Understudies and Swings - The Backbone of Broadway
Where would we be without them?
If you know anything about me, you know I love theatre. If you know I love theatre, you might wonder about how I feel about understudies. If you asked me, my answer would be immediate: I love them.
Understudies and swings are actors in a theatre production that will go on for various roles if for any reason the usual actor can’t. Typically, especially for professional productions, each understudy or swing will cover multiple roles/tracks, and each role/track will have multiple people who cover that role. To put this into context, here’s a couple of examples from The Outsiders musical on Broadway:
Ponyboy Curtis - Usually played by Brody Grant, understudied by Trevor Wayne and Josh Strobl.
Johnny Cade - Usually played by Sky Lakota-Lynch, understudied by Josh Strobl and Daryl Tofa.
Sodapop Curtis - Usually played by Jason Schmidt, understudied by Dan Berry, Victor Carillo Tracey, Davis Wayne, and John Patrick Collins.
Darrel Curtis - Usually played by Brent Comer, understudied by Dan Berry, Victor Carillo Tracey, and John Patrick Collins.
Paul Holden - Usually played by Dan Berry, understudied by Davis Wayne, Cole Zieser, Victor Carillo Tracey, and John Patrick Collins.
There are obviously many other characters, but this is enough to make my point. Notice that Josh Strobl understudies both Ponyboy and Johnny. Dan Berry, who already plays the role of Paul most nights, also understudies Sodapop and Darrel. Victor Carillo Tracey understudies all three of them: Paul, Sodapop, and Darrel – and multiple ensemble tracks! In one week, if there are enough people out at once, Victor might play all of those tracks by the time the eight-show week is over. That is a great deal of lines, blocking, music, and costume changes that he has to have in his head at all times just in case he has to go on for one of those roles. Not to mention, some of the roles Victor covers are Socs, and some are greasers. If you know the musical, the book, or the movie, then you know that those two sides of the story have extremely different emotional journeys and mindsets. John Patrick Collins is in a similar situation as well, covering four total roles.
Many understudies and swings experience this, in fact pretty much all of them do depending on the way the production is structured. They don’t get to be onstage every night, but they work extremely hard to make it seem entirely seamless when they do go on. Check your program or Playbill the next time you go see a show and study the names of the swings and understudies so that you can support them if you do see them! It is because of them that the show is able to continue when an actor calls out of the show.
Another reason I love understudies is because they often have slightly different interpretations of the characters, which makes seeing the show extra interesting if you happen to catch one of them. I’ve seen two of the three actors that play Ponyboy, and I’ve seen two of the three actors that play Johnny. Each actor brought something really interesting and unique to the characters, and yet they all gave really incredible performances as well. Picking a favorite is nearly impossible for me, because they’re all so different yet all so valid to enjoy. I can’t imagine how stressful that might be, most often finding out that you’re going on for a role less than twenty-four hours in advance – a role that you don’t go on for every day, maybe not even every week. Even more incredible is when a swing has to go on in the middle of a show, often because the usual actor gets injured or sick in the middle of the performance. When this happens, several departments of the production must work together very quickly to get the swing onstage in time for their next entrance. It’s an absolutely incredible feat. To help understand the process, I’ve included a vlog from Emma Pittman, who plays Cherry in The Outsiders! In this episode, she discusses the process of a mid-show swing-on that happened that week. Starting timestamps for these specific conversations are 2:56 and 15:03.
Theatre is magic and it looks seamless to those of us in the audience who get to witness it. But there are so many people that put an absolutely incredible amount of work into making it appear that way. Swings, understudies, the costume department, hair and makeup teams, the stage manager, and every single crew member on and offstage. Understudies are some of the hardest working performers in the theatre industry, and they deserve an incredible amount of recognition for the work that they do every day.