Understudy Appreciation!!

Understudies.

Those people who often go unnoticed. Those people who are always ready to go. Those people are the Superheroes of Theatreland.

Now this has been something I've wanted to discuss for a while. The bottom line is, in society today I don't feel understudies are given anywhere near the amount of respect they deserve, if anything, they seem to get slated by the media!!

Take for example Funny Girl. Bless her heart Sheridan Smith had to take a few weeks of for personal reasons which I am all for! She is only human and everyone, no matter how big the name needs a break. This meant that the understudy had to come on...*enter stage right* Natasha Barnes!
Now I haven't seen Funny Girl myself but from all I've heard Natasha was absolutely brilliant! But there were those people over the internet and in the media who complained because they weren't seeing Sheridan. Natasha took it all in her stride and nailed every show she did!
And as an aside, Natasha has also jumped in as an emergency cover in American Idiot tonight!! Kudos to her!!

Sunset Boulevard. Another big show, another big name! The one and only Glenn Close making her West End debut! Now that was something to see. Extraordinary! But the were a few nights Glenn was off sick.....*enter stage left* Ria Jones! Now lets just take a moment to pause and appreciated the shoes she had to fill. She stepped up to the mark, only to have a huge booing crowd before her! Thankfully by the end of the show she has won everyone over and got a standing ovation.

The point still stands, these understudies work so so hard and what they do and are so damned talented. I mean could you jump up and belt out Defying Gravity at a moments notice? No I don't think so....
These wonderful guys and gals are the glue that help hold the West End together. I mean what if the lead was injured mid show and there was no cover. Well it would be curtain down, bye - bye, end of show. Then you really would have unhappy patrons!

I think understudies are so talented, some even more so than the lead themselves! The understudies are not randomly pulled of the street, they go through the same vigorous audition process all the leads do. They are selected for a reason. They are talented...They can belt show tunes and they ARE worthy to be on that stage.

For example, as some of you would know from one of my previous posts, I went to see Phantom a little while ago.
Now I've never seen Ben Forster take on the role of Phantom yet so was looking forward to see his take on things....only...Ben wasn't on!!

SHOCK!!!!

Now did I head up to the box office and demand a refund? Did I shout and boo from my seat when it was announced he wasn't in that show due to illness?
Nope!
I settled down in my seat to enjoy the show!
And by god I enjoyed the show! If you want to read about that visit the link to that post is here! http://themysteriesbehindthecurtaincall.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-phantom-of-opera-take-2.html

Anyway I had 2nd cover Kieron Brown and he was absolutely phenomenal.
Completely blown away.


Now when you next go and see a show, whatever show it may be, yes I understand the excitement of seeing one of the leads but if they aren't on, don't kick off..... I get it though, its okay to be miffed but just wait.
Take a moment.
Pause
Breathe

Think about the understudy who is about to take you on an amazing journey. Think about the nerves they must be experiencing!
Don't hate them, love them
Be open minded.
Embrace what they bring to the role.

If it wasn't for understudies, Theatre would not be what it is today.

To all understudies out there I salute you!
Keep doing what your doing and keeping theatre alive!!


So much love.

Speak to you all next week!!
Jade x