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For theatergoers, it produces an all too familiar sinking feeling. You open your Playbill and a little piece of paper flutters out, alerting you that a member of the cast is out and someone unexpected will be performing.
For understudies who are finally getting a turn in the spotlight, though, those little slips offer rare moments of recognition.
Love them or hate them, they are a Broadway tradition on the way out.
A little-noticed provision in the tentative contract agreed to this month between the Broadway League and Actors’ Equity Association would make those inserts — “stuffers” in industry parlance — optional. The deal, which is being voted on by Equity members, allows shows to announce most cast changes through QR codes printed in Playbills, along with either a verbal announcement or a cast list posted in the lobby.
But some Broadway troupers who came up the hard way fear that few audience members will bother to open the QR codes on their phones to see who is performing.
“I understand, from an environmental standpoint, that they’re wasteful, and I understand why producers, cost-wise and for other reasons, don’t want them,” said Julie Benko, who was the understudy of the title role in the recent revival of “Funny Girl” and created her own show, “Standby, Me,” about the four musicals in which she has covered principal roles.
“But,” she went on, “I think the understudies, the swings, the standbys and the alternates do so much work, with so little recognition, so much of the time — this is a little piece of paper that makes sure they’re acknowledged by the people who are watching them.”
