I’m so thrilled to post my first installment of my new series. This column focuses on child actors and what goes on during the run, why and when they leave and what happens after their run has ended.
Earlier this week I was re-watching one of my favorite and in my mind one of the most interesting show documentaries called “Life After Tomorrow.” The film explores the lives of the little girls who played Annie and the orphans in the original Broadway production and National Tours of Annie post-show. Over the course of the documentary many of the former orphans opened up and discussed their experiences with the show, what it was like coming home after their contracts ended and what life has been like since then. The movie explored both the positive and negative aspects as well as establishes some very valid points that I wanted to explore more.
The film opens up with Julie Stevens, director of the film and as she describes “I was one of the lucky ones who got to play and orphan in both the Broadway cast and National Tour of the show.” Lucky she was. Growing up most of us probably dreamed of that. I mean who wouldn’t want to be an actor who was in a huge hit, signing autographs and making special appearances. But, on the flip side as it was described in the film what happens after their contracts end?
In the world of Broadway and most professional theatre companies children have to fit a certain criteria to be in a show. Children cannot be over a certain height and weight and once they get too big for the part they are let go or asked to leave. Now while each show might have different requirements based on the character and such productions do this for obvious reasons. They don’t want a tall (for the age) child playing Little Orphan Annie or young Cosette. Actors can stay in the role until thy either grow out of it or choose to leave the show. Sometimes children might stay in a role for as long as two years before they leave, as they just have not out-grown the part. Stars like Lea Michele and Andrew Kennan-Bolger both stayed with their roles as young Cosette and Chip respectively for year at minimum, Michele also stayed with her role as the Little Girl in the Ragtime for a year and that is not counting the Toronto run. Now, why do some choose to leave? Well, they might have another job lined up or maybe they just feel like it is time to move on. At times you’ll find that theatres like it when the child (and the parents) decide to leave because it helps soften leaving a bit as it is like you chose to leave and not, “we made you leave because you’re too big.” The theatre company wants the kids to have a great experience and not have it possibly end on a sour not if they can avoid it (I’m not saying that all experiences when child actors were asked to leave ended poorly).
Now what happens during the run? While the kids are at every show you’ll find that most of these actors have very normal lives. While some are homeschooled, most probably live outside of the city and go to a normal school. They are involved in other activities do things that kids do, they just happen to also be in a Broadway show!
What happens after their contracts end? Well, I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard getting jobs for actors on Broadway especially child actors. The definitely aren’t as many roles as there are for adults and for kids if you are over a certain height and weight you can’t get the job. One can only imagine how tough it is to get work in the New York theatre scene after a certain age when you are too old to play a young child and to little to play an older role. In the Annie documentary it is all about what their lives were like after leaving the show. That show was so big and the girls who played Annie and the orphans were celebrities but as said in the film, once they left most faded from the spotlight quickly.
Now child theatre actors today. Most continue auditioning after leaving a role while going to school. These young theatre actors are insanely talented and I know that we will be seeing some of these kids at future Tony Awards and some child theatre actors you can see on TV in Glee and Victorious.
So child acting on Broadway. Is it tough-absolutely, but does it give them experience, tools and resources that they can use down the line-most definitely. These kids are vital to the shows that they are in to tell the story and with some hard work and determination they can hopefully continue to get work and blossom into incredible adult performers!
