Does a holiday weekend affect Broadway cast appearances?
 

I'm not sure if I've titled my question correctly, but here's what I want to know. We are coming to New York to visit our daughter over the Memorial Day weekend, and have Philharmonic tickets for Friday night and theater tickets for Saturday night and Sunday matinee. My husband and others are of the opinion that it is naive to expect the regular casts to necessarily be performing over the holiday weekend. Is this really the case? I certainly would have thought twice about spending the money if we're not going to get to see the current stars.

What are you planning to see?

I don't think that should affect things. There are some "stars" that are known to take off matinees fairly regularly, but I don't think they'd take off a holiday.

If there are specific stars you're worried about, you could try to check their "attendance record."

Not normally.

Call the ticket office and ask if the star is taking the weekend or night off.

Well, I'm pretty inept when it comes to finding and buying tickets, and have wound up with two shows that would not be my first choices if all other things were equal, so I would be pretty disappointed not to see the current leads: Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (Odd Couple) and the foursome in Barefoot in the Park.

It could happen, but the chances are slim. Your "husband and others" are not good sources of information in this instance.

A number of years ago one of the hot Broadway shows was Grand Hotel. We were in New York and had tickets for the evening perfomance on July 3. When we were handed our programs it seemd like confetti falling out. There were notices of understudies for 5 of the 7 leading performers. We were more than a little disappointed. It was good show, but not the show we had hoped to see including the winner of the Tony that year for best supporting actor in a musical -- the wonderful Michel Jeter.

A week or two later, I picked up a People magazine and there was a huge spread about a party at Tommy Tune's house on the Fourth of July. There were pictures of the missing cast members from Grand Hotel. (Tommy Tune was the director).

Draw your own conclusions.

Tsk, tsk Neopolitan. Now you're going to scare them! That was not a normal happening.
Further, in the case of The Odd Couple, as an example, since the theater gives refunds when a star or stars aren't performing, it's doubtful that either or both Lane and Broderick would take a break and cost the show thousands of $$$ in refunds.

In New York as soon as the announcement that a substitute (understudy) is appearing is made you can IMMEDIATELY go to the box office and ask for your money back.

Or upon seeing this posted in the lobby you can do the same. Please don't attempt to do this AFTER the curtain goes up because you'll be SOL.

How do I know this? The same way I get all those house seats from the Shubert Organization and enough said.

Intrepid, have the rules changed? That opportunity to get a refund used to only be if the understudy was for a person listed above the title or as "starring in". Surely an understudy appearing in a minor role will not allow you to get a refund these days, will it?

I also remember a performance of "Patti Lupone in Anything Goes" where it was nearly 15 minutes after 8 when they finally made the announcement that her standby would be going on. I'd guess easily 100 people got up and walked out to get refunds. They missed an unbelievable performance by Linda Hart as Reno Sweeney.

Sorry, Howard, I didn't mean to scare anyone, but hey that stuff can happen.

You should be fine; it's not normal for there to be notices of understudies for 5 of the 7 leading performers in a performance, but if it happened I would certainly have asked for a refund. If a minor performer is missing I wouldn't consider it a big deal, but if the leads were absent that's different. I doubt that Lane & Broderick would both bail on a performance. Enjoy NYC!

When it is five minutes before curtain and it is your last night in New York you make a quick decision. You can see a top musical with the understudies which may not even be still playing your next trip to NYC, or you can go back to your room and sit or find something else to do for the evening except see theatre -- the thing you came to New York to do. We chose to stay and see theatre. We aren't sorry we did.

Let me reassure you that I too would be more than shocked if both Lane and Broderick didn't show up because it was a holiday, or for that matter if either one didn't show up for that reason.

Well, that's what I thought, but I'm glad to hear it from those with more experience. One of the nice things of having a daughter in New York is getting there more often--this will be our 4th trip this year. We love New York!

We have also had the experience over Memorial Day weekend of several main performers not being the regulars.