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| Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 10:29 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| Parsons's being out and the understudy not going on made me wonder how often understudies have gone on with the holding the book. I was at the Globe in London once and they announced that the woman playing Tamora in Titus was going on with little preparation. She had these little copies of the play in her hand that almost looked like prayer books or something. (I've seen them for old plays. They usually just have the lines of the character in them.) Anyway she'd keep it in her robe and then check it when she needed to. I think it was easier to hide than in a modern play since she had a lot of costume to keep the book in. |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: Esther 10:31 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 10:29 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| Twice- once at Second Stage when they first moved to 43rd St. They had an understudy go on for one of the female roles on a weekend matinee of Saturday Night. A zillion years ago at a Roundabout revival of The Matchmaker at their old space on 16th St. I believe it was an understudy for Horace on book- such a long time ago & such a blah production, my memory is a little blurred. All I remember is a male holding a binder. |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: BRIANWJ 04:08 pm EDT 05/17/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - Esther 10:31 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
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| In mid 1990s at Seattle Rep there was a four performance staged reading of a new Wendy Wasserstein play An American Daughter for only $10 with in person Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber and Julianne Moore but prior to its eventual brief Bway run with Kate Nelligan. Got into sold out 3rd performance on Father's Day SUNDAY & Meryl over 2&1/2 hrs with book in hand only looked at it 3 or 4 times. Wish she now would do say a 14 week/8 performances a week play on Bway like Glenda Jackson! |
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| Link | https://Acting on stage with book in hand |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: NewsGuy 09:31 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 10:29 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| Norbert Leo Butz had the book in hand a few times when he jumped into `Speed the Plow' | |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: SRMHAYES 06:37 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 10:29 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| Played both Harold Hill in "The Music Man" and Cervantes/Don Quixote in "Man Of La Mancha" this way. I was NOT the understudy in either case but I knew the scores like the back of my hand. Both times were emergency related....our Hill's mother passed suddenly and our Cervantes had NO voice. It was fine...the audience seemed to think it was "cool". No gaffes or awkward moments and luckily all Harold Hill's costumes fit me!!! ;-) | |
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| Very recently | |
| Posted by: writerkev 05:38 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 10:29 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| Jayne Houdyshell had pages with her—and made heavy use of them—in some scenes during an early preview of “Relevance” at MCC this season. Apparently the playwright had made a number of changes, and there was an announcement made about it before the performance. | |
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| The Falsettos revival .... | |
| Posted by: jdm 05:36 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 10:29 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| When I saw it in early previews, our performance had many illnesses - including Stephanie Block AND her understudy. So I cannot remember the name, but the standby had book in hand. Great voice, not a great performance but kind of understandable. Jim |
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| re: The Falsettos revival .... | |
| Posted by: 88keys 09:00 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: The Falsettos revival .... - jdm 05:36 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
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| I saw that also. Stephanie Umoh from the Ragtime revival. I think she was more the understudy for the other two women. Great job considering one quick rehearsal. | |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: portenopete 11:07 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 10:29 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| It was probably "sides". That is what actors would have rehearsed with back in the 16th century. There'd be a couple of words of the cue line and then the actor's own line. Many productions at the Globe have used "original practices", which sets out to recreate as closely as possible exactly how a show would have been assembled and performed in its original era. All of theatre is artifice. If an audience is told an actor will be on book, they accept it and move on and listen to the story. They forget about the book minutes in. |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 11:49 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - portenopete 11:07 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| That is so true. At the Globe event I attended I remember kind of forgetting about it and then at one point she very obviously pulled the book out and I re-remembered she was using it. I don't think the woman was even an understudy btw. I think she was just a brave actress that may have played the role before so they called her in. I remember she was the woman who received a Tony nomination for the Jennifer Ehle version of The Real Thing in NYC. She seemed higher on the pecking order than the regular actress who was out so I doubt she was an understudy. I don't know if the Globe usually has understudies. |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Last Edit: mikem 12:37 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| Posted by: mikem 12:29 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 11:49 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| I was intrigued and did some googling. The woman must have been Sarah Woodward. She has a fairly extensive listing of her theater credits on Wikipedia, but none for Titus Andronicus (at the Globe or elsewhere). Looking at her credits, I must have seen her in The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe, which was a wonderful production that eventually made its way stateside at Pace University. Being a "groundling" at the Globe on a beautiful night was one of my most memorable times at the theater in my life. |
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| Sarah Woodward. | |
| Posted by: portenopete 12:56 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - mikem 12:29 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
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| Yes, Sarah Woodward is a great actress. She's been around for a long time. I remember seeing her as the young girl in Sam Mendes' production of THE SEA at the National Theatre in the early '90s opposite Judi Dench as Mrs. Rafi. (This was pre-Donmar Mendes: he would have been about 24.) (I was a groundling at NELL GWYNN a few years ago. I didn't realize it but for the first few minutes of the show I was standing next to Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who emerged from the crowd to play the title role! She was great but the show was almost stolen by Amanda Lawrence, who's currently sharing the role of The Angel in ANGELS right now with....Beth Malone.) (Had to look up Beth Malone, hence the ellipsis, and noticed that Mark Nelson is covering Nathan Lane. Makes me feel old that a former Stanley Jerome from Brighton Beach is old enough to be Roy Cohn.) |
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| re: Sarah Woodward. | |
| Posted by: bobby2 01:26 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: Sarah Woodward. - portenopete 12:56 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
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| a Stanley covering a Stanley. Nathan was Stanley in the tour of Broadway Bound. |
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| re: Sarah Woodward. | |
| Posted by: portenopete 05:11 pm EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Sarah Woodward. - bobby2 01:26 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
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| OMG! I never knew Lane had been in a tour of BROADWAY BOUND! | |
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| re: Sarah Woodward. | |
| Posted by: bobby2 09:04 pm EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Sarah Woodward. - portenopete 05:11 pm EDT 05/16/18 | |
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| Yes his and Jason Alexander's careers have overlapped a lot. | |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: TKTSVET 11:06 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 10:29 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| Matt McGrath did go on Monday, and he was understandably a bit shaky -- he also understudies Emory and Harold! At two points -- one early on and one during Michael's big confrontation with Alan, McGrath turned his head upstage and said line. The first time Andrew Rannells and another actor mouthed words to him, but both times the stage manager came on over a localized loudspeaker and cued him. Didn't really disrupt the flow too much, but it is now the second time I have seen an actor call for lines this season, after a good 50 years of theatergoing with only one such incident many years ago (Tom Courtney in The Dresser). | |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 11:42 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - TKTSVET 11:06 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| I once heard Illeana Douglas at a TCM event say how she when she was very young she once ran into some woman who was in The Dresser in a bank and she said to the woman "I was there the night Tom Courtney forgot his lines and left the stage to get them. And the woman said sarcastically, which one of the nights that?" Implying there were many. (I didn't quite get the quote right. It was very a very funny story when Douglas told it. I didn't quite capture it!!!) |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: TKTSVET 08:57 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 11:42 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| Interesting! When I saw it, the stage manager was very flustered by Courtney's lapse, and sent Marge Redmond out to jump the scene by a few lines, and then Tom Courtney yelled out "Just give me the line! I went up! It happens!" And then Marge had to leave the stage, we heard a bunch of rustling and a shouted line, and then the scene started again. When Marge reentered, she got an extended ovation. | |
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| re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:18 am EDT 05/16/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Have you ever seen someone go on with the book in hand? - bobby2 11:42 pm EDT 05/15/18 | |
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| At Encores, there have been many times people used to have their scripts in hand, though they usually put them down for the songs. This hasn't been the case very much for the last number of years though, when things have become much more like a full production. | |
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