

I remember Carrie talking about this being a problem when she played Veronica. She was super sick most of her run and felt that she couldn’t take time off to get well partially because it would make it so inconvenient and stressful for the rest of the cast

Thank you for saying we are still in a pandemic because people seem to be forgetting that! It seems insane to me that Heathers still hasn't learned from its mistakes when it comes to alternates and standbys! and it shows with shows like Six fanbases get behind their alternatives! I still remember being in London screaming as I sit in an outside cafe because Collette just announced she was Aragon for the performance I was going to!

On ticket prices for TV/movie stars - I felt that. My wallet did too. I’m not in the UK but I flew to NYC to see Dear Evan Hansen and expected to see Jordan Fisher in the lead role. It was the second weekend the show had reopened. I paid quite a bit for my ticket and the second alternate ended up on. Actually, there were mostly alternates on that night. Now, don’t get me wrong, they did an incredible job, every single one of them. But it turns out that Jordan Fisher missed more than half of his shows and ended his run early and a lot of people who tried to see him and spent a lot of money to do so didn’t actually end up seeing him. I didn’t even attempt to see The Music Man because the ticket prices for a show led by Hugh Jackman were so astronomical that I couldn’t justify buying the worst seat in the house. He missed performances due to Covid which is understandable, but would the people who paid $600 to see Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster have paid that much to see their alternates? I’m sure the show was still great, but my guess is that would have been a $300 ticket when you take the movie star and the Tony winner off the stage.

I totally agree with all of this! I also think these award shows e.g WOS, Oliviers etc. need to have awards for alternates as they deserve just as much recognition. Or maybe we need a specific awards show for understudies.

My daughter Serena Tramontana was a swing in heathers this year 2022, she was amazing at stepping into the different roles, it showed a great threatre talent and its great to recognise swings

I do miss the good old days of having specific standbys, like you said with Christine in Phantom or Cinderella, but my guess is that they want to pay for as few cast members as possible to cut down overall costs after the pandemic

These stories are amazing, but I get so nervous because there are so many ways a swing going on to save the show last minute could get injured. Automated set pieces could run you over if you're not in the right place, you could fall through a trap door, or you just trip up doing choreography you haven't had a chance to fully rehearse.

I personally love it when an alternate/understudy/standby goes on for a role. Whenever I go to see a show I pray that there’s a cover on because they don’t go on as often so it’s more special. So far I’ve only seen principal actors in the shows I’ve seen, but I definitely think they deserve more credit!

I saw La Traviata at the Royal Opera House where they had the matinee performer of Violeta perform the evening show too, which is mental because opera singers are usually on vocal rest for days after performing a lead role.

I wish they would stop casting one heather as always played by a person of colour, as you say why is it always that role! I think it’s unfair on audiences to give them such a cut show, there’s no way it’s going to sound the same with less people singing

Yes today I saw Bonnie & Clyde, and both Jordan and Frankie were off. The understudies went on and were amazing (and there debut was yesterday). The Clyde understudy said that he does perform the shows every Sunday.

Along the lines of having more alternates, wouldn't be great if mothers and fathers with children could get alternates so they could have days off with their children - I wish broadway utilized alternates more.

Props to every understudy, alternate, swing and everyone else. I saw a bunch of Broadway shows on my recent trip to NYC and Every Performance had one of the roles had a swing or understudy.

When I was in Heathers in London during Carrie Hope Fletchers Run. Two performers were sick and so two performers hand to both do the dad roles and the teacher and head of the school. And I was really confused at some time in the storyline and only while talking to the actors at stage door I understood why. And also the (very small) stage at the other palace felt small in the ensemble numbers.

11:36 I find this point a bit hilarious because in the Heathers movie, having all three Heathers look nearly identical was like... the entire point. Once Heather C died, Heather D stepped into her role without the student body even blinking. The Heathers being interchangeable was actually an intentional part of the criticism being made.

Saw Back To The Future for the first time the other day and all my friends came out praising George McFly as a standout performance, I was pleased to realise it was understudy Cameron McAllister in the role - he did a fantastic job!

recently went to see six at the vaudeville with the super swing (rachel rawlinson) as howard and it was incredible - she was already my favourite queen, but that performance fully cemented it :) also slightly unrelated but my program for that show has all the actresses pronouns in which is really cool, i’m not sure how many shows already do that but i’d love to see it more!

i think the shirt you're wearing in this vid is really fitting bc, while i haven't seen the WE production of be more chill, i know in the off-broadway/broadway production people would really appreciate all the swings and understudies which was so awesome to see. we really need to start giving them more credit in general

I personally like seeing the alternates. Love to see different takes on a role, love seeing it played and sung in different ways and comparing and contrasting.

One great example of understudies/swings saving a show was the infamous Valentine's Day performance of Beetlejuice on Broadway back in 2020. It started with covering for Otho in Act 2 which became more complicated as the show went on. The actor who normally plays Otho was on vacation, so first it was announced that Sean Montgomery was to go on, but the actor playing Adam Maitland, David Josefsberg, couldn't go on as his train into Manhattan was cancelled so Sean went on as Adam. Then Abe Goldfarb was announced as Otho, but he hit his head during Act 1 and got a concussion, so he's out. Will Blum was called in, even though he originally had the night off, to play Otho after that, but then Alex Brightman, who plays Beetlejuice, violently rolled his ankle during the opening number and couldn't go on for Act 2 and Will is Alex's understudy so he had to go on for Beetlejuice. So now they are out of male understudies/swings that cover Otho so they asked another swing, Eric Anthony Johnson, if he could do it, he said yes, rehearsed the part very quickly during intermission while getting into hair/makeup/costume and went on rigged with an iPad so he could have the lines. There were a couple other swings on as well, like Brooke who had to cover a track she normally doesn't. But this performance was an example of how understudies/swings should really get more recognition in theater.

I don't understand why Elphaba has a standby but not an alternate? I recently saw the Waitress tour and it was a cut show with 7 cover and 2 swings on and I was really pleased the theatre had signs everywhere telling you who was performing that night so they got recognition (it was a phenomenal show!). I think covid has really raised awareness of the work swings and covers do and I hope it can lead to greater credit for them.

I can’t believe I JUST found you. Thank you for so much for all the info. 💕 You’re a font of knowledge.

Saw Hadestown back in early December and both Andre De Shields and Amber Gray were out. We caught T. Oliver Reid and Lana Gordon instead, and now both of them have a new fan :D

Loved this video essay! So happy you popped up on my recommendation page, will definitely be subscribing!

I saw Six a couple of times during it's early West End run, and you knew you were going to get alternatives. And I kept going back because they were all so awesome. I've huge respect for the covers at Hamilton. I saw three different actors as Aaron Burr, during the opening six months (yes I might have got a bit obsessed but the theater is right by the office so I had more opportunities for return sales). My favorite Burr was Waylon Jacobs who was a swing, beating Giles Terra and the understudy (whose name escapes me). You can check our Waylon in Hamilton now as Lafayette/Jefferson now. I also think Lin did a great job using actors for multiple characters in the show, allowing performers to demonstrate their range, which changes perceptions too. It was his performance that led me to WestEndCovers twitter who do an incredible job keeping all the cast changes updated and allowing those who step in at short notice their moment to shine, normally before the show has started. For far too long there has been a pretty hostile attitude towards understudies and covers and a lot of snobbery. The producers need to be more sensible, but the audience needs to appreciate the covers more. Six and Hamilton don't apologize for using them, and when the Les Mis staged concert was on at the Gielgud I actually wanted John Owen-Jones rather than Alfie Boe so I really appreciated that it was clear which performances he would be doing (3 x a week). It's less bad now the covid restrictions have been lifted but there were people covering all over the place at the end of last year. Also props to the recently closed Pride and Prejudice (sort of), who also had a cast with great covers.

I saw But I'm a Cheerleader last night and there was a 3rd year Arts Ed student (s/o to billie bowman) on as a lead for her debut who had 2 days to learn the show! She absolutely smashed it though! Paul Taylor Mills was there!

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of youtube! Your videos are amazing, very glad my tweet was featured. 😂 It’s such an issue with PTM in particular so I’m glad you raised this also. Thanks Mickey!

Agree with every point you made!! Just yesterday it was announced that Heather's with close from 3rd May to 19th for 'something exciting' I am hoping they are re casting and taking on some swings!! 🤞

I remember when the Broadway cast of hair came over, flu went round the cast and they only had a couple of members of the tribe so nearly put a guy from the box office on for a matinee as they’d done it at Uni….. 😂😂😂😂🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Excellent vid ! Great insightful content!

Absolutely agree with all of this! Swings, understudies, alternates - all amazing and should absolutely be better appreciated and better credited. I recently co-directed an amateur production of “Rent” and our Joanna lost her voice opening night. After speaking her way through the entire show on the second night, we needed to make sure she could rest her voice properly to be able to perform the final performance. Being an amateur production there was no swing or understudy for anyone - so we pulled one of our amazing ensemble girls into the role. She came in at 1pm and went through all the vocals, then from 2:30pm went through the direction and choreo with me for no more than 2 hours. She went in that night and absolutely SMASHED it! The entire cast was right behind her and it lifted the energy of the whole show that night. I ended up going on in her place in the ensemble! Truly amazing that she did that as an amateur ensemble member.

I'm really glad I found your channel! I worked backstage in theater during high school and ever since I've been interested in the background and mechanics of running theater--I'm so interested in the discussions of how vital and underappreciated stand-bys/alternates and crew members are, and I really appreciate your points about the sometimes performative nature of diversity in casting. These are exactly the conversations performers, crew, and audience need to be having

i remember dear evan hansen opening on broadway; 2 male understudies, 1 female understudy, 1 mother understudy, and 1 father standby. once they realized ben platt’s role was so vocally demanding, they quickly added an alternate and more understudies/swings.

& Juliet should definitely be advertising the alternate performances! I have seen Miriam Teak Lee play Juliet twice now and would love to see someone else play the role, it's what the fans want! and like you said the average theatre-goer who isn't a hardcore theatre fan wouldn't know/care who usually plays the lead.

I'm so glad you made this video. In summer I'll be playing my first professional production and I'm the ensemble/cover of Bridget in Bring It On. Since this production is tiny and we don't have many shows, all covers are allowed to play a few extra shows to also get the experience :)

I didn’t think they ever “ran out of Queens” in theatre 😂 Sorry…

I like to point out that Hannah lother is also the dance captain for heathers which means she knows everyone’s tracks

I can see both sides of the argument here. And nothing I say here is intended to diminish the skill and talent of swings and understudies, I've seen many in the West End and thought some were better than the lead! I get that from an audience point of view I can see the expectation that you see a show in all its glory and get your money's worth when you see the show. On the other hand I can see that from the producer's point of view that having an entire second cast sitting around in the dressing room on the off chance of something going wrong isn't always a financially viable thing to do. And this is probably even more so in the Heathers and Cheerleader examples that are on at small theatres where the margins are probably even tighter than Phantom or Wicked. At the end of the day the producer has to balance the risks as they see them. If they employ a lot of swings, understudies etc and (in an extreme example) some never actually need to go on during the run then the producer either looses money or has to charge more for tickets and lets face it theatre isn't cheap already. Equally they can run the show with a smaller cast and risk things like demands for refunds, the potential for cancelled shows and the subsequent damage to their reputation.

Meanwhile at my high school production of les mis the lead literally got a HEAD WOUND and went on stage bleeding profusely while I grumbled on the sideline 🙄

I saw Wicked in February with Samantha Taylor covering as Glinda and she was just incredible. I wish I could get a cast recording with her on it because I’m in love with her performance.

Australian here - I first saw Jemma Rix as the understudy for Elphaba in Aus production of Wicked. She was amazing and eventually became the principal, and now is a ‘star’ in her own right. It did make me wonder though why the original performer in that production missed so many performances - did performing that role mess with her vocal health? I also wonder if people cast in leading roles worry about being displaced if an alternate is cast who then may end up fitting the role better than they do?

This isn’t just a problem in the west end. The current beauty and the beast tour (with 8 swings) has had to have cut shows. One of the principles even had to do part of an ensemble track (enchantress) once.

First time watching, loving your content so happy to subscribe 😊

I love Six and all the alternates and swings 💜 All wonderful humans 🥰 Haven’t seen Heathers but saw a bit of Hannah’s tiktok so was aware of the situation

I saw Danielle Fiamanya in Frozen a couple of weeks ago and was completely blown away. Before seeing it though I thought she was playing the role of Elsa completely, I hadn't heard about Samantha Barks playing Elsa. I'm not sure if there has been any recent changes in Frozen, but oh my gosh Danielle made me cry and get shivers every time she sang.

How can a West End production/national tour not have swings? And I completely agree on the issue of lack of diversity in casting.

I have two wonderful friends who worked as stand bys in BoM, both of whom ended up making theur Broadway debuts separate times in the last few years, both with about 24 hours notice, which is crazy. And they both were fantastic. I love the understudies, swings, and standbys of every show, and they deserve the same love primary casts receive.

Nice to see that Six on Broadway now has 6 alternates

Back in December I booked 3 shows specifically to celebrate understudies and the brilliant job that they do. What pains me is that shows, even with swings, will either have cast members return or do split ensemble tracks. The waitress tour currently struck by COVID, which has had to cancel performed, or a few years back when Steph Parry ran from 42nd Street to Mamma Mia to play Donna of all parts. Of course, swings and more covers help, but that’s not to say situations aren’t always avoidable

In Australia (and I am in no way comparing us to the West End), it is quite common for the lead understudies to do some, if not all, of the matinee shows. I'm not sure how it works from a more financial, technical viewpoint, but I think it would take a lot of the pressure off of the lead actors to be on for every single show. If you go to a lot of shows this isn't a surprise or secret and no one really cares because it's just normal.

I saw Jenny DiNoia as Elphaba in Wicked last October. I had no idea she was an alternate until I read it after the show, and she absolutely blew me away with her performance. All shows should have alternates to perform those big demanding roles & to allow the principal some much needed rest weekly.

April 2020 I was suppose to be in London for work and had planned to extend my stay by a day specifically to see an alternate Hamilton in Hamilton. (Just to be clear, I’ve seen the show before so it was a case of “as well as”, not “instead” of the regular Hamilton.) I really appreciate shows such as Six and Hamilton learning lessons about how demanding a show is etc and increasing the number of alternates, swings and standbys - goes without saying it’d be great if the starting point was decent quantity of swings etc but failing that I’ll take implementing lessons learned.

I will continue to hype up cast members who go above and beyond to keep the show going while discussing the ridiculous expectations (and potential danger) producers place in the same situations. Ryan and Sam had a really great discussion about this on their KZfaq channel a while back and it was great to hear the conversation with his perspective as a professional.

Crazy that this is happening! I saw it in previews Off Broadway and the dance captain had to go on as the lead with no rehearsal!!! I never felt like I really saw the show due to the rushed scenario.

It seems to be a running occurrence with Heathers in general though. Having no swings or standbys, ESPECIALLY in these c*vid years is ridiculous. Of course all these performers are incredible but it is so unfair! Hannah has been sharing her processes of sorting the cut shows on tiktok too and it just seems like she's carrying the whole bloody show!

ive always said it and I will continue to say it, heathers really need to look into getting swings definitely!

SUCH a good point and well said

Great video and totally agree with you. Heathers was only ever off broadway. (I saw the original cast) it never actually transferred to Broadway.

I’m a Swing Currently and I will say there are a lot of productions that have swings that cover main parts too, swings aren’t just ensemble fill ins and a lot of the time cover most of the cast x

I was in Sheffield seeing heathers. 2 E/c from London, 4 Ensemble members (one being E/c) on. It was fantastic and I think it was fabulous however you are right about seeing such a cut show!!!

How people are able to go on to perform a whole, entire role they've never done confidently and amazingly is beyond me. Quick, embarrassing story, but I went to college for theater and was cast as the male understudy/stand-by for our production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant for Venice". The director told me to "familiarize" myself with script and when ever I asked someone how I was supposed memorize 9 different male parts of a Shakespeare shows, they all told me the understudy never went on and to not worry about it. So, I did thought it was strange that I was the only male understudy, but I was told not to worry about it, so mostly I didn't. I just went over most of the lines, wrote down my stage notes, and sat in at every rehearsal, watching the actors do their thing every night. I never got to run through any single part -- not ever once. Then, cut to the morning of the closing performance and one of the guys in the cast was too sick to go on. I've never had such a single more chaotic day in my entire life. I was being called to come in for a costume fitting, was being given backstage cues, and was desperately trying to go through the script as many times as humanly possible. In the end, the director saw how freaked out I was, so HE went on with a script in hand. I don't know why he did it and not me, but it might have been because they decided I was helping out with the stage left costume changes? Anyways, after that experience, I've retreated from theater considerably since it showed me that I'm not cut out for that kind of pressure. It's more terrifying than words can describe when people rely on you and you know that you can't let them down. They whole experience makes me respect these understudies/alternates even more because in a way their job is harder than the original cast

This is great conversation to open thank you! Reminds me very much of other businesses that expect their employees to take on way more work and hours than they should (with very little compensation, if any) and then will just say "you went above and beyond... so the bare minimum we expect." Theatre especially is built with this attitude in its spine. I mean if it wasn't for Equity I doubt understudies/swings would even get extra fees because producers just expect performers to be robots. I know people in other parts if this industry who travel country to country weekly (usually for cover which isn't really part of their job) and their boss will say to everyone "see Katy (random name), she's a shining example of how hard we want someone to work" and I mean great for them... but they do not realise the burnout that this will cause, or worse they feel that burnout is part of their job, and I feel performers don't realise the burnout they cause themselves because they've been taught it doesn't matter. They get praised for burning themselves out! This is also a very UK/American problem. If you go to other countries, especially European ones like France, if you're sick you get a doctor's note and you take a day off. That's it! You're ill then you rest until your better! Where as here in the UK you're ill so you either come in or loose your job and to most people that seems reasonable. We really don't realise how wrong we've got the concept of "looking after our workers" in this country and it's such a shame. I've seen other members of casts I've been in actually get disgusted with performers at the idea they'd dare take time off for illness because "I never went off when I was ill" and I'm like "well yeah, you need therapy!" But then all this comes back to the fact that producers won't put in the money to have an understudy or give performers a reasonable working week (1 day off just isn't enough) or many other reasons. Anyway I digress 😅 it's not going to get better, even Equity now have an anti-sickness policy 🙈

Really recently I’ve seen the understudy for Carrie in Cinderella and she was AMAZING and I mean it, it looked like her first show but she absolutely nailed it!

sophomore year of high school i sang “she’s the horse i never got for christmas” thank you for appreciating the stoner chick

This is giving me Six at the Mayflower flashbacks. Those stand-ins kicked butt though. Some really good points and yes for appreciating the amazing talent and adaptability of performers!

We can celebrate the understudies and swings while still calling reform from the West End and Broadway. They need to take care of understudies, swings and cast equally. The other thing, a theater back home has an A cast and B cast for the kids. I understand that kids need the protection of not doing 8 or more shows a week. However, so do adults especially as the vocal work increases in difficulty. Why can't we have A/B casts? It would probably cause them to make more money since people would probably want to see both casts too. It also gives more actors and actresses a chance to perform.

Just saw the Australian production of Hamilton and whilst looking at the program each main role had multiple understudies. I fact in the show I saw had at least three different understudies performing in roles for that show, which I did not mind nor care about.

Something similar happened last night with M*ulin R*uge with the company constantly scrambling for covers, and even having two cast members return early from their covid quarantine to perform the show in masks. At what point do shows have to go against public health and risk contamination for the sake of “the show must go on?” I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

We also saw this with Carla Stickler emergency covering Elphie in Wicked! She left then went back for Emergency Civer