Musicals with Double Casts

[mormonsandglindas]

Posted: 5/28/16 at 11:40pm

Can you give me an example of some popular musicals that have had roles double cast?

Updated On: 5/30/16 at 11:40 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/28/16 at 11:46pm

Cast, not casted.

[jomilo21]

Posted: 5/28/16 at 11:50pm

Matilda... Finding never land.  Stuff with the kids… 

[itis2l84u]

Posted: 5/28/16 at 11:55pm

Matilda, Billy Elliot, Annie (for a hot second when Taylor and Sadie shared the role)

if you want shows with alternates Curious Incident and Hamilton come to mind

[¿Macavity?]

Posted: 5/28/16 at 11:57pm

Billy Elliot.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 12:17am

I know for Evita, Marie Christine, and the more recent School of Rock, there were alternates for the leading roles that went on for the matinees.

If you're wondering about plays, the original cast of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? had a matinee cast (including Elaine Stritch as Martha) after the play was two taxing to do twice a day.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 1:07am

In like 2 or 3 of the international productions of wicked, Mexico City São Paulo come straight to mind, they would have 2 Glinda's, elphabas, and fiyeros. I don't think a true double casting has ever happened or will ever happen on Broadway, because the costs would just be too immense. 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 3:29am

Christine Daae of course, but isn't the Phantom usually contractually obligated to do only 7 a week? It was the same with Jean Valjean too I believe. There's no official alternate but their understudies go on regularly.

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 4:29am

The older character in A Little Night Music was in a wheelchair, but not in double casts.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 5:36am

Haterobics, that was a sheep pun, meaning it's b-a-a-a-d. I LOVE groaners like that.

Love Never Dies had an alternate for the Phantom,  at least in London.He was Tam Mutu. The Las Vegas version of Phantom had so many shows when it first opened that both the Phantom  and Christine  were double cast, and neither cast was designated as primary.Anthony Crivello stayed for the whole run, but, when they reduced the number of performances,  Brent Barrett's participation ended. Sierra Boggess, BTW, was one of the original Christines.

Man of La Mancha had matinee alternates.Also, the new Disneyland Frozen musical, which I haven't seen yet, has multiple casts. I realize that theme parks and cruises weren't what the OP had in mind, but this 45-minute show is supposed to be up there in terms of quality and complexity, according to reviews I've read . Four or five shows a day, 7 days a week can be quite intense ..

Audrey

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 5:36am

Haterobics, that was a sheep pun, meaning it's b-a-a-a-d. I LOVE groaners like that.

Love Never Dies had an alternate for the Phantom,  at least in London.He was Tam Mutu. The Las Vegas version of Phantom had so many shows when it first opened that both the Phantom  and Christine  were double cast, and neither cast was designated as primary.Anthony Crivello stayed for the whole run, but, when they reduced the number of performances,  Brent Barrett's participation ended. Sierra Boggess, BTW, was one of the original Christines.

Man of La Mancha had matinee alternates.Also, the new Disneyland Frozen musical, which I haven't seen yet, has multiple casts. I realize that theme parks and cruises weren't what the OP had in mind, but this 45-minute show is supposed to be up there in terms of quality and complexity, according to reviews I've read . Four or five shows a day, 7 days a week can be quite intense ..

Audrey

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 5:58am

Phyllis Newman played matinees in The Apple Tree.

[Christopher Lippolt]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 8:40am

When Baz Luhrmann did his Broadway run of LaBoheme, they used a triple cast for the 2 leads and a double cast for the secondary leads.  I know it is technically an opera, but it was on Broadway.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 10:16am

How nice to see a La Boheme mention around here for the first time in (what feels like) years!

[AnnieBlack]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 10:58am

In theory, what is stopping Hamilton from having a whole second cast, and second set of stagehands and doing 16 shows a week? Genuinely curious. 

[macnyc]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 11:11am

AnnieBlack said: "In theory, what is stopping Hamilton from having a whole second cast, and second set of stagehands and doing 16 shows a week? Genuinely curious. 

 

"

That's a good question! Also, doesn't double casting mean when an actor plays two roles in the same show, say, how Daveed Diggs in Hamilton plays Lafayette in Act 1 and Thomas Jefferson in Act 2? Or do you mean a whole separate cast?

 

[JennH]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 3:09pm

I'm wondering if the OP meant this is literally double casting, as in during a show's run you have two people alternating in the same role, or dual role as in, one person plays more than one role. 

As a crap ton of shows utilize dual role, I'll list the ones that pop into my head, as there's quite a lot. 

Spamalot

Children of Eden (it's not required really, but it's the way it was conceived, same with Spamalot...sort of)

Mary Poppins does this for a few roles doesn't it?

Once 

Again, quite a lot, and I know I'm missing some. 

Now double as in alternating. 

POTO in London does this or at least I know it did for a while, as in the Christines each had 4 shows a week. I think it was the same for the Phantom at the time too. Of course here, is a 6 to 2 ratio. Same with Evita...I think? That role is WAY harder than Christine, I can't imagine even doing it 6 times a week.

Yep Wicked did it for a while overseas somewhere, which I wish they'd do here, the standby goes on a lot it seems in NYC and the tour. That role is just under Evita in terms of being a beat for the Elphabas.

As for the now open Frozen in DL...um..guys it runs every day of the week, of course it's gonna have multiple casts. That's a given just in terms of labor laws. If Disney legally could hire one cast to do all shows a day, every day they probably would sadly. People are already saying they hope there's multiple people doing these roles...well DUH! It's illegal just in labor laws and AVGA bylaws. I believe there are four casts, and the two lead ladies are double cast, so that would be 8 Annas and 8 Elsas, if they even stuck to double casting, I don't know if they actually did, but when I was told that, the definition of double cast could have just meant something different. 

Granted double casting is a casting choice rather than a necessary or artistic vision like dual role. Spamalot uses dual role to keep the Python conception that every member played multiple roles in the film it based on, plus all their films really. 

Children of Eden uses it to reinforce the patterns we as humans go through until someone is brave enough to break it.

 

Double casting is used for ease on the performers so they don't "die" during the run of a demanding show.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 9:12pm

Jekyll & Hyde had an alternate go on in the leading roles once (or twice?) a week.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 9:13pm

Shows in the west end with children are pretty much completely at the very least, triple cast.

[aimeric]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 9:39pm

In Japan it's traditional for pretty much all professional productions of musicals to be double cast, or even triple cast.  It's not a matter of the difficulty of the role, from what I can tell, but just how it's always been done.  It can even get really extreme: case in point, your average Japanese version of Les Mis will have a double cast for every single principal part from Valjean down to Enjolras, but the most recent production had a total of 28 (!) principals, with 3 Valjeans, 4 Javerts (one of whom alternated as a Valjean), 3 Fantines, 4 Eponines, 3 Mariuses, 3 Thenardiers, 3 Mme Thenardiers, 3 Cosettes, and 3 Enjolrases.  What!

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 9:45pm

Is it like a union thing? I wonder how different the theatre union is in Japan in pay wise and etc.

[aimeric]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 10:14pm

Hm, I really couldn't say if unions have anything to do with it, considering I haven't the slightest idea how unions function in Japan.  I would be inclined to say it has more to do with the culture of theatre performance in Japan, and what the fanbase for Broadway-style musicals is like there.  I mean, it's a pretty specialized genre of performance there, and the fans it attracts are really cultish (similar to Takarazuka fans, if you're familiar with those), so each production relies on a lot of repeat business from its fanbase.  So if someone's a super-fan of, say, Les Mis, the logic is that they'd be likely to go see the show multiple times in order to see it with different casts (each cast has a set schedule that's published in advance, so you can plan which cast combo you want to see).  So it's like a "collect 'em all" mentality, I think.  Not to mention a lot of the people cast in these shows are already solo artists or pop singers in their own right, and they bring with them their own fanbases, so I guess it makes sense to hire as many as possible to bring in as many fans as possible.

 

I should add that money does not seem to be an issue for these productions, because this last Les Mis I was talking about, the one with 28 principals, also had 45 (yes, 45!) ensemble members in the company.  That's a total of 73 actors they're paying for that one production.  O__O

Updated On: 5/29/16 at 10:14 PM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 10:40pm

AnnieBlack said: "In theory, what is stopping Hamilton from having a whole second cast, and second set of stagehands and doing 16 shows a week? Genuinely curious."

 

Well, for one to reach 16 performances a week you would have to have two days a week that are three performance days.

 

You would also never have time for work calls (the physical production needs to be maintained; things get broken and need to be repaired and/or replaced on any long run, and that would only be worse if you were actually doing 14 performances a week), or rehearsals for understudies and replacements.

 

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 5/29/16 at 10:44pm

Finding Neverland doesn't have traditional double or multiple casting (as in the 3 or 4 Matildas). Their 6 or 7 boys play 4 parts in the show. Some of the boys play as many as 3 different parts on different days, much like a swing would. Even the "main" lead boy Peter plays smaller parts on other days. 

[toofunktastic2]

Posted: 5/30/16 at 12:03pm

I believe in general all children's roles in London are at least triple cast.  I know Matilda has four Matildas, four Bruces, and three children's casts otherwise. Lion King has four young Nalas and Simbas, and Charlie has four Charlie's and three each of the other kids.