Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
NiceWork2
Stand-by Joined: 4/2/14
#1Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 4:03pm
I've seen Sunset twice now, the show is fabulous, the music, Glenn Close, the staging and set, everything is fantastic.
However, I do like seeing understudies go on in high profile roles. Does anybody if Nancy Anderson is scheduled to go on any specific days for Glenn Close? Does Close have any scheduled days where she has conflicts and cannot perform? I would think this info would be listed on the website, but there may not be any scheduled days. Close's name is listed above the title.
#2Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 4:05pm
She is not scheduled for any performances.
#3Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 4:12pm
She only missed one performance in London and the audience booed the understudy as she came on. In London, they weren't able to get refunds or exchanges although if Close was out here, they would be. Best thing to do is check the boards here regularly to see if she's ever going to be out and you'd be able to get a rush ticket easily.
#4Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 4:19pm
Actually she missed 5 consecutive performances, but she was quite sick
#5Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 4:22pm
Isn't Nancy Anderson almost young enough to be Close's granddaughter?
Esther
Stand-by Joined: 2/27/05
#6Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 4:38pm
newintown said: "Isn't Nancy Anderson almost young enough to be Close's granddaughter?
"
31-year age difference.
A Director
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/18/07
#8Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 4:43pm
Isn't the guy playing Joe young enough to be her grandson?
#9Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 4:44pm
Your best option is cough on her at the stage door (please don't!).
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#11Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/6/17 at 11:17pm
Nancy will never go on. If Glenn is out the show will be cancelled due to the amount of refunds being sought. It's a technicality
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#12Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 8:23am
Just_John said: "She only missed one performance in London and the audience booed the understudy as she came on."
This so terribly rude and uncouth. Certainly, people who buy a ticket under the fair assumption that a particular actor will perform (especially in a "star vehicle" like this one) have a right to be disappointed, but there is simply no excuse for disrespecting an understudy who is suddenly thrust into the role due to unavoidable circumstances. Illness or injury of the featured performer is not a "rip-off", it's life. That understudy already knows that everyone in the house is disappointed and it doesn't help his/her performance to have the audience making rude noises and shouting their disapproval.
"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene"
- Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage
#13Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 9:33am
From what I understand, they did not boo when Ria Jones (understudy and original Norma in workshops) came out on stage, they booed when they found out about Close's illness during the pre-show announcement. Which to me is a bit different. They also gave her a generous and positive response at the end of the show.
I am big. It’s the REVIVALS that got small.
#14Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 10:20am
I'm not sure they would cancel the performance. Glenn Close missed performances in both the original production and the London production last year and no performance was ever cancelled.
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
#15Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 10:22am
They would not cancel the performance, and that's an absurd assertion to make.
#16Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 12:41pm
I would only visit the show if her understudy was on.
Glenn's singing is not good enough for the role, with bothers me very much. It does not do justice to the score, famous or not.
#17Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 12:46pm
Based on Close's painful vocals and over-the-top acting, I think it would make much more sense to have RuPaul (or any one of her contestants) as understudy.
Updated On: 3/7/17 at 12:46 PM#18Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 12:56pm
GiantsInTheSky2 said: "From what I understand, they did not boo when Ria Jones (understudy and original Norma in workshops) came out on stage, they booed when they found out about Close's illness during the pre-show announcement. Which to me is a bit different. They also gave her a generous and positive response at the end of the show."
Yes, it is very different to express disappointment at an announcement that "_____ will not appear tonight" than to "The role of Norma Desmond will be played by _____". The latter would simply be rude.
"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene"
- Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage
#19Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 1:03pm
I haven't seen this revival of Sunset, but I remain puzzled by anyone who seems to go to this production expecting Ms. Close's vocals to blow the roof off the place. She didn't turn into Ethel Merman during the time between the original production and this revival.
#20Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 1:11pm
adamgreer said: "I haven't seen this revival of Sunset, but I remain puzzled by anyone who seems to go to this production expecting Ms. Close's vocals to blow the roof off the place. She didn't turn into Ethel Merman during the time between the original production and this revival."
Great point.
"Michael Riedel...The Perez Hilton of the New York Theatre scene"
- Craig Hepworth, What's On Stage
#21Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 1:13pm
"She didn't turn into Ethel Merman during the time between the original production and this revival."
I don't think she even turned into Ethel Mertz.
#22Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 1:48pm
This is absolutely conjecture on my part, but don't forget there is also the possibility that Glenn Close has a standby who is not billed in the program. Usually a star of this caliber in a role this size indeed has a "standby". Contractually, standbys often choose not to be billed in the playbill. Nancy Anderson is the understudy, but if there were a standby, she would only go on as a second option.
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
10086sunset
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/16
#23Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 2:43pm
newintown said: "Based on Close's painful vocals and over-the-top acting, I think it would make much more sense to have RuPaul (or any one of her contestants) as understudy."
Wow. This is bad newintown, even for you.
#24Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 3:09pm
In fact, here is a clip of said London announcement. There are others on that site from the following performances where the audience did not boo, only applauded.
I am big. It’s the REVIVALS that got small.
#25Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 3:36pm
QueenAlice said: "This is absolutely conjecture on my part, but don't forget there is also the possibility that Glenn Close has a standby who is not billed in the program. Usually a star of this caliber in a role this size indeed has a "standby". Contractually, standbys often choose not to be billed in the playbill. Nancy Anderson is the understudy, but if there were a standby, she would only go on as a second option.
"
If Close had some secret celebrity standby, we would know by now. Or at least have heard some rumors. Nothing stays secret for long, especially in the theater community.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#26Norma Desmond understudy in Sunset Blvd
Posted: 3/7/17 at 3:40pm
Nancy Anderson will go on in the event that Close calls out. That is the whole story.
