The Show Must Go On — But at What Cost?

The physical toll behind Broadway’s brightest moments

The following is a summary of a story by Margo Lakin that originally appeared on Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

As Broadway gears up for the Tony Awards on June 7, Duke Theater Studies professor Ryan Donovan is focused on the hidden physical toll behind all the glitz and glamour.

His forthcoming book, “Eight Nights a Week: How Broadway Turned Backbreaking,” traces how musical theater performance has changed – from charismatic showmanship into something resembling elite athleticism.

“I’m looking at a lot of unsexy documents,” Donovan says. “Correspondences between Actors’ Equity and the general managers, stage manager’s reports, business records, everything that uncovers the hidden labor — and the human cost — that made these shows happen.”

Today’s Broadway stars face a workload unimaginable decades ago. Dealing with chronic injuries, exhaustion and hemorrhaging vocal cords, they are expected to deliver flawless shows eight times a week. Wearable microphones and sophisticated sound design transformed expectation in the 1960s and 1970s. Composers could write in ways they never could before, and modern audiences expect performers to sing, dance and act at maximum intensity eight shows a week without visible strain.

“People love to go see ‘Wicked’ and hear those two leading ladies belt their faces off. It’s become a kind of superhuman expectation, where performers can’t do just one thing well anymore — the bar keeps getting raised,” Donovan says.

But have the increased demands on Broadway bodies equated to better productions?

“If you had asked me five years ago what the two most exciting musicals of the 2020s would be, I wouldn’t have picked the revival of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ or this year’s ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball,’” he admits. “These Andrew Lloyd Webber shows demonstrate the increasingly expansive range of skills a Broadway performer needs to remain competitive — and both strip away scenic spectacle in favor making the performer’s body the visual center of the production.”

Read a full version of this story on the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences website.