I'm A Swinger Here, Myself

April 17, 2012 4:00 PM

Standing in the wings and hoping someone on stage will get injured was never part of my big Broadway dreams. I had been working professionally long enough to know that many actors considered swings to be the second-class citizens of Broadway, the spares whose talent wasn’t distinctive enough to merit their being seen on stage every night. I knew those generalizations to be false, and though they stung, I had reasons beyond my pride for wanting my own track in Chicago.

Brian Spitulnik, a performer trying to survive and somehow move out of the lower reaches of the Broadway food chain, writes about the life.

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posted by Danf (5 comments total)

I got a plan for you Brian. Go work on Spiderman: Turn off the Dark. Then you won't be waiting so long to replace injured actors.
posted by Chekhovian at 4:13 PM on April 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

Great story. Thanks for posting it.
posted by the sobsister at 5:17 PM on April 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

How timely, saw Chicago last night.
posted by sfts2 at 6:41 PM on April 17, 2012

Kind of fascinating even just to learn how it works for understudies. . . or "swings" as here.

I remember watching the movie Chicago and feeling somewhat depressed because I thought the back up dancers were better than the stars.
posted by chapps at 11:32 PM on April 17, 2012

A great story - with a lot to say about life, careers, and "roles" in general, as well. Thanks for posting it.
posted by The World Famous at 1:20 PM on April 18, 2012