ActorQuest - Kristin Huffman Goes Inside 'Company' 29

In November, Kristin Huffman made her Broadway debut as Sarah (flute, piccolo and sax) in John Doyle's production of Company.  The actress, with a new series of tales that go inside the making of Company from an actor's perspective, starting at the Cincinnati Playhouse and on to New York, continues her stories about a 15-year career that has led her to the door of the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

This is the twenty-ninth story about the "Making of Company."  If you haven't read the others, go back and do so and then rejoin us here!

I love that some of my stories are lining up exactly a year later to the day.  This one was one of those moments of writing where a 'purge' was necessary.  It is also one of those moments the entire cast will always remember.

TWENTY-NINE:  FOR THE RECORD BOOKS

 Here is one for the record books.   The week before Christmas our colors weren't the seasonal red and green, but pink.  As in pink eye infecting one of our cast members. Next, the musical supervisor got it and then two of the understudies. But the entry in the record books is for something else.

The cast member with the original case of pink eye came back to the show on Wednesday.  She had had a virus as well and then caught the eye thing and told me she was not 100% well yet, but would "see what happens today anyway".   While I understand the desire to get back to the show after being absent for more than a week I had my doubts about subjecting us all to more virus and pink eye worries.  Everyone, it seems began checking their eyes nightly and doubling up on vitamins and paranoia.  I thought I had contracted it a few nights ago when my eyes began to burn. Then I realized that I had put Ben Gay on my back and accidentally touched my eye.

It's not fair because human beings do get sick from time to time, but it is somehow a greater sin when a cast member gets blamed for bringing a contagious disease to the rest of the cast.  Like the biblical leper, we work hard to avoid them. The only thing different is no one yells "Unclean, unclean!" …out loud.

So when this cast member came back after her sickness we were naturally suspicious. That night the show got off to a great start with a really good audience.   As we neared the song You Could Drive a Person Crazy, the number sung and played by the three girlfriends including this cast member, she had a coughing fit and had to leave the stage.  When her song began she walked back on stage without much ability to sing or play her sax. This cast did not just hobble through the problem but teamed up to cover up and the show went on without a hitch.

After that song there is a scene and two more songs.  She left the stage again due to more coughing.  Remember that in our show no one ever leaves the stage and any small variation is noted by the whole cast.  So as the scene and songs went on we all began to worry because her big singing number was coming up.  Another Hundred People is a song with breaks in it for scenes from the other two girlfriends.  As her song approached and we saw no "Marta" on stage, panic began to emerge among the cast members.  We couldn't say anything to each other because we are all on our transparent cubes or playing and singing.  But we have gotten really good at reading each others' minds and there was anger in some, panic in others, and a desire to run off the stage and find out what was going on from still others.  Kelly told me later that she was actually trying to remember all the words to Another Hundred People so that she could step in and sing it.  Amy, who plays piano for some of this song, was wondering if we were going to skip the song, or stop the show.  My hands began to shake.  

To everyone's credit we stayed in the moment and went on with the numbers preceding the song. Finally, a second before her music started, "Marta" walked back on.  At first her mike wasn't on, so you couldn't hear her at all, but once they pulled it back up, you could tell that she had no voice left after coughing up a lung.   So she tried to sing and got through the first chorus barely above a whisper.   Then the first Girlfriend began her scene.   Elizabeth said she went to that "John Doyle" place of relaxation when it all started.  That is, "what will happen will happen".  But one of the stage managers said he saw her gripping her oboe as if her life depended on it.   She did a great job of getting through her first scene with Raul and the audience stayed with us!

At this point we were all wondering what was going to happen to the next two verses of the song.  But "Marta" tried again to sing a verse. All you could hear was our accompaniment. You could see her lips moving, but no sound emanating.   As we limped on, unknown to us, the stage manager had called to the dressers and backstage folks to get the understudy into her costume. None of us knew because we were stuck onstage, so the waiting was torturous.  I have lost my voice in the middle of a show before and I know how much of a panic builds up inside of you. But that was in Kentucky at a dinner theatre playing Maria in Sound of Music.   This was Broadway! 

We proceeded on to next Girlfriend scene still in panic mode.  Luckily the understudy had gotten into the costume, no time for makeup or hair, and was in the wings, but our "Marta" couldn't see her because she wasn't wearing her contacts, due to the pink eye!  The stage manager had to wave his arms so she could tell that Katrina was there to take over. So while "Kathy's" scene was going on and before the final verse of Another Hundred People began, Katrina walked on stage and swapped "Martas" so that the new one could finish singing the song and the show. 

At this point I was still shaking and nervous.  I have an unfortunate habit of absorbing other people's emotions too, so I felt anger at having put the show and the cast in this position, mortification for the sick "Marta" and her predicament, pride in my cast mates for keeping their composure, and respect for the understudy who walked on and finished the song and the show

As I walked offstage at intermission I started to cry.   I just couldn't keep it in any longer.  Other were mad, or amazed, or in shock, but I just had to release all that emotion. So I cried. 

After the show was over we got great applause and some audience members even told us it was the greatest theatrical experience they had ever witnessed.  This is the joy and heartbreak of live theatre.   It could drive a person crazy, as well as make you feel blessed to be a part of a company of fine people and fine actors on stage with you.

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Photos: Kelly; Elizabeth; Angel; Amy