Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
#1Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/14/09 at 5:37pm
Which of these shows have you seen, or performed in? People always have such interesting stories about these.
My favorites are Little Me, particularly the scene in which the Principal Male, in character as Otto Schnitzler, has a conversation with "himself" in a bathroom stall.
I also loved The Threepenny Opera I saw in which the Narrator played multiple smaller roles, a la Reefer Madness... is that standard?
Tevye_the_Dairyman
Swing Joined: 10/22/07
#2re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/14/09 at 5:54pmI've done both "Greater Tuna" and "A Tuna Christmas" in the Arles track. Lots of fun, but I all I really remember was being completely exhausted. Never a free moment for the 2 hours they roll. Every time you walk offstage you're seized by the dressers and wiggle your way into the costumes and then run to the next entrance with milliseconds to spare. If an actor drops lines or jumps or whatnot, backstage explodes into chaos.
#2re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/14/09 at 6:39pmThe 39 Steps is kind of an extreme example of actors playing many roles.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
snarkywannabedreamer
Leading Actor Joined: 2/12/09
#3re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/14/09 at 6:46pmToxic Avenger does a good job with this too!
#4re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/14/09 at 7:08pmIn Little Shop of Horrors, the actor who plays Orin the Dentist also plays several different characters (one of them a woman) during "The Meek Shall Inherit".
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#5re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/14/09 at 7:24pmAnother was Around The World In 80 Days
Poster Emeritus
#6re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/14/09 at 7:50pmgivesmevoice, I was about to mention 39 Steps. What they do in that show is truly phenomenal.
#7re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/15/09 at 12:18am
I did a children's theatre production of Seussical (TYA version, or course) with a 9 person cast, I got the distint pleasure of playing both the Cat in the Hat AND Wickersham #2.
I hour show. 15 costume changes.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
bwaylvsong
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/28/05
#8re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/15/09 at 12:27am
When I did "Ragtime" I played JP Morgan (<------) and was in the ensemble, sometimes as JP Morgan and sometimes as a random immigrant. I'd say I had at least 5 costume changes.
I played 3 roles (each with a different costume) in "Saturday Night," "City of Angels," and "Gypsy." Playing many roles seems to be my specialty...
jonartdesigns
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/04
#9re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/15/09 at 1:12amWhen Little shop is done as written the actor playing Orin plays 12 other roles as well
"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#10re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/15/09 at 1:12amThe Mystery of Irma Vep
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#11re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/15/09 at 2:41am
Lots of quick changes in Bat Boy. The entire opening number for example. I've played Bud/Daisy/Pan... lots of quick changes in that track. From Daisy to Bud in only a few lines of dialogue; from Pan's big number to Daisy in about 30 seconds; being Daisy and Bud at the same time at certain points in Act 2. A lot of work, but also a lot of fun!
~Steven
#12re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/15/09 at 9:55amMy school did Les Mis with a smaller than usual ensemble, and in the first act alone I had 8 changes - convict, farmer, inn guest, beggar, factory worker, sailor, imposter Valjean, inn guest again, student. Some of these were underdressed of course, but others involved very fast full changes of costume.
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#13re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/15/09 at 10:38am
jonart-
There aren't 12 other roles for Orin. Derelict/Wino (take your pick) at the start of the show, First Visitor, Orin, Skip, Bernestein, Luce, Dead Orin. That's 7, maybe 8 if you have him do the voice of the radio announcer, too.
http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer
#14re: Quick-Change Shows/Actors Playing Many Roles
Posted: 11/15/09 at 11:17am
Actually...
Opening Narrator (unless you use a "celebrity" like the revival)
Derelict
First Customer
Radio Voice/Weird Wink Wilkinson, as it's better known
Orin
Second Customer
Third Customer
Berenstein
Luce
Skip
Patrick Martin
Dead Orin
Yep, twelve.
