#katy basile
We’re debuting a brand-new, inside look at the life of a Broadway swing. Follow Weston Wells Olson’s LES MIZ #SwingSeries. Now, without further ado, here’s Weston!
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Wazzup Mizzers! Weston here.
Who? Weston Wells Olson…..I’m a swing in the Broadway production of LES MISÉRABLES. Still have no idea who I am? Let me explain: I hardly ever think of myself as a hero, but I think that’s probably the best way to describe the swings (especially) at LES MIZ. We’re the cast members waiting in the wings (or our dressing rooms) for anything and everything to happen. We’re a highly trained special agent type of hero. There are five of us, 3 males and 2 females: Me, Max Quinlan, Andrew Love, Rachel Rincione and Katy Basile.
Why are we special agent heroes? Ok, so, say Jason Forbach (Feuilly) stumbles from the barricade, face plants into Chris McCarrell (Joly) who twists his ankle and accidentally shoves Nate Hackmann (Courfeyrac) into the orchestra pit. Yikes. Stage management immediately pages Weston, Max and Andrew and tells us to quickly get to wardrobe village in the basement of the Imperial Theater. Heroes to the rescue! We run downstairs (all six flights) and suit up for our roles of Feuilly, Joly and Courfeyrac, respectively. We wait for an appropriate moment onstage and walk on like nothing ever happened. The audience will be a bit confused….but they’ll get the hang of the new faces onstage and definitely understand what’s going on, especially following such a dramatic barricade trip-fall-push scene!
This has never, and hopefully WILL never happen, but it isn’t unusual for someone to have become ill mid-way through a show and has to call out or leave the show. It isn’t nearly as dramatic, but it does happen. There are also cast members who have vacations and “personal days” which are scheduled days off. These are the days that we are planning to be onstage and know what to expect. As a swing, I understudy 12 different ensemble roles and features. It’s pretty exciting, albeit fairly daunting at first, and can still be stressful, but it keeps my days varied and VERY interesting.
What happens if there are more people out than the three swings in house can cover? We’ll talk about that next time: just remember the words “split track.”
Happy Fall!
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