Video: Go Inside THE GREAT GATSBY's Weekly Understudy Rehearsals

Where's the party? It's at The Great Gatsby's weekly understudy rehearsals!

Cast member Carissa Gaughran is giving audiences an inside look at the musical's understudy rehearsals, which typically happen once or twice a week.

Usually held at the theatre during the day, they are held by the show's dance captains and stage management team, with the associate director and choreographer occasionally stopping in. The rehearsals allow for the understudies and swings to rehearse the roles they cover, which Gaughran says is "valuable" to those who don't get to perform their roles each night.

"It's really magical to be in [the theatre] during the day and in the audience when there is no audience there. It's really cool," Gaughran explains.

Before each rehearsal begins, each cast member will go around in a circle and say what role they are playing. Principal understudies will share who they are playing, while swings will share that they are "playing everybody else because [they] tend to hop around."

"Swings and understudies are literal rockstars," Gaughran concluded in the video. "So next time you see a little insert in your Playbill, get excited because you're in for a treat."

The Great Gatsby features music and lyrics by Tony Award nominees Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen. The Broadway musical features a book by Jonathan Larson Grant winner Kait Kerrigan (The Mad Ones) and is staged by award-winning director Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) and choreographer Dominique Kelley (“Mariah’s Magical Christmas Special”, “Dancing with the Stars”). 

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless, seminal novel comes to the Broadway musical stage for the first time ever,  The Great Gatsby. Transporting audiences to the lavish Roaring Twenties, the story follows eccentric and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of the lost love of his youth, Daisy Buchanan.

Through its fascinatingly nuanced characters – driven by complex inner lives, erupting with extravagance and longing – this epic tale has always been destined to sing. Now, it finally comes to life on the greatest American stage, through an electrifying jazz and pop-infused score, and a grand production befitting the 21st  century.