BWW Exclusive: Celebrating the Swings of Broadway!

Join BroadwayWolrd as we celebrate the Swings of Broadway! Read below as we hear about some of the craziest moments from swings from Pretty Woman, Mean Girls, and The Prom.

"My favorite memory of being apart of this swing family at Pretty Woman was from pretty early on," says Pretty Woman's Shannon Mullen, "it was my second or third time on and Matt [Farcher] had been on several times. There's a number where we go to new partners, and we'd both forgotten that we were going to dance together, and it was us dancing together for the first time, and we were like, 'OH! Hey!'. It was really one of my favorite moments.

Nico DeJesus added, "Those are my favorite moments. Like, yesterday we were together for 'Welcome To My World' and I was like, 'My wife!'. It's exciting when we're partnered with each other, it's always a lot of fun".

Meanwhile at the August Wilson Theater, Mean Girls swing Becca Petersen reflects on her craziest swing moment.

"My Mean Girls debut here in New York was probably the craziest moment for me as a swing in the show. I got thrown on mid-show - one of the girls in the ensemble unfortunately got injured during the end of act one, and so I got a call over the monitor like, 'Becca, please come down to stage management'. So I went down at intermission to get ready, and it was so quick that I didn't have any time to review anything so it was kind of like, 'Okay, here is my moment to see if I know the track'! I went out there, and it was so thrilling and so exciting. During bows, I looked over and Tina Fey was in the wings cheering me on. It was so special, and I will never forget that moment. Especially having someone like Tina who is such an incredible person, and such an icon to be cheering on a swing - that was such a cool moment to have that appreciation coming from someone so high up in the food chain of sorts. It made me feel really special, and included, and like I was meant to be, and supposed to be, on stage with them. It's pretty awesome. I'll never forget that moment".

And finally, Gabi Campo of The Prom tells us about the day she swung on for her Broadway debut.

"It was the day after opening [of The Prom], and when we were at places, stand by, curtain about to go out, Beth Leavel walks off stage and starts projectile vomiting. Her understudy, another swing in our cast Kate Marilley, they just threw Dee Dee on her. She wore the same red dress the entire show. And the part that she was getting swung on for had no coverage as we already had two swings on. So they were like, okay Gabi, you're on... make your Broadway debut! It's like, a small featured ensemble part, but she starts the entire show. The curtain goes up, and I'm like, 'It's Olivia Keating'. So my Broadway debut was the first line of the entire so in a part that I don't cover. It was the most Broadway-esque craziness, but I wouldn't have asked for it in any other way. It was just so crazy and whirlwind. I was just sitting here and people were running lines with me and putting pin curls in my hair and throwing things on me cause I had not even half of my costumes yet. It really made my Broadway debut so incredibly memorable".

Photo Credit: Monroe George