Broadway cast of Coming from far away, which had to cancel performances a week before Christmas due to the COVID outbreak. When it came back, eight of the 12 cast members on the show were substitutes.
Matthew Murphy / © 2021 ‘Come From Away’ on Broadway
hide captions
switch captions
Matthew Murphy / © 2021 ‘Come From Away’ on Broadway
Broadway cast of Coming from far away, which had to cancel performances a week before Christmas due to the COVID outbreak. When it came back, eight of the 12 cast members on the show were substitutes.
Matthew Murphy / © 2021 ‘Come From Away’ on Broadway
After being silenced by COVID-19 for a year and a half, Broadway boomed again in the fall – only to be tripped up by omicron variation a few weeks ago. At one point, half of Broadway shows were cancelled. And things have been mended, often with poor learners, turning and independent: those who have a duty to perform immediately to ensure that the show continues.
While the cast and staff are all vaccinated, wear masks when off-stage, and are tested daily, disruptive infections have spread like wildfire. It’s the subscribers who are keeping the shows afloat, said Josh Breckenridge, dance captain and reserve. Coming from far away, one of the shows recently used backup performers to find sick actors.
He explains: “A person who is usually offstage, who takes on the roles in the group, ready to go on for any one of the songs they perform in the group. “A lead actor is someone on stage in their own song who also takes on some role; be it a supporting lead or a lead above them on the show. And then there’s the standby, which is our show, which is a lead role. There’s the swinging bystander who covers all the leads.”
At a recent performance of Music Man, star Hugh Jackman stopped clapping at the final pitch to praise his show’s underdogs, especially actress Kathy Voytko, who replaced co-star Sutton Foster at the last minute.
“That humbles me,” he said, as phones throughout the Winter Garden theater recorded his speech. “Courage, brilliance, dedication, talent, grit, good learners. They are the foundation of Broadway.” The audience erupted into applause and cheers.
“I mean, these are unprecedented times,” says Kathy Voytko. “Every Broadway show really goes through something like this.” Voytko is one of those Music Man Swings, which means she takes on eight roles – including Marian the Librarian, the female lead. When she got the follow-up call, she only had about four hours on stage to rehearse her part.
“Hugh told me, as soon as I got to the rehearsal,” she recalls, “Forget perfectionism. Just have fun and tell the story. ” And that also relieves the pressure. And that’s what we did, and we really had a ball.” And she added, laughing: “Except the blood pounding in the ears and the sweat pouring out. Turns out, I really had a good time.”
Meanwhile, the situation worsened in Coming from far away that the show had to cancel performances a week before Christmas. When it continued on December 26, eight of the 12 cast members on the show were substitutes.
“It’s a collection of people who have never, ever worked together. And so we’re all super focused,” said Marika Aubrey, who was invited in from the show’s touring cast to play the role. Beverly’s character, a pilot, and other roles, while the show’s two former actresses return and all three lead actresses continue.
Aubrey said the show was carefully choreographed, moment by moment: “If you drop a ball, if you misplace a chair, if you forget someone’s outfit, it has a ripple effect on it. all the others in the other four. or five scenes.” But, she added, “strangely, it’s a pretty smooth show in that sense, such as not having any moments of shipwreck, not many lines dropped… It was very focused because we knew we had a very high job to do.”
Producer Randy Adams nervously watched the entire production from the back of the theater. He said there were not only eight extras on stage, but also a number of replacements in the band, and that the openers had to add inserts to all the shows, so everyone knew who was playing. somewhat. But despite the ups and downs, the show was a success: “Everybody worked together to make it happen,” Adams said, “and I must tell you, it was one of the funniest things. most happy.”
And the story will likely continue for a while. While some shows have closed due to COVID and some – like Music Man and Coming from far away – is on hiatus until after the new year, most of the shows are back up and running because of those subscribers.
“The pursuers, the disruptors, the winners, they are the unsung heroes of every season,” Adams said. “I think they’re being moved front and center at the moment, and we can never thank them enough for all that they’ve done to put on a Broadway show so often. often. But right now, they’re really the ones keeping the lights on in these cinemas.”
