tazber, Spanger just did a reading in March of a new musical called GARAGE BAND being shepherded by Ken Davenport with Mickey Dolenz, Beth Leavel, Andy Karl, and a slew of others.
She did a musical a couple years ago at the Old Globe in San Diego with Casey Nicholaw based on the film ROBIN AND THE 7 HOODS (just before they worked together on ELF together that subsequent fall.) Last I heard, Nicholaw's still trying to get it off the ground, and I believe Spanger remained attached in the last workshop they did relatively recently.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
She didn't ditch The Wedding Singer prematurely, although I believe she missed quite a few performances at the beginning of the run.
"I'll cut you, Tracee Beazer!!!!
...Just kidding. I'd never cut anyone." -Tina Maddigan, 9/30/06, WS stage door
Avatar: JULIE "EFFING" WHITE, 2007 TONY WINNER. Thank God.
I'm thinking about legally changing my name to Lizzie Curry...
Spanger was with The Wedding Singer for it's entire run. She was out of the show briefly on mandatory vocal rest.
"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
Whether I'm proud to admit it or not, I was a huge Wedding Singer fanboy and went to many performances. Amy missed a few performances here and there, but not NEAR as many as Laura Benanti missed due to "vocal issues". Tina Maddigan went on for her constantly and actually replaced her for a short while. Point being, Amy didn't miss THAT much, and her understudy certainly did not go on more than she did.
I hear that she disappeared into the woods of Long Island one night after hitting a deer on the Sunrise Highway, and that she emerges on moonless nights carrying a hook and seeking victims to provide her with fresh blood to stave off "vocal issues."
Simply not true, but believe it if you want to. I love how people just come to this site and make up "facts" to suit their needs.
"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
Clearly she must have been making up these vocal issues to get out of having to do shows. I mean it certainly just can't be possible that someone who performs 8 times a week would actually have some serious vocal problems at some point.
She had the same vocal problems during "Rock of Ages". And I stand by the statement that her understudy went on more than she did during "The Wedding Singer".