In the Broadway musical Wicked?

Okay so yesterday I saw Wicked, and it was my favorite musical ever. However, I was confused by something in the Playbill. Everyone knows that there is a page with the headshots of the actors/actresses with the biggest parts. On this page was Elphaba, Glinda, Fiyero, Boq, Nessarose, Madame Morrible, Dr. Dillamond, and The Wizard. Additionally, at the bottum was two headshots of the actresses whose roles were “Standby for Elphaba” and “Standby for Glinda”. I do not believe that this means the same as understudy, but these young ladies were not single out in the curtain call either, like they would be if they had indivual parts. Can someone who is more Broadway savvy explain what a Standby means?

It’s NOT the same as understudy. Elphaba and Glinda have monster roles, right? So, if one of them is not feeling well during the show, you can’t exactly drudge on in a score like they have to sing. Or since Elphaba flies and Glinda has her bubble, injuries are common. So they need to have someone ready to play the roles at all times, in the theatre. That’s why they are called standbys, they stand-by. This is very different from an understudy, who is in the show every night in the ensemble. When a performer is on vacation or calls out sick before the show begins, the standby also have priority to go on before the understudy, the standby is first cover. If the standby is unavailable to perform, the second cover (the understudy) performs, and a swing performs in the understudy’s role.

I hope this helped.

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