annie understudy in 2nd act today

[theatrefan18]

Was anyone else at the Annie matinee today? Lilla did the first act and didn't sound too good. She couldn't hit the high notes and hold them very long. At intermission, they announced that Annie would be played by Jaidyn Young.
Jaidyn was in better voice than Lilla. I guess Lilla was not feeling well and they pulled her. That was the first time I have ever seen an understudy go on midway through a show.

Overall a very enjoyable revival but I do have to say that I saw the original and it is hard to match Loudon and McArdle. Also, I have never seen anyone touch Bob Fitch as Rooster. He was a great dancer and this version of Easy Street was a disappointment. Why does Lapine have them go ride offstage in a long car at the end instead of dancing. Takes away a chance for a great finale to that number.

Still enjoyable if you have never seen the original. Just not as good and believe me, I wanted to like it just as much.

[zamedy]

Thanks for this post. I'm jealous that you got to see the original 'dream team.' You can just feel the magic and chemistry of the OBC just by watching their Tony Performance. And that performance of 'Easy Street' is perfection. It almost sounds like this directing team knew they could never top the original performance and choreography so they didn't even try.

[mikey2573]

There were several times during the run of BILLY ELLIOT that the kid playing Billy did not finish the show, usually due to an illness or an injury. That was why there was always another Billy in the dressing room on "standby".
As for this revival of ANNIE, I found myself pining for the original staging which I saw on tour in Boston back when I was a youngster. This revival is just lackluster and you are so right about EASY STREET; they really ruined that number. It got tepid applause the night I saw it. Honestly, I almost left at intermission.

[elphaba.scares.me]

There's a huge thread over on the other board that is a fascinating ride through history on this topic.

As for mid- show replacements, I've heard many, many stories about it happening over at Wicked. From what I understand, there have been more than a couple of Elphabas who have gotten to the end of "The Wizard and I" and realized they weren't going to make it through the show...but I've never actually seen it happen.

[broadwaybabe1234]

I saw Next to Normal when Alice Ripley got half way through the show and then her understudy was announced to be playing the second act. Although we could kind of see it coming because Ripley didn't hit a right note in the entire first act.

[supersam1026]

A while ago, but when I saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Norbert Leo Butz was out. His understudy started the show, but shortly after "Great Big Stuff" there was a new actor playing Freddy. John Lithgow stopped in the show, came downstage and addressed the audience. He said something along the lines of "{insert name here} hurt his ankle during the "Great Big Stuff" number, now {insert name here} will play the role with Freddy. So we're just going to start again now like nothing happened! Enjoy!" Unfortunately, I do not remember the names of the understudies, Lithgow obviously did and said their actual names. Keep in mind this is about 7 years ago, so my memory is a bit shaky, but it was cool to see Lithgow break the 4th wall!!

[Rockyfan2000]

Lilla didn't sound THAT good on Wednesday evening either. I honestly couldn't understand why she got such good reviews. She yelled her songs and her dialogue was spoken in the same tone of voice (and LOUD) the whole performance through....

[Emmaloucbway]

I recently saw A CHRISTMAS STORY and the boy who played "Randy" had to be replaced for the second act. This was the first time i've ever experienced a mid-show change-up like that.