A little educational recap of my week...

I learned a little bit on how things work on tours this week, courtesy of a big Broadway producer. Apparently roles that are above-the-title on Broadway are frequently not on the road--only commercial names get above-the-title billing on tours. This is because Actors Equity requires producers to give refunds (to those who ask for them) when above-the-title players miss. Now producers don't like to give out refunds on Broadway, but resent it even more on the road. Why? Well, it's all about the money.

Let's take the example of the hit musical Wicked, which I saw in Philadelphia this week. The people who play Elphaba and Glinda are above-the-title in NYC. If you go and one of them is out, ask for a refund and ye shall receive one. Now even if Carol Kane, who plays Madame Morrible and is below-the-title, is out, the box office may still agree (even though it is not required) to refund your money or offer you an exchange. They would do that because they know they can resell the tickets--there is always a line outside the Gershwin waiting for cancellations and undoubtably one person on that line would be cool with a Kane understudy. So being nice wouldn't hurt them--they would not be losing income. Cancellation lines are less common in tour cities. So tours like Wicked place everyone below-the-title. That way when the people who play Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero are all out (as they were for the performance I attended), audience members cannot get a refund. And a refund is what it would be--it's not like there are many tickets lying around for Wicked, so it wouldn't be an exchange, those returned tickets would probably go dead. In other words, accomdating upset audience members would damage the bottom line. And that is a no-no. Of course probably only a handful of ticketholders would ask for refunds and the show makes millions and millions a week, but, still, it is a big deal. I mean, those things add up...

I never knew that Equity mandated the refund policy or understood the logistics of touring economics, so I feel like I had a little education, which I have now shared with you. This past week was also big for another reason--I saw a benefit reading of Addictions, an evening of three one-act plays by Tricia Walsh-Smith (who just happens to be the wife of a big Shubert executive). Readings aren't really for me (I like costumes and big, tacky lighting), but, it closed on a high. Walsh-Smith took the stage at the end of the performance and said something like "This has been a really emotional evening. I laughed, I cried, I hope all you did too." The reason this really, really hit me is it totally reminded me of the original In My Life ending where the little girl who has been dead the whole show said approximately: "I've had a great life--I hope all of you have great lives too." So that was clearly huge.