Macy's parade-Billy Elliot cast

[BelleWDW]

This was an adorable bunch of kids-esp one girl who was a little chubby-but she had STAGE PRESENCE!

Curious how does a Broadway show-that has to have so many kids on stage do it? Do they rotate the kids daily? I cant imagine young kids being on stage night after night.

Just wondering

 

[MM27]

I don't know about that particular show, but I know shows that I've seen that had kids in the cast would say in the Playbill that one child would play the role Tuesday-Thursday and the other would do Friday-Sunday or something like that. It was split so each child got a matinee day.

 

[mamarose]

Ideally, 4 Billies each do 2 performances per week. When Billies are sick or injured, those left standing do more. There is always a Billy on standby in the theater, and sometimes a Billy plays tall boy or posh boy.
Ballet Girls do 8 shows a week. Three ballet girl swings, small, medium and large, are always on standby in the theater. If they run out of swings, they do a cut show, rechoreographing the dances: some tracks may be dropped or the swings cover more than one ballet girl at once. For example, one swing may both forget her 50P (Margaret Gormley) and face the wrong way (Angela Robeson). If Debbie or Tracey are out, their understudies cover them, and the understudies are covered in turn by swings.

 

[BelleWDW]

Wow-Mamarose-you sound like you're in the show!!!

 

[Evil Genius]

What does her being chubby have to do with anything?

 

[sturdypeasantstock]

What does her being chubby have to do with anything?

ITA, Evil Genius! Thanks for speaking up. (I'm a chubby gal.)

 

[tiggger1]

What does her being chubby have to do with anything?

its part of the show...

 

[BelleWDW]

I only saw this one number, but it seems all the little girls are a bit on the "nerdy" side-I guess that's part of the show.

Anyway the one who i called "chubby' had pizazz and was absolutely the scene stealer!!

 

[mamarose]

She's supposed to be chubby. She's playing the part of the fat girl. (They probably looked at busloads of tapping fat girls to cast that part.) In the show she is always eating pie and being warned that she'll end up just like her mother. (The other chubby ballet girl understudies the role.)

That makes two great Broadway roles for fat girls: Tracey Atkinson and Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray. Let's hear it for the Traceys and chubby girls everywhere!