Male roles with alternates- Page 2

[The Other One]

Posted: 11/27/19 at 12:26pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "brettarnett said: "The Other One said: "The original production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? had an alternate matinee cast for George (and all other roles). The first Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha had a matinee alternate for Don Quixote.

"

Was there a specific reason why Woolf had an alternative cast?"


The play is three hours long and very emotionally draining on the four actors. However, that is the only time to my knowledge but there have been alternates for a non-musical on Broadway. The subsequent revivals have not done this, and I think the reason for it at the time was the fact that having only four people do this kind of play was a relatively new thing. Now it is more common place. Straight playsused to have larger casts back then in general.

Also, I believe that actor playing the title role in ThePhantom of the Operais only contractually obligated to do seven performances a week,and the two understudies are somewhat unofficial alternates. The same withJean Valjeanin the original run of Les Miserables."

 

Also, I am not sure if this had anything to do with them having alternates, but no other production of the play has run for a year and a half.  It's possible that doing 8 performances a week for that long proved impossible for the cast and the quality of the work suffered.  The fine actors who substituted on matinees (Elaine Stritch and Sheppard Strudwick among them) may have guaranteed a better performance.

 

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 11/27/19 at 12:44pm

What was so grueling about WSS? Did they do that on tour as well?

[JuneJune]

Posted: 11/28/19 at 2:51am

Just skimmed my POTO playbill from back in August and I noticed that Raoul had two alternates (for a total of 3 actors on the role). Is there any reason for that?
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but the role of Raoul doesn't seem nearly as taxing as The Phantom, and even if it was, why would the role need to be shared among 3 different actors? The only thing I can think of is that they all have other obligations.

[helvizz]

Posted: 11/28/19 at 9:49am

JuneJune said: "Just skimmed my POTO playbill from back in August and I noticed that Raoul had two alternates (for a total of 3 actors on the role). Is there any reason for that?
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but the role of Raoul doesn't seem nearly as taxing as The Phantom, and even if it was, why would the role need to be shared among 3 different actors? The only thing I can think of is that they all have other obligations."

Sorry if this sounds rude: are you sure the role had 2 alternates, not 2 understudies? In the playbill, such as a Phantom playbill, which is a show that has an alternate actress for Christine, the alternate is billed as "Christine (at certain performances)" or just "alternate Christine".

An alternate isn't considered an understudy, it's a performer who is always scheduled to go on a few times every week, just like the other actor they're sharing the role with. They usually don't perform in the ensemble (as opposed to understudies) nor do they stand by for the role while the other actor performs (as opposed to stand-by's), they usually aren't even required to be at the theater. That's why they're considered alternates, not understudies (which you'll see in the playbill as u/s) or stand-by's (s/b).

Updated On: 11/28/19 at 09:49 AM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 11/28/19 at 11:55am

Phantom is into publishing specific dates right in the cast list when people go on vacation. It might look like there's an alternate for Raoul, but that's 99% not the case and you might've gotten a playbill from a month when different people were out at different times.

[JuneJune]

Posted: 11/28/19 at 3:03pm

helvizz said: "Sorry if this sounds rude: are you sure the role had 2 alternates, not 2 understudies? In the playbill, such as a Phantom playbill, which is a show that has an alternate actress for Christine, the alternate is billed as"Christine (at certain performances)" or just "alternate Christine"."

Yes, I'm sure the role has two alternates, as I didn't use the word "understudy" for a reason Mine explicitly has its cast listing like this: 

"Raoul, Victomte de Chagny [...] Jay Armstrong Johnson

Raoul, Victomte de Chagny (Wed. & Thurs. performances) [...] Greg Mills

Raoul, Victomte de Chagny (Fri. & Sat. performances) [...] Paul A. Schaefer"

 

LizzieCurry said: "Phantom is into publishing specific dates right in the cast list when people go on vacation. It might look like there's an alternate for Raoul, but that's 99% not the case and you might've gotten a playbill from a month when different people were out at different times."

Thank you! I've never seen (or followed) POTO until this summer so I didn't know. That's interesting

 

Updated On: 11/28/19 at 03:03 PM

[superiska123]

Posted: 11/28/19 at 8:11pm

JSquared2 said: "Call_me_jorge said: "Surprised this hasn’t been said... Billy Elliot
Also, I believe when Chazz Palminteri joined A Bronx Tale Nick Cordero stayed on as his alternate."

The Billy Elliot boys weren't considered alternates. The role was triple cast -- and all 3 were nominated for (and won) the Tony."

I'm genuinely curious — even though they weren't technically considered alternates, isn't that exactly what they were? Aren't alternates simply different actors who play the same role and have scheduled performances each week because of the role's demands?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 11/29/19 at 12:28am

Generally, an alternate is the actor who does the fewest number of performances in a shared role.