Universal Swings?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 6/22/17 at 12:43am

Hi all! Bit of a random question. There's a great thread going on about Jennie Harney as one of the Hamilton universal swings, meaning she could be called to go on in either of the three current productions of Hamilton, which is amazing.

Here's my question: how does hiring a universal swing make financial/practical sense from a production standpoint? If the San Fran production needs an Eliza for a certain performance, for example, wouldn't it make sense to schedule one of its in-house standbys or understudies to go on (aren't there several in each production?)? What makes it feasible to hire somebody who might be asked to fly cross-country at a moment's notice?

Sorry if I'm being obtuse in asking this, but I'd love to learn more about the necessity of this fascinating role. 

[trpguyy]

Posted: 6/22/17 at 12:48am

It's much less "moment's notice" than it is planned personal/vacation days, or injuries that require a decent amount of healing time. It's better to have the production still fully staffed than run into a problem because, for example, the standby was supposed to do the whole weekend but got food poisoning and now we're in a jam...

 

It also makes financial sense to have one person be an insurance policy for several companies rather than hiring an additional swing/standby for each company.

Updated On: 6/22/17 at 12:48 AM

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 6/22/17 at 1:08am

Gotcha! That multi-company insurance policy idea makes sense. (Also, I wrote "moment's notice" because Harney's Instagram said she journeyed for her San Fran Eliza debut rather quickly.)

[trpguyy]

Posted: 6/22/17 at 1:17am

Yeah that can definitely happen. I know a few swings that have had to rush out to fly out and see the show that night to go into a matinee the next day. While that can certainly happen, most of the time it's planned ahead.