JERRY SPRINGER TONIGHT CANCELLED

[Claudia Draper]

Injury to actor. Cancellation at 7:15.. any news??

[rwlevin]

We were told an actor got sick.

[kennin]

I cannot believe that they waited until 7:11 to send the e-mail. It is nasty out and yet they are waiting until people arrive to tell them if they have not checked e-mail. I heard both illness and injury. I also heard it happened right after the matinee.

[Theater3232]

Very unprofessional and highly discourteous to customers.  They should allow anyone affected to come back free of charge (they don't appear to be selling very well, so that shouldn't be hard to accommodate).

[ACL2006]

does the show not have understudies?

[RippedMan]

Most short term off-Broadway shows don't have understudies. 

[mufish]

Guess I lucked out! Lost the lottery and then didn’t pick up when they called to (presumably) offer me a ticket after the notification that I’d lost. Saw The Band’s Visit instead. I had been looking at this as a option for tomorrow though. 

[dramamama611]

Theater3232 said: "Very unprofessional and highly discourteous to customers. They should allow anyone affected to come back free of charge (they don't appear to be selling very well, so that shouldn't be hard to accommodate)."

Ummmm...if they don't have understudies, what exactly are they supppse to do?  Call for actors is usually at half hour, but what if it was a sudden illness or injury? They can't help timing. I'm sure those holding tickets were taken care of with either a refund or the ability to re book.

 

[Marianne2]

dramamama611 said: "Theater3232 said: "Very unprofessional and highly discourteous to customers. They should allow anyone affected to come back free of charge (they don't appear to be selling very well, so that shouldn't be hard to accommodate)."

Ummmm...if they don't have understudies, what exactly are they supppse to do? Call for actors is usually at half hour, but what if it was a sudden illness or injury? They can't help timing. I'm sure those holding tickets were taken care of with either a refund or the ability to re book.

"

Exactly. Plus, 45 minutes gives people enough time to see if they could get tickets to a different show, if they wanted to. I could see getting really annoyed if everyone was in the theater and seated for this to happen.

[ACL2006]

RippedMan said: "Most short term off-Broadway shows don't have understudies."

 

The show has a 2 month run planned with a lot of Broadway vets in it, I find it hard to believe there's no understudies.

[Broadway61004]

ACL2006 said: "RippedMan said: "Most short term off-Broadway shows don't have understudies."



The show has a 2 month run planned with a lot of Broadway vets in it, I find it hard to believe there's no understudies."

There are no understudies for it. And even if there were, given it's still in previews, they quite likely wouldn't have been put into the show yet. It's unfortunate, but it's not uncommon for this to happen with Off-Broadway or regional shows.

[felixleiter]

Yes it is true that there are no understudies.

Was this the first 2 show day of the run? 

 

[Lavieboheme3090]

Typically Off-Broadway productions don't hire understudies until an extension happens. So yes it's unfortunate, but they can't know someone is going to be sick or injured in advance.

[Claudia Draper]

SO.. will the show go on today.. anyone know .. box office is not open till noon

[Broadway61004]

felixleiter said: "Yes it is true that there are no understudies.

Was this the first 2 show day of the run?

"

No, they've had 2-show days before.  I was there last Saturday night and it was fine.  Another issue could be that the show is so incredibly ensemble-based, removing any one person would require re-staging and re-assigning a whole bunch of parts, which they probably couldn't do between shows.

[Islander_fan]

If memory serves, I believe that equity has rules on if a show needs to have undersides or not. If a show is running for a given amount of time they don’t neee to. However if a show goes past a particular point in time they need to hire understudies.

[Claudia Draper]

TODAY’s matinee is cancelled as well. Who is sick?

[SomethingPeculiar]

Whoever it is, I hope they are doing OK and have a fast recovery.

Always a sad situation for the audience, but certainly not the first time an actor has been sick/injured in early previews before understudies had been properly rehearsed. (Or maybe they don't have understudies.) Perhaps they were trying to rehearse someone to go on up til the last minute (or waiting to see if the injured actor would be able to go on)?

[RippedMan]

Def no formal understudies. But they do have an ensemble and I’m sure could pull someone from that if the sickness is ongoing. It’s only if the show extends past a certain point that they’d need understudies.

[ACL2006]

I wonder if they're trying to prep an ensemble member to fill in for this role starting on Tuesday.

[haterobics]

ACL2006 said: "I find it hard to believe there's no understudies."

So what is your alternate theory?

[RippedMan]

From a producing standpoint, for such a limited run, it doesn't make sense to have to pay and rehearse an understudy. Normally this isn't an issue, but there are cases, like this, where they do seem needed. But they can always extend and make up the lost profits. 

[wssinsider]

Will Swenson has the flu and is pretty bad. They are not rehearsing someone new. They are hoping Will is back Tuesday. 

[RippedMan]

His part is fairly serviceable. They could cut his solo in Act 1 and no one would care.

[newintown]

The New Group doesn't seem to use understudies; their production of Steve was cancelled the night I had tickets; it was close to the end of the run, and I wasn't available for any remaining performances. Annoying, but what can you do? I got a refund, and life went on.