if they ever need an emergency cover on broadway, what would be the costume situation?
Depends on how they choose to resolve the situation and how much time they have to prepare!
If they bring someone in from one of the tours:
They'd generally have them wear their own costume, just like Keirsten Hodgens did when she was an emergency cover on the tour for a few days. This requires some advance notice; the Tour alt and production team would have to have enough time for the alt to get their costume/wig/makeup/etc packed up, sort out travel, get them to the theater, and work through some of the blocking and spacing. It's going to need advance warning of a day or so in most scenarios. As they gain practice and depending on how far away Tour is from Broadway and what flights are available, they may be able to do it in a shorter period of time. And it also depends on if an actor knows the track they need to cover for that production or if they have to learn it.
If a Broadway alt goes on for a role they don't typically cover:
The priority would be that they figure out a scenario where an alt can go on wearing someone else's principal-style costume. We've seen this with both Cassie Silva and Hana Stewart in the past few months. Broadway has a ton of costume pieces right now: 2019 NA Tour principals, discarded 2020 alt and principals (keep in mind that there were some finished costumes for alts who now don't cover those roles which is great for E/Cs!), Anna Uzele's 2021 Parr, Keri Rene Fuller's Seymour, everything current, everything made in 2021 that isn't currently in use, Showstoppers, and seemingly a few other pieces that may have been made but discarded due to cast or cover changes etc. Some of that will be damaged or less accessible now, but that's still quite a number of costume pieces with which to try and find something that works. Also takes time to figure this out by trying on different costumes and combos of pieces, but they might have already figured out who fits in what in case they ever have a situation like this.
If they can't work out a principal-style costume, the next plan would be that they go on in Mallory Maedke or Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert's 2019 alt costume. This is once again going to depend on what fits and what isn't damaged, as well as how accessible those costumes are and how much advance notice they'd have.
Beyond that, I don't know! In theory they'd never run into that point. The current Broadway system works well even when several people are out, and if they do get to the point of emergency covers they should (in theory) be able to work out a scenario using the costumes they do have. If they can't I honestly don't know what they'd do. Band costumes probably?? Cancel the show if they really have that many people out?? Who knows!
As far as the other costume pieces (applicable to principal or alt costumes):
- Union rules that govern Broadway say that actors can wear a costume not initially made for them, but they need to have their own "skin layers". With Six, that's what I usually call "leotards" because of this site's censorship words :))))). To make a new leotard would require a day or two minimum in the most ideal unlikely scenarios. But the union might have exceptions in the case of emergency covers, or contingency plans like backup leotards might already be in place.
- They'd be fine in their usual boots and tights etc.
- I believe they can use someone else's crowns if needed but I'll try and confirm that.
- Then for hair they can wear their natural hair (they all wear it for at least one role each anyway), any 2020 wigs they have but don't use (like Courtney Mack's Aragon wig), or they might be able to wear their hairpieces/wigs typically used for one of their covers (like Mal's Seymour might be able to work for Boleyn etc). Howard is the hardest and there are some union rules about sharing wigs, but as I understand it they can as long as they follow certain rules about cleaning etc, so in theory Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert could wear Sam Pauly or Courtney Mack's wig if she ever had to go on as Howard.
Majority of this is also going to apply to emergency covers on the US tours, where they could have emergency covers from the other tour or Broadway OR have one of that tour’s alts emergency cover a role they aren’t typically supposed to cover. However, that’s going to get more complicated as tours aren’t going to have access to as many costumes pieces as the Broadway production would. If that alt doesn’t already fit into a costume that that production has on hand, they’re not easily going to be able to get one from Broadway etc.
Hopefully that helps answer your questions!
