Male roles with alternates
Male roles with alternates
Theatrefanboy1
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/2/15
#1Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 5:11amJust wondering if there have been male roles with alternates that covered the role once or twice a week like in the case as dolly Levi or Christine daae or Tina.
JuneJune
Stand-by Joined: 2/5/19
#2Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 5:32am
I believe School of Rock eventually had the role of Dewey Finn have an alternate go on for matinees(?). Though they didn't start out with one at the beginning of the run.
Updated On: 11/25/19 at 05:32 AM
#3Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 6:14amYes, Dewey got an alternate after they realized screaming for 2 hours and jumping off tables/chairs was too much for 1 person to do 8x a week. The only other one I can think of right now is Frankie Valli where the lead does 6 shows and the alternate does 2. How they divided those up were different for each Frankie.
The Other One
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/1/08
#4Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 6:31am
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.
carolinaguy
Broadway Star Joined: 10/13/06
#5Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 6:38amEvan Hansen
I'm sending pictures of the most amazing trees/You'll be obsessed with all my forest expertise
ZacharyC2
Swing Joined: 10/30/18
#7Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 8:28am
The role of Tony in the last West Side Story revival (2009) also had an alternate, I remember Matthew Singledecker replaced Jeremy Jordan as the alternate Tony.
Rob Evan was also the alternate for the title roles in Jekyll and Hyde.
I think a few Phantom productions have had an alternate Phantom, but that's probably due to prior commitment of the actor (or the fact he probably does not want to do 8 performances a week), because I can't imagine that role being very exhausting.
#8Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 8:33am
Also, didn't the male protagonist in Band's Visit have an alternate (at least for a few months, circa April 2018 )? I think it was due to prior commitment of Tony Shaloub, but still.
In the Hedwig tour, for the first months, Lena Hall, a female performer, played the title role (a character whose gender isn't simple at all) in the Sunday (night?) performance, while the role was regularly played by Darren Criss, so you could count that as well.
If memory serves, Max Von Essen was the alternate Che in the 2012 Evita revival. He was definitely the u/s, and I think towards the end of the run he became the alternate, with one performance per week.
Peter Parker in Spiderman, Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys and the protagonist in Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nightime also had an alternate.
Heather4
Chorus Member Joined: 10/6/19
#9Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 9:44am
As others have said, when Alex was on as Dewey Finn they had an alternate for several performances a week as the singing wasn't sustainable. I think (and please correct me if I'm wrong) the alternate started right around when Alex had his vocal injury in School of Rock. It's also why he worked to make sure his current Beetlejuice voice is sustainable for him and his understudies have their own version of the voice that works for them.
Emmaloucbway
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/16/11
#10Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 11:02am
About a year into the run, the LCT My Fair Lady revival added a Henry Higgins alternate on Wednesday nights.
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#11Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 11:17am
helvizz said: "Also, didn't the male protagonist in Band's Visit have an alternate (at least for a few months, circa April 2018 )? I think it was due to prior commitment of Tony Shaloub, but still."
Tony Shalhoub left the show entirely at the end of February that year and Dariush Kashani was the full-time Tewfiq. Tony was brought back in for a handful of performances in May that were all the performances that any remaining Tony voters were invited to, but he was essentially done with the show by then and there was no plan for him to return to the role full time at any point.
SouthernCakes
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/19
#13Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 4:51pm
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.
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#14Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 5:43pm
Taylor Trensch was Alex Sharp's alternate in Curious Incident
JSquared2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/23/17
#15Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 5:46pm
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.
brettarnett
Featured Actor Joined: 5/2/09
#16Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/25/19 at 10:11pm
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?
#17Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/26/19 at 4:02am
After the first year of its run, I DO! I DO! alternated Carol Lawrence and Gordon MacRae in matinees (for Mary Martin and Robert Preston). The alternates took over the roles full time when the original stars left.
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#18Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/26/19 at 4:45am
GavestonPS said: "After the first year of its run, I DO! I DO! alternated Carol Lawrence and Gordon MacRae in matinees (for Mary Martin and Robert Preston). The alternates took over the roles full time when the original stars left."
I was lucky to have seen Mary Martin and Robert Preston performing as leads!
#19Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/26/19 at 8:17am
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 plays used to have larger casts back then in general.
Also, I believe that actor playing the title role in The Phantom of the Opera is only contractually obligated to do seven performances a week, and the two understudies are somewhat unofficial alternates. The same with Jean Valjean in the original run of Les Miserables.
mailhandler777
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/15/15
#20Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/26/19 at 10:26amSven in Frozen.
Hi, I'm Val. Formerly DefyGravity777(I believe)
#21Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/26/19 at 10:38am
I don't know if it's official but most Valjeans in Les Mis have an alternate that does one or two shows a week due to the strain of the role.
"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.
#22Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/26/19 at 11:59pm
jo said: "GavestonPS said: "After the first year of its run, I DO! I DO! alternated Carol Lawrence and Gordon MacRae in matinees (for Mary Martin and Robert Preston). The alternates took over the roles full time when the original stars left."
I was lucky to have seen Mary Martin and Robert Preston performing as leads!
"
That WAS lucky! I never saw either except via film or TV.
#23Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/27/19 at 10:29am
Most Valjeans take one show off a week, but the guy who goes on once is billed as the understudy. I think it's officially (but unofficially) been like this for years.
Frankie Valli has almost always had an alternate, though John Lloyd Young didn't the first time he returned to Broadway. Partway through the run of the sit-down in Las Vegas, they split the role 4 and 4 as opposed to 6 and 2. But I think that's the only production that did that.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#24Male roles with alternates
Posted: 11/27/19 at 10:53am
SouthernCakes said: "Why would Tony in WSS need an alternate? "
Maria, Tony, and Anita all eventually had alternates in 2009 revival.
The Other One
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/1/08
#25Male roles with alternates
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.
