[opening music]
[Lindsay K. Northern] I play one part in the ensemble every show
and I am the understudy for Glinda.
An understudy goes on for a principal role
if they can't do it for whatever reason.
Like they're sick or on vacation or injured.
Here at Wicked, it's a little different because
Glinda and Elphaba, the two leading ladies, have a standby.
So the standby also needs to be out for me to be Glinda.
I was out of the show for nine months having this baby.
This is Georgia. She is 6 months old now.
But I was out of the show for six months and I tried to run the show right before I came back
in my apartment just with the recording.
Sort of thinking about what I did next and I couldn't remember anything.
I was terrified and I came back
and I said "I'm not gonna remember anything," but then I physically did the show in the rehearsal space
and on the stage and my body remembered
what it was supposed to do really quickly. It was kind of amazing.
I play a lot a little parts,
the ensemble, like a citizen of Oz,
as a Shiz University student,
a super fancy ballroom guest,
a citizen of Munchkin Land, and
things like that.
It's not difficult
knowing so many little parts, we call it a track,
and that's just sort of my part. I sort of look at as
one part and Glinda as another part.
The swing job is I think the hardest job on Broadway.
They have to know like seven or eight
different tracks and go on for them all the time.
Like, could be a two-show day and they play
one track in the first show
and another track in the second show.
And the dancer swings often go on
in the middle of a show:
they'll be on one track and they have to switch!
and I think that takes a special sort of person
to be able to switch gears like that and remember all that information.
But, two parts, I can do.
[music]
[Brian Munn] I am a swing and an understudy at Wicked.
I guess I'm considered the singer swing.
There are, I think, 12 men ensemble on the show,
and I cover basically all them
except the real dancer-dancers.
There's up to eight guys that
I go on for them, plus I understudy The Wizard
and Doctor Dillamond, and so there's
there's 10 tracks total that I've been on for
or could be on for at any notice.
I've always been a bit of a perfectionist my whole life
and I think that sort of lends itself well to being a swing,
though it sometimes can be 18 months
between times I go on for a certain track,
so that can be a little nerve-wracking, but
you know, thats part of the gig!
[vocal warmups]
[warmups continue]
I've been with the show in various forms,
always as a swing, since 2007.
I started in the original LA company
and I first came to Broadway in 2008.
So, my first six months with the show and in LA
in particular were very stressful.
My heart would go into my throat pretty much
whenever the phone would ring
about an hour before, half hour,
because that was usually, "Oh, you're on for something!"
and I just didn't have it in my head yet.
But, now that I've been with the show for a long time
and been thrown into lots of situations, it's calmer now,
so I have a much stronger sense now
of knowing what needs to happen in order to
make the show work in whatever slot that I'm in.
[Tiffany Haas] I love being a standby!
It's kind of the best of both worlds.
Sometimes, I have the opportunity to watch the show,
and sometimes, I have the opportunity to be in the show.
My job is to come to the theater
and be ready at the drop of a hat
to go on to go on for the role of Glinda.
Sometimes, I'll know if there's a vacation that the Glinda is taking,
and I'll know that I have the time, I mean, a week of shows
and sometimes I don't know at all!
It could be in the middle of the show, which has happened before,
or it could not be for three weeks.
I get asked that question a lot: "how, often do you get to perform?"
And there really is no standard typical answer.
It's different anytime.
Last week, I was on as Glinda.
It was a blast!
It's always fun riding in the bubble.
It's the best mode of transportation.
[laughter]
I was sitting in this dressing room, it was a few weeks ago,
we had just gotten the call for intermission,
my cell phone rang and an announcement happened at the same time,
"Tiffany, please come to the Glinda dressing room immediately,"
and I ended up being on in the middle of the show!
I think she became ill, and that happens, you know?
It's real life.
I ran downstairs, and the wig department had my wig ready
and we were ready for action very quickly.
I'd say I think that happens easily in six to seven minutes.
[background]
[Northern] It's a little difficult keeping up with Glinda's material
because I do it so rarely.
We have rehearsal here, but that is one
big part of my job, is to maintain that by myself.
So, I sort of have to take the initiative
to make sure I know the lines, and lyrics, and the music,
and the blocking, and the choreography,
so that when I don't need to go on,
I'm not, you know, a mess.
Yes, I have this notebook
that has my understudy notes
because Wicked changes a little bit all the time.
They love to keep it fresh and they open new companies
and they are just always changing little tiny things in Wicked.
Even though it's been open for 10 years now
it's a totally different show from one day to the next to one month to the next
We'll have understudy rehearsal and we'll take notes,
so if I find I'm gonna be Glinda, the first thing I do
is open this and see what changed
and what kind of notes I got from last week's rehearsal.
The notes I get are from any number of people
but mostly the dance captains, the stage manager, or the associate director.
Any of those people that are the boss of me.
To tell you the truth, a lot of it is,
"we told you this before and you're still not doing it."
[laughter]
Or, "you forgot,"
or, "you're not following directions," but a lot of reminders about the character
and why she does the things she does and choices that I make as Glinda.
It's cool though because I can sort of play around with it.
I've been doing it for so long that it's been a fun journey
and is probably a hundred percent different
when I go on Glinda now than it was when I started.
It's usually pretty spread out in between when I go on,
I would say four or five times a year.
I really like to play Glinda.
It's fun, but it's also a little stressful
because it's a big responsibility.
Everybody knows that character is supposed to be funny,
so they're waiting to see how funny you are, which is kinda
[laughter] daunting.
[music]
[vocal warmups in the background]
[Munn] Every swing sort of has their own system
I have my little Bible here which has all my track sheets
and so they're their marked out per person, they're named at the top.
Often, they're named by someone who isn't actually still here
because [laughter] there's a lot of turnover over the years
and so I might have somebody that their name is on the track,
but they actually were in the show five years ago.
I just haven't updated it.
But, we also have changes that happen now and again where they'll shift things,
and so then I'll have things crossed out, rewritten in in my chicken scratch
So I mean, there's a little bit a constant vigilance, but
I've been with the show long enough now that things are pretty securely in my brain.
[singing]
[Northern] So, the shows gonna start in a few minutes
and when the curtain comes up, I'll be in my place for "places!"
[Haas] Sometimes, not being on stage all the time of course can be frustrating
because that's the reason that I'm in this business and chose this career.
I love to be onstage.
And so, of course you can get a little bit anxious, but I am thrilled to be here,
so I completely indulge and sit into those moments when I actually do
have the opportunity to be on stage
I first toured as Glinda and then came here.
As you can hear the show playing right now,
I come to the theater, I have my own dressing room where I kind of sit,
have my own space,
I can listen to the show, what's going on,
and I also watch the show either from the house or from the stage manager's office.
There's a big TV screen there.
It's like regular upkeep. I have weekly voice lessons and sometimes we rehearse
during the show up in our rehearsal room so that we're always ready,
myself, the other standby, understudies, swings
that we're all ready to go on stage at the drop of a hat.
The main thing that we'll do together is tune in with the show in the office,
watch the monitor, because I could be going on in three minutes.
[music and humming]
It's so easy to play opposite Kyle Dean Massey [laughter]
He is gorgeous!
[Munn] In the stage manager's office or the green room, we have monitors
that I can see certain things that I have a question about spacing
or traffic patterns and who goes where in a number
if something shifted, that kind of thing.
[background dialogue]
[Munn] We have three things: we hit 8, center, and 8,
and I just wanted to make sure that's what was happening
and that my brain was accurate.
Which it was, thankfully!
We've had a couple instances where some things happen mid-show
and you just kind of click into
a way of your brain working:
"Okay, what needs to happen?
I need to cover this, you need to cover that, let's go."
You sort of get instinctual.
[background dialogue]
[Alicia Albright speaking]
[Haas] You mean, I'm not perfect?
[laughter]
[Albright] No one is perfect!
[Munn] You need to have a thick skin.
I think in knowing that sometimes you're going to be
not totally right and that someone is gonna tell you that something needs to be different
and that's okay. That's just how things are.
As stressed as you get, you have to maintain, or it helps to maintain a calm exterior
because then your emotions can get in the way if you're too freaked out
So, those are all important things to look for
as far as a skill set and a temperament.
[closing music]