They say the show must go on. But does it really have to?
By Globe correspondent, Updated February 12, 2026, 12:05 p.m.
On a Thursday night in December, a week before Christmas, the American Repertory Theater’s performance of its much-anticipated musical “Wonder” was called off. Too many people were sick. In the days to come, the company did several performances with modified staging and scenic elements due to widespread illness among the crew.
Last summer, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival canceled three weeks of performances after the death of an employee on its campus. “Our community needed time to grieve,” said Pam Tatge, the festival’s executive and artistic director.
The performing arts community has long been known for entertaining people through its own pain – emotional, physical, or otherwise. Since 2020, there has been a better understanding of how to prioritize public health and the well-being of employees.
After these recent performance cancellations, we checked in with arts organizations in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to see how they are thinking through contingency plans and decisions about cancellations. Representatives at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence and Umbrella Arts Center in Concord said they had increased understudy coverage in the years since COVID-19.
Lyric Stage’s producing artistic director, Courtney O’Connor, said, “Before COVID, understudies were usually never even a discussion.” O’Connor directed “Penelope,” a one-woman musical retelling of “The Odyssey” starring Aimee Doherty, which runs through March 1 at the Lyric Stage Theatre. Doherty’s understudy, Liliane Klein, was rehearsing scenes three weeks before the production opened.
“‘The show must go on’,” said O’Connor, “came from the mentality that was drilled into actors by everyone, and not necessarily in positive ways, that no matter what they have, they had to keep going.” These days, O’Connor and Lyric Stage try to hire understudies whenever possible, but it is an expensive choice — especially for short-run shows. If a show only has a week of performances, the cost of understudy coverage is more expensive than a cancellation.
If a theater company does decide to hire some understudies, they often hire a few swings to cover multiple roles, and Doherty told the Globe they usually don’t get to rehearse until the show opens — leaving gaps in coverage.
The Lyric has gone to great lengths to avoid cancelling shows — even O’Connor has stepped in for an actor in a pinch — but the director also talked about a number of instances over the last few years in which they had to cancel due to illness. “If we choose to not have understudies, canceling a performance has to always be an option,” O’Connor said. “Part of the experience of seeing live people on stage is that sometimes it just doesn’t happen as we expect,” O’Connor said, “and sometimes it just can’t happen.” “I do hope that the actors know if we need to cancel a performance, it’s our problem, that’s our call, not theirs.” O’Connor said, “I think in the past, it would have been made to feel more like theirs.”
A disclosure: I consider this issue as a writer interested in the arts who also happens to be a former Boston-area performer. I sang and danced as a kid. As a 10-year-old unpaid child performer in what was then known as “The Christmas Revels” (now “Midwinter Revels”), I got sick at some point during the run of shows. Instead of taking a night off, I took Motrin, put on my petticoats, and went on stage with a 102-degree fever. I was not alone. This was 2005, and the culture was to get through it.
The adults in the room knew I was not feeling well, but I wanted to go onstage anyway, and they were fine with that. I felt like if I didn’t perform, I would let myself and the audience down.
Since COVID, there has been a heightened awareness of illness transmission and social responsibility regarding public health. For the theater industry, this has meant an increase in understudy planning and even cancellation when the occasion calls for it.
Doherty, the “Penelope” star, grew up in Bellingham, went to UMass Amherst, lives in Walpole, and has been working in the Boston theater industry for 20 years. In a recent interview, she said that despite an increased understanding of the importance of understudies, “Most of the shows I’ve done in the past year, I have not had understudies.” She described how it feels to have an understudy: “That security is very rare; you can’t buy that kind of peace of mind.” Doherty has called out of a performance only twice in her career, and in both instances, the show went on because she had a cover who was rehearsed and ready. She has danced and sang on stage through a stomach virus and a third-degree ankle sprain, but she could only think of one time when she had asked not to perform due to illness and felt pressured to go onstage anyway.
Performers have a notorious work ethic, but that can come at the expense of their long-term physical and mental health. Doherty said, “It’s pretty common for singers in Boston — if they have a cold and they are losing their voice — to take steroids.” “Generally speaking,” Doherty said, “it has been my choice. But at the same time, considering we don’t have an understudy, it’s not much of a choice.” Out of all the theaters where Doherty has worked, she said, “Wheelock Theater has been the best at being able to manage the understudies.”
Executive director Nick Vargas said that Wheelock Family Theater has been hiring understudies since long before COVID, and “it’s now part of our casting process, like understudies are hired generally right around the same time as the principal performers.” Vargas told the Globe that before the pandemic, there was a lot of internal pressure to push through illness, but in the post-pandemic world, Wheelock has made understudies a priority and been “very upfront and clear that folks’ health comes first. . . . If they need to miss a rehearsal or a show, we’d rather them rest and get that time to feel better.”
Vargas said, “We can’t be putting on a production that’s all about community, hope, empathy, and not do that on the back end, right? Just wouldn’t ring true.” Vargas acknowledged that understudies are a big expense, saying “we invest in understudies because we know they’re essential to making sure that the show will go on.” So if the flu makes its way to Wheelock this season, they have a plan. Not that the show must go on, but as Vargas put it, “it can go on, on our terms.”
Nick Vargas Executive Director at Wheelock Family Theatre
Original Article: Sometimes it’s better to cancel a show or call in the understudy
