Stage In Development
Genre comedy, drama
Three understudy actors for a legendary Broadway revival realize the only way any of them will ever go on is if all three of them work together to ensure the lead has a very, very bad month.
MARCO, YUKI, and BESS have been understudying the same three roles in a revival of a mid-century musical for eighteen months. The show is a hit. The leads are healthy. Their careers are stalling. When a tabloid rumor surfaces that the lead actress is secretly planning to leave for a film role, the three understudies enter a reluctant alliance: they will manufacture the circumstances — carefully, plausibly, legally — under which she is unavailable for one performance. One performance becomes several. The alliance becomes a friendship. The friendship becomes something none of them planned for. THE UNDERSTUDIES is a sharp ensemble comedy about ambition, solidarity, and the question of whether wanting something badly enough justifies what you are willing to do to get it.
Director Dana Sorkin
Producer Ellen Park
Writer Dana Sorkin, Alex Frome