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Post by wardrobemistress76 on Feb 20, 2021 21:10:19 GMT
Hello Everyone,
First of all, I’m so sorry if all this information is already on this forum. However, I’m keen to learn a few things about the lovely Scott Davies.
- How long has he been involved in the show?
- What exactly does ‘standby’ mean? How do they differ from an understudy, and do they have to make themselves readily available at all times? I know this probably isn’t the case, but I’d love to know.
- Does anyone have any interesting stories of Scott, or any particular ‘dramas’ from the show’s history?
Hope everyone is keeping well.
WM76
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2021 21:29:00 GMT
Hello Everyone, First of all, I’m so sorry if all this information is already on this forum. However, I’m keen to learn a few things about the lovely Scott Davies. - How long has he been involved in the show? - What exactly does ‘standby’ mean? How do they differ from an understudy, and do they have to make themselves readily available at all times? I know this probably isn’t the case, but I’d love to know. - Does anyone have any interesting stories of Scott, or any particular ‘dramas’ from the show’s history? Hope everyone is keeping well. WM76 I can help with this - basically, they only cover one role (in this case, Scott only covers for Phantom) and are generally required to be backstage at all times in case something happens with the principal. With understudies they are usually ensemble members that cover the role but the standby doesn't have an ensemble role. Usually a role has a standby if it's seen as demanding enough that they'll be used often-ish. |
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Post by scarpia on Feb 20, 2021 21:58:29 GMT
Hello Everyone, First of all, I’m so sorry if all this information is already on this forum. However, I’m keen to learn a few things about the lovely Scott Davies. - How long has he been involved in the show? - What exactly does ‘standby’ mean? How do they differ from an understudy, and do they have to make themselves readily available at all times? I know this probably isn’t the case, but I’d love to know. - Does anyone have any interesting stories of Scott, or any particular ‘dramas’ from the show’s history? Hope everyone is keeping well. WM76 Scott has a long history with the show, in answer to your other question. He worked his way up to the title role but I saw him as early as 1991/2 I think as one of the firemen. He did the UK tour in 1999/2000 and was the principal Phantom at Her Majesty's prior to John Owen-Jones taking over in 2001. I still think his final scene is one of the best. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2021 8:06:03 GMT
Hello Everyone, First of all, I’m so sorry if all this information is already on this forum. However, I’m keen to learn a few things about the lovely Scott Davies. - How long has he been involved in the show? - What exactly does ‘standby’ mean? How do they differ from an understudy, and do they have to make themselves readily available at all times? I know this probably isn’t the case, but I’d love to know. - Does anyone have any interesting stories of Scott, or any particular ‘dramas’ from the show’s history? Hope everyone is keeping well. WM76 Hi, Think I've mentioned this on here before. Scott was the first Phantom I saw a the Liverpool Empire in 1999. If I remember this correctly I think his fiancee was Understudy Meg on the tour at the time. At 11 I was spellbound and changed forever after seeing that production. My family booked a backstage tour at the Empire a few weeks later (back when they were still a thing) we turned up to be told it was unlikely to happen, one of the cast was ill and the production was busy rehearsing an understudy, they said to come back in a few hours when lunch was scheduled and they would try get us round. We wandered around Liverpool for a while, and waited around patiently and were fortunate enough to be able to be taken round the entire theatre whilst the cast/crew took a break. We were taken onto the stage and up close to the set/props etc. As we were taken around the circle of the Empire to discuss the auditoriums architecture, rehearsals started back up and we were allowed to sit in briefly. Just before we were about to leave Scott's voice boomed from backstage and he moonwalked onto the stage singing, not realising there was a tour up in the circle, he continued singing, in shock realised we were there in awe, everyone laughed, we got a brief hello and all the rest, and then were ushered out in conclusion. Not a drama really, but for an 11 year old fan this was mind-blowingly exciting. Lost count of the amount of times I've seen Phantom in London since, but over half of the performances I've seen I've been fortunately to have seen Scott in the role. Back when I was considering a proper career in Theatre I shadowed on the production a few of times and Scott ended up called in as Phantom then, after a break of about 2 years and no rehearsal he still got up at smashed it. |
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Post by Theatre Fan on Feb 21, 2021 11:25:58 GMT
He was my Phantom and he was just stunning in the role. Me and my best friend promised each we'd see Phantom together in our mid-teens and we finally got to about 12 years later. We got to London super early and waited for day seats, we got 2nd row centre. Perfect seats.
Ben Foster was off and Scott was on, I wasn't familiar with him, the box office staff, said we were in for a treat.
We were, it was a magical experience. Couldn't of asked for a better Phantom. I can't believe he'd been doing the role for so long. I became a big fan after that. I hope that he might go back to being cover Phantom, I'd love to see him again x x x
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Post by beardedmusicalfan on Feb 21, 2021 11:55:11 GMT
As mentioned above Scott does have a long history with the show and is a bit of a Phantom legend in my opinion. He first joined the show in 1990 as a swing, and he also understudied Raoul. In ‘92 he became the phantom understudy(2nd cover) too. He left the cast in ‘93. He then returned to the show in ‘97 when Peter Cousens was the principal as the Standby Phatom until ‘98. Then in 98 he was principal Phantom on the UK tour until late 99 when he took over as principal at Her Majesty’s. He played the role until July 2001 when whe JOJ took over. It wasn’t until late 2009/early 2010(not sure which) when he returned to the show. The current standby Phantom at the time, Nigel Richards had left or was fired(not sure which) over “creative differences” with the resident director I believe. So Scott came in to take over and has been standby ever since. He did a couple of months as principal in 2010 between David Shannon leaving and JOJ returning.
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Post by scarpia on Feb 22, 2021 11:41:00 GMT
As mentioned above Scott does have a long history with the show and is a bit of a Phantom legend in my opinion. He first joined the show in 1990 as a swing, and he also understudied Raoul. In ‘92 he became the phantom understudy(2nd cover) too. He left the cast in ‘93. He then returned to the show in ‘97 when Peter Cousens was the principal as the Standby Phatom until ‘98. Then in 98 he was principal Phantom on the UK tour until late 99 when he took over as principal at Her Majesty’s. He played the role until July 2001 when whe JOJ took over. It wasn’t until late 2009/early 2010(not sure which) when he returned to the show. The current standby Phantom at the time, Nigel Richards had left or was fired(not sure which) over “creative differences” with the resident director I believe. So Scott came in to take over and has been standby ever since. He did a couple of months as principal in 2010 between David Shannon leaving and JOJ returning. The episode with Nigel Richards and David Shannon was so unnecessary and all down to that certain resident director's incompetence, IIRC. Said director totally misunderstood some of the scenes and those two actors rightly disagreed - e.g. this idea that MotN must be staged as a 'lecture on music', totally missing the point that in Hal's production it is, above all, a seduction. Of course, we saw it staged as a 'lecture on music' in 2012 and wasn't it boring? |
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Post by Dawnstar on Feb 22, 2021 14:08:44 GMT
The episode with Nigel Richards and David Shannon was so unnecessary and all down to that certain resident director's incompetence, IIRC. Said director totally misunderstood some of the scenes and those two actors rightly disagreed - e.g. this idea that MotN must be staged as a 'lecture on music', totally missing the point that in Hal's production it is, above all, a seduction. Of course, we saw it staged as a 'lecture on music' in 2012 and wasn't it boring? I hadn't heard about their being a behind the scenes fall-out but I must say that having seen Nigel Richards as the Phantom I wasn't that impressed. Scott Davies, who I've see in the role several times, I thought was much better, so from my point of view the sudden cast change was an improvement, whatever caused it.
While Phantom often hires opera, or at least clasically trained, singers, Scott Davies is the only cast member who I've seen appear in an opera while being in Phantom. In January 2012 I saw him as Spoletta in ENO's Tosca. I gather he'd taken a few weeks off from Phantom in order to do it. It was nice to hear him singing unamplified & in a different style (yes, I know ALW's supposed to have nicked various melodies off Puccini!).
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Post by inthenose on Feb 22, 2021 14:33:25 GMT
They realised very early on with Nigel's casting that it wasn't going to work. His contract was paid up after a few months, from what I gather, which suited all parties. I understand he is a very well respected tutor at Arts Ed nowadays as well as working as an actor and running his own production company - I didn't get to see him myself from the front but what I heard wasn't good.
Scott Davies is a hell of a character! As others have stated, he did the tour and then West End. He covered and played Raoul prior to doing the lead role.
And just to fill in a little more on the Standby position. There was an interview with a then current standby (also known as "walking cover") which I can't find for the life of me. It might have been with Earl. Essentially, they are required to be within a certain distance to the theatre to cover the part, and ready to perform within a certain number of minutes notice. I forget if it's 30 minutes or an hour. I think on this show, they are allowed to leave at the interval. Should the Phantom be taken ill during the second act, the understudy would cover with an offstage swing filling their regular track.
Most performers just hang out backstage and watch Netflix or whatever, but may shadow the performance while watching on a monitor particularly when new.
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Post by beardedmusicalfan on Feb 22, 2021 14:49:45 GMT
Interesting story regarding Scott from a few years ago. He was on as the Phantom at a matinee performance and I’m not sure if he’d started to feel unwell earlier on in the show but by PONR he had lost his voice. He had to finish off the show lip syncing to the off stage voice of Jeremy Secomb who was Piangi and understudy Phantom at the time. Has anyone heard of this happening in any other shows?
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Post by inthenose on Feb 22, 2021 14:57:39 GMT
Interesting story regarding Scott from a few years ago. He was on as the Phantom at a matinee performance and I’m not sure if he’d started to feel unwell earlier on in the show but by PONR he had lost his voice. He had to finish off the show lip syncing to the off stage voice of Jeremy Secomb who was Piangi and understudy Phantom at the time. Has anyone heard of this happening in any other shows? That's hilarious! Someone should ask Scott about this via social media. I wonder how it worked? I assume they had to show stop to communicate this plan, so then why didn't they just let Jeremy play it on stage with a quick break to get into makeup. After "if I do not forget myself and laugh", Piangi isn't on stage again until the curtain call, so they didn't even need to prep a cover Piangi. The only thing I can think is that the Final Lair makeup can't be done quickly, even as a rush job. |
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Post by 10642 on Feb 22, 2021 16:27:26 GMT
Interesting story regarding Scott from a few years ago. He was on as the Phantom at a matinee performance and I’m not sure if he’d started to feel unwell earlier on in the show but by PONR he had lost his voice. He had to finish off the show lip syncing to the off stage voice of Jeremy Secomb who was Piangi and understudy Phantom at the time. Has anyone heard of this happening in any other shows? That's hilarious! Someone should ask Scott about this via social media. I wonder how it worked? I assume they had to show stop to communicate this plan, so then why didn't they just let Jeremy play it on stage with a quick break to get into makeup. After "if I do not forget myself and laugh", Piangi isn't on stage again until the curtain call, so they didn't even need to prep a cover Piangi. The only thing I can think is that the Final Lair makeup can't be done quickly, even as a rush job. Yeah they probably took the view it wasn’t worth stopping the show for half an hour when there was only 15 minutes left |
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Post by Dawnstar on Feb 22, 2021 17:40:47 GMT
Interesting story regarding Scott from a few years ago. He was on as the Phantom at a matinee performance and I’m not sure if he’d started to feel unwell earlier on in the show but by PONR he had lost his voice. He had to finish off the show lip syncing to the off stage voice of Jeremy Secomb who was Piangi and understudy Phantom at the time. Has anyone heard of this happening in any other shows? Not in musicals but I've seen it happen several times for operas. Mostly there was one person singing & another acting for the entire performance but once, a Eugene Onegin at the ROH, it was just for the final part. Musicals must be able to do it more discreetly as due to the amplification the singer wouldn't have to be on stage so presumably it wasn't actually that noticeable. For opera the singer has to stand at the side of the stage, so it's impossible to try ignore that there are 2 people playing 1 character! |
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Post by inthenose on Feb 22, 2021 18:06:49 GMT
Interesting story regarding Scott from a few years ago. He was on as the Phantom at a matinee performance and I’m not sure if he’d started to feel unwell earlier on in the show but by PONR he had lost his voice. He had to finish off the show lip syncing to the off stage voice of Jeremy Secomb who was Piangi and understudy Phantom at the time. Has anyone heard of this happening in any other shows? Another Phantom one I've witnessed personally, the wrong pre-recorded vocals (Earl Carpenter) as the Phantom were played in the title track. This was corrected by "Notes" and we were back to John Owen-Jones as intended. Nothing too exciting. I'll also add Jersey Boys tenuously to this. All of the singing is done live every show, with a lot of help from off-stage singing in the wings to give it that authentic 'layered' sound. With vocally slightly weaker Frankie Valli's (Jon Lee and Scott Monello spring to mind) singing the big falsetto notes it was common for the backing singers assisting to drown out the lead. Sometimes mouth flaps wouldn't quite match the sound coming out of the mix, leading some to question exactly how much singing of the top notes some leads did. It really helped that they had some indispensable guys in the show for a long time (Jye Frasca comes to mind). |
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