What It’s Actually Like Being a Vacation Swing: Side Jobs, Getting Paid and Unexpectedly Going On

Just when you thought understudying multiple roles as a swing could be a challenge, try going into a show you haven’t done in a few months. That’s totally expected for a vacation swing. 

Vacation swings — or performers who are hired to fill in periodically when a production’s cast is low on coverage — have one of the most difficult and exciting jobs in the business. Not only do they cover multiple roles (or tracks, as they’re often called), they may get up in the morning and learn they’ll be performing on Broadway that night.   

“I have a life, and I go and do other things that occupy my mind,” Natalie Caruncho, a vacation swing with Broadway’s Buena Vista Social Club, exclusively tells BroadwayWorld. “Then it’s this weird thing where tomorrow I’ll wake up and be on Broadway.” 

“It really makes me giggle,” she explains. “I always feel that, the day before I go back to the theater, it’s like: Tonight, I’m having dinner, and I taught yoga, and I’m seeing a friend, and then someone’s like, ‘What are you doing this weekend?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, performing on Broadway.’” 

BroadwayWorld speaks with a handful of vacation swings (including multiple who describe themselves as an “adrenaline junkie”) to break down what exactly they do — from when they’re called to jump into a show, how they have a life outside of the theater and even what they’re living situation is like and how they get paid. 

What is a vacation swing? 

According to Justin Keats, a vacation swing for Broadway’s The Great Gatsby, a vacation swing is “someone who is extra coverage when the show is down enough people that even their full-time swings are not enough to sustain the show’s integrity of a full company.” 

Keats explains that when a performer is on vacation — or there may be multiple people taking leave at the same time — the production aims to “keep the full amount of coverage that they have already.” Therefore, a vacation swing can be scheduled to join the company for a specific amount of time so that the cast is not at a loss.

The performer, who was also a vacation swing on the Moulin Rouge! national tour, says that there are essentially “two entryways into becoming a vacation swing.” There may be an audition call specifically designed for potential vacation swings or the company may hire “someone who already was a swing or part of the show in some way.” 

Michal Kolaczkowski, who made his Broadway debut as a vacation swing for The Cher Show, recalls taking a masterclass years ago from dancer and choreographer Joshua Bergasse. One of the students asked, “What should I be doing if I want to just always be working as a dancer?” According to Kolaczkowski, Bergasse said, “Learn how to be a good swing.” 

At the time, Kolaczkowski remembers, “I thought, ‘I don’t know what a swing is, but that’s what I want to do because I just want to be working.’ So the first opportunity I ever got to swing, I took it and learned and thought, ‘This is hard, but I’d rather be working a job and working hard than not working at all.’” 

What is a vacation swing’s schedule like? 

The short answer is: completely unpredictable! 

Some vacation swings may have multiple stints lined up to be in their show (or shows!). Keats explains that he was simultaneously swinging The Great Gatsby on Broadway and the national tour of Moulin Rouge! before it closed, so he was booked and busy for weeks at a time. However, some swings may go months before being called back into work. 

“I find the spaciousness of not being at the show eight times a week to be really a lovely thing,” Caruncho — who was also a swing in Broadway’s On Your Feet! — explains, adding that she’s able to teach yoga and do writing when she’s not on Broadway. 

For Kolaczkowski, who is a swing and dance captain at Broadway’s Galileo this season, “If I’m not in a show, I’m taking class and taking lessons and then also working 17 million survival jobs to afford life in New York City,” he explains. “I wear so many hats to pay rent, just doing all kinds of weird jobs — bartending, go-go dancing, you name it. If it pays, I’ll consider doing it!” 

Therefore, some challenges can include having to remember the show when you’re suddenly called in at a moment’s notice and also rearranging your life with the other part-time jobs to free up time. 

Gabriella Burke was a vacation swing with the Moulin Rouge! national tour, so balancing the job with living in New York City was difficult. Instead of trying to do both, she gave up her place completely. 

“In 2023, I got rid of my apartment, and I was just subletting in New York,” she explains. “If I knew that I was going to have a break in a contract or break between work, I would just sublet back in New York. I’m a Pilates instructor — that was always my side hustle in between contracts — so luckily, because I went to school in New York, I had those connections to studios, and I would sub if I could pick up shifts here and there.”

When Burke wasn’t subletting, she would go back to her hometown of Michigan to live until she had to get back on the road — and then she’d sublet again in NYC during audition season. 

For those who stay in the Big Apple full-time but have a gig as a national tour vacation swing, Keats points out that the “hardest thing” about it is not being able to easily give up your apartment. 

“You’re only making $940 a week minimum as a vacation swing [plus] per diem,” he points out. “That means you’re probably spending money to go on tour.” 

How last-minute can a vacation swing be called in? 

“It’s kind of the Wild West,” Keats says. “There’s no rules to them asking. They can ask at any time for anything they need.” 

While some performers are given notice on when exactly they’ll be needed at a show, there are definitely last-minute requests. Sometimes, a vacation swing is asked to drop absolutely everything and hit the road immediately. 

“In January, that was the one time they were like, ‘Can you get here tonight or tomorrow?’ They were down a person,” Burke explains of getting a call from the Moulin Rouge! tour. 

“They were all the way in Vancouver, and I was in New York,” she continues. “This was when there was a big snowstorm as well. So they were like, ‘Can you look for a flight and get here tonight or tomorrow, and then we’ll just reimburse you? You set it up. We’re in chaos right now.’ So that was crazy. I had to pack that night and then hop on the earliest flight the next morning and fly out to Vancouver. It’s a long flight. It was a 10-hour travel day to get over there. I landed, and then I had to wait to check into the hotel at 4 p.m., so I had a few hours sitting around, and then I was at the show that night.” 

And yes, she performed after an entire travel day! 

How do vacation swings get paid? 

Because a vacation swing is not always working, getting paid can seem complicated. At the time of these interviews, the various vacation swings explain that a production can’t just “à la carte you for a day,” or pay you per performance. 

“If I fly out to tour, even if they fly me out for a singular day and then fly me home, I get paid for the full week, and I get a full health contribution,” Keats explains. 

In his experience, a Broadway production contract is similar, where the baseline is getting paid for at least three days of work or four shows (whatever comes first, factoring in two-show days) with a full health week contribution and then receiving additional payment for anything after that.  

However, the various swings express that there should be a retainer fee considering they have to stay brushed up on their tracks even if they’re not in the show so that they know what to do when they’re suddenly called in. It would also encourage vacation swings not to take other jobs when they’re out of a show. This could benefit both parties, since vacation swings are likely expensive to replace considering their set(s) of costumes and the rehearsal process. 

What’s it like going in and out of a show? 

Getting that call to go into a show is usually met with a mix of emotions. “It’s always a little bit of an adrenaline rush being like, ‘Oh my God, my life! I have to solve all these problems very fast. Go!’” says Keats. “There have been times that I didn’t do a track for 11 months on Gatsby, and there was one time I did a track for Moulin Rouge! that I hadn’t done in over two years.” 

Not being around the show and having the roles in your body “is a challenge,” says Caruncho. “Buena Vista has a lot of partnering, so stepping in and having to be malleable, [you] hope for people to be gracious.” 

Kolaczkowski also points out that adjusting to the dynamic of a cast can sometimes be challenging given the relationships that have already formed in your absence. 

“It’s really strange,” he says. “Of course people are nice, but people have their besties, and people have their little groups and their cliques and their plans, and they’ve already booked their Airbnbs and their layoff vacations.” 

Burke sometimes feels the same. Earlier this year, in the Moulin Rouge! tour, “we had a big turnover of principals and a couple ensemble members,” she explains. “When I left in February and we had a three-week layoff, and then I came back at the end of March, I was walking into basically a whole new cast — and I was really nervous about that because I’m like, ‘What is the vibe going to be?’ I have to get to know people again, and they don’t know who I am.” 

Despite nerves, challenges and anxiety, Caruncho says that it’s all worth it in the end. “Being on Broadway, it feels like the air is different up there,” she says. “It’s something that I dreamed of my whole life. And to get an opportunity to be in a show like Buena Vista, it feels like an honoring of my family. My family’s Cuban. My mom taught me how to dance. My dad is from Cuba. It feels so deeply special.” 

“It’s very sparkly and deeply personal, and I’m incredibly grateful,” she adds. “Some mornings I wake up, and I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, tonight when I go to sleep, I will have been on Broadway!’”

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Natalie Caruncho, Michal Kolaczkowski, Justin Keats, Gabriella Burke