JKTS Chat: "Understudyness" by DROOD's Eric Sciotto

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From Eric's Gotta Dance feature on Broadway.com
Photo by Matthew Murphy

When word got out a few weeks ago that Andy Karl would be out of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and that Eric Sciotto, the "Twitterverse" lit up like a Christmas tree.  In what speaks volumes for the love and respect so many of us have for Mr. Sciotto, those Tweets were universally positive - well-wishes, votes of confidence, and, myself included, many disappointed-I-can't-be-there notes of encouragement.

So, many of you wrote to ask if I could do another interview with Eric all about his experience that night.  I had imposed upon him to do three segments of "JKTS Chat," and I wasn't sure if I should impose again.  Thankfully, he is a very generous, giving guy.  I noticed (and I'm sure you did, too) that not only is he passionate about his profession, but he is a passionate fan of theatre just like us.  Then I got to thinking, going on for a role is such a whirlwind of activity, thinking, and emotion, that trying to tell all about the whole experience might be more interesting as a narrative rather than trying to answer specific questions from someone who has never had a similar experience.  Well, despite a very busy schedule - doing the show, getting through the whole holiday season and raising a family with two small children - Eric really, REALLY came through for us.  What follows is his account of that fateful day when he played Neville Landless!

"Understudyness"

So... I love tounderstudy, and I love to go on for the role!  Not to say there aren'tnerves involved, but it's "why I'm there" and doing the role is why Iput in all that work...
My philosophy on understudying- and being a good one - is to be as ready as possible as soon as possible inthe rehearsal process... I don't wait for formal understudy rehearsals to begin;I don't wait for people to teach me stuff.... I basically say "If [theperson I cover] were out TODAY, could I do it?!" And I work from there...I tell myself to "know what I know and to know what I don't know" andI keep a little list... "If I were thrown on NOW, what questions would Ineed to ask...."  And assume no one's gonna teach me anything. (That'snot the case, but if I work like that, it's all up to me and I takeresponsibility for it all) In the moment, when someone's sick or hurt, orout, do I want to say, "Sorry, I don't know it yet" or "I can doit?" , I choose "I can do it."

Valerie Wright

I have to tell thisstory: My first Broadway show ever was AnnieGet Your Gun, and Bernadette Peters actually was sick when we startedrehearsals.  She was there and she fought it, but she was battling a nastycold or a flu or something.... At one point, like two weeks in or so (foggymemories) we were to show everything we'd completed thus far to the designteam.... a no-pressure run of the show...which (of course) means"performance mode" and BP called out that day...shewas losing the fight with said cold.... Our director, Graciela [Daniele],addressed the group and said, "Bernadette is too sick to be here, so we'lljust show you a few numbers that don't involve her, and we'll reschedulethis...." And a small voice peeped up: "Graci... if you want to dothe run through, I can do it."  It was Valerie Wright.  Valeriewas playing her own role of Dolly Tate, AND finishing up the run of Redhead at Goodspeed, I think.... andshe was also Bernadette's cover.... so... finishing a job, learning her ownrole, and covering.... got it?
Graciela said,"Valerie, thank you, but I can't ask you to do that, we've given you norehearsal, and it's really not fair to you...."  Valerie confidentlysaid, "I can do the role if you want to do the run-through." Graci then said, "Let's do the run!"
And we did.  AndValerie delivered a stunning performance that had the whole place captured byher brightness!  She was funny and sad and dreamy and amazing andeverybody laughed and cried... she had everyone in the palm of her hand. It was revelatory!

The fitting for my Tick
"Uluru" costume (Priscilla)

I learned "how tounderstudy" from her on that day... and I've never forgotten that moment.
I do my work.  I dowhatever it takes to be ready....
And so it was withNeville.... now, my life is more complex than it once was... I have two kids athome...  and I can't sing 'til all hours of the night, or [during] naps,because I'll wake people... and when I'm home, I'm in dad-mode... Sopreparing for the role of Neville (and Jasper) has been brought to you by theNJ Transit.... I worked on every commute possible, and when walking toor from the bus, I was singing the songs... I worked on breaks.  And inrehearsal, I just watched and watched and watched and prayed that a lot of itwould “osmosis itself” into my brain.
When we startedrehearsing Drood, Andy was stilldoing Jersey Boys... so every Wedsand Sat, he'd run off to his matinee, and if they were doing any Neville stuff,I'd jump in... this is like a gift from the Oprah to have that chance.... bythe time we went into previews, I'd done all but ONE number (I think) with theactual principal cast! That's unheard of and was deeply appreciated and nottaken for granted... each time I had that opportunity, I went full tilt! Tried everything as big and real as possible, made mistakes, screwedthings up, and learned from it all!!
Then once in previews,we went into formal understudy rehearsals, which are usually once a week, and Iwas able to keep working and get some repetition and finally belt out a few ofthe numbers I'd mostly rehearsed quietly....

Neville make-up test (before I lost the beard)

So, by the time Andy wasactually sick and called out, there wasn't much more I could do without justDOING IT!
He'd been battling acold or flu, and so I was on "high alert" in my brain... and watchinghim like a hawk.... and so, when I got the call Sunday morning, I was fine andready to go!
The biggest challenge,was that I'd never done the makeup.... the makeup designers did a test on me,and so I knew what I should look like, but I hadn't applied it myself.... andI'm not really sure what happened, but the makeup went on SOOOOO dark that Ibasically looked like I was doing blackface... It was funny and shocking... See, I hoped I'd have the luxury of taking my time to make sure Ilooked right, but an understudy is also in the business of making everyone feelcomfortable with the fact that you're on... so when the stage manager saysthat they called the principals in to run a bunch of scenes and numbers... that takes up your prep-time.  Also, often, you'll have a last-minutefitting....
So - when you think"oh good, I'll just calmly prepare and do what I need to do" THINKAGAIN!  
I did try to get inreally early, and have a little time to myself (makeup, script, last minutequestions) but was quickly pulled in a million directions.  It's honestlyvery frustrating, and, in my opinion, counter-productive.  But I'm clearlyalone in this thought.  I'd rather think of everything ahead of time anddeal with everything ahead of time, so when the moment comes, we're all cool andready. But most departments work under the "when it happens, we'll dealwith it" rule.
I had to learn years agoto get over it.  So part of my prep-work in preparing for a role includesreminding myself that when the time actually comes, I will not get a moment tomyself first... so BE READY.
K... so... Jessie Mueller (Helena Landless) was AMAZING.  I respect her and trust her immensely.  She wasAMAZINGLY insightful and helpful... don't forget, I have my own track in theshow, so I can't always see everything that Neville does... and things morphand change and evolve, and there was some blocking that changed in previews,that I never could see because I'm quick-changing in a stairwell... so, shetalked me through that, but more importantly, let me know that whatever I did,she'd go with it.  Also, after the opening number, Jessie actually went and darkened her makeup, to make us more twin-like. (What a lovely and generous and thoughtful lady!)
Which brings me to:"a good company will always conspire to make the swing or understudyright."  And this company is the BEST!  They were all so presentand available to differences and nuances and adaptable if anything wasdifferent or wrong.  (Reminded me of Sherie Rene Scott and John Hickok,who were SOOOOO incredibly open to differences when I was on for Radames in AIDA.)

That said, as a cover,it's MY job to do what they're used to so that they don't feel like anything isdifferent in terms of blocking and staging, and then within THAT framework,deliver my own performance that fits in with theirs....
Luckily, I LOVE LOVELOVE what Andy is doing with the role of Neville.  He's been a GREAT modeland someone who has taken a smallish role and made a SHOW-STEALER out of it. He's wonderful and I happily worked within the bubble of his shtick-filledbrilliance and felt great out there.  It was a blast, and I can happilyreport that all the laughs and responses were there, which kept the timingrelatively the same, and the rest of the cast were more than congratulatory andcomplimentary and even the crew went out of their way to pat me on the back andsay how much they loved my choices, my characterization, my confidence/command,and my overall work!  SO - I was happy.
I was nervous, but VERYsure of myself.  I'll have to fix the makeup if I ever do it again, butAndy is strong-like-bull, and so I don't foresee it happening much, if ever!

E-Daddy and family

I'm VERY happy to havedone it once.  Quite simply, it means the work was not in vain.  Idid it.  I felt great.  People loved it.  Fans have been solovely and kind and celebratory of my performance.  And best of all, mypartner decided to take a chance and bring our 4 year old, Samson, to see hisE-daddy and to see his first Broadway show ever.
So, knowing Sammy wasout there was mind-blowing for me.  He apparently was SUPER interested andreally watching and really listening and asked a ton of questions about tinydetails in the lyrics that really proved that he was listening... and he was soexcited afterwards! Proud of me and proud of himself for being so good and forseeing his first show!
That made it all SUPERSPECIAL!!!!!
K... a few specifics: 
PRE-SHOW:  I havenever worked that area... and my own section is small and easy to address...so I just wandered about and made a bunch of self-deprecating jokes about my"subtle" make-up application....  And I talked to my Sammy.
"THERE YOU ARE": Funnilyenough, in my own track there's a section of lyrics that I never sing, becauseI'm busy dealing with (and talking to) an audience member... so when it cametime to sing it, I was not as "on it" as I'd hoped... but everyone issinging them too, so I jumped right back in....
"NO GOOD CAN COME FROMBAD":  Went great!  Very fun!  I may or may not have crushed StephanieJ. Block's hand during the "menacing handshake" and she may or maynot have said" that's enough! that's enough!" out of the corner ofher mouth....  And I also do a fancy twirl of the cane at the end... whichgot gasps, I'm pretty sure... I felt cool.
CHITA:  She gave mea sly look halfway through and said, "well allllright!" (You’d have tohear the tone of voice... I can't really describe it...) It was the perfectvote of confidence and spoke volumes!
DATCHERY: My night onwas the ONE AND ONLY time ROSA was DATCHERY!!!!  Cool!!! 
LOVERS: Helena waspicked, and so I had to do the old "please don't pick me" take whichis fake because OF COURSE I wanted to do lovers with my sister... but it didn'thappen...  
And MURDERER... was..... ummmm... Puffer!  Right... 
...So, yes, it'd havebeen fun to be chosen for something... and I wanted that, but I was alsorelieved... it was my first time out there... I was happy to have made itthrough and have it go so successfully... I didn't need more to think about....
Hope you enjoyed my epicaccount of what it's like to cover and perform the role of Neville!
Eric SciottoTwitter: @E_DaddySciotto
Thank you, readers, for your continued support and interest!  And thank you, Eric, for being so helpful, generous and thoughtful.
To read the first 3 installments of JKTS Chat with Eric Sciotto by clicking the icons to your right, or click the "JKTS CHAT: The Interviews" tab at the top of the blog!
DO NOT MISS ERIC AND THE REST OF THE CAST OF THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD BEFORE THEY ARE GONE!  THEY'RE AT STUDIO 54 UNTIL MARCH 10TH!
All photos, unless otherwise noted, courtesy of Mr. Sciotto.
Jeff4.151