#cover system

just in case anyone missed it: Zara Macintosh confirmed that the alternate’s third covers (for example, Cherelle!Aragon/Howard, Hana!Boleyn/Cleves, and Zara!Seymour/Parr) are officially last in line in the cover order after the super standby swings

~~~

As a result, this is the (presumed) actual cover order for the West End alternates/swings

Aragon: Zara, Collette/Hana, Liv, Bryony, Cherelle

Boleyn: Cherelle, Collette/Zara, Bryony, Liv, Hana

Seymour: Hana, Collette/Cherelle, Bryony, Liv, Zara

Cleves: Cherelle, Collette/Zara, Liv, Bryony, Hana

Howard: Zara, Collette/Hana, Bryony, Liv, Cherelle

Parr: Hana, Collette/Cherelle, Liv, Bryony, Zara

~~~

*note that Liv/Bryony’s cover order is assuming that they’re splitting the tracks in two equally—neither have yet to debut parr as of august 5, 2021

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Hey! Yes! However I am going to slightly hijack this ask and give a broader “UK alt system 101” because I’ve been getting a lot of asks about it recently.

First covers (fully standardized) Prior to lockdown and with the first cast returning from lockdown, UK casts of Six would just choose alt covers based on the queens they had and what worked best. Saw combos like A/P, S/H, B/C; A/C, B/H, S/P; A/H, B/C, S/P. From fall 2021 - fall 2023, every new UK cast has used an alt system with A/C, B/H, and S/P, and then swing(s). This changed in fall 2023, when the new West End cast used A/S, B/C, and H/P, but it’s not clear if that’s a one-off situation.

Second covers (not standardized) Prior to Covid they had used two different second cover systems: #1. What I call the "consistent" cover system, where if someone is first cover B/C then someone else is going to be second cover B/C and someone else third B/C. This was used by the 2019-21 West End cast. Example: Zara MacIntosh: 1st A/H, 2nd B/C, 3rd S/P Cherelle Jay: 1st B/C, 2nd S/P, 3rd A/H Hana Stewart: 1st S/P, 2nd A/H, 3rd B/C #2. What I call the "scrambled" cover system, where if someone is first cover B/C then one of the other alts is second cover B/? and the other is C/?. This one was used by the 2019 West End alts... Courtney Stapleton: 1st A/P, 2nd S/C, 3rd B/H Vicki Manser: 1st B/C, 2nd H/P, 3rd A/S Grace Mouat: 1st S/H, 2nd A/B, 3rd C/P ...and the 2019-22 UK Tour alts: Cassandra Lee: 1st A/C, 2nd S/H, and 3rd B/P Jennifer Caldwell: 1st B/H, 2nd A/P, 3rd S/C Harriet Watson: 1st S/P, 2nd B/C, 3rd A/H This system is generally better from a coverage/management perspective, which I talked about here.

When they came back from lockdown they initially seemed to have standardized to the consistent system. The 21-22 WE followed it: Paisley Billings: A/C, S/P, B/H Danielle Rose: B/H, A/C, S/P Roxanne Couch: S/P, B/H, A/C as did the 22-23 UKT, formally anyway (may have followed a different one informally): Grace Melville: A/C, B/H, S/P Leesa Tulley: B/H, S/P, A/C Natalie Pilkington: S/P, A/C, B/H but the 22-23 WE started following a scrambled again: Monique Ashe-Palmer: A/C, B/P, S/H Danielle Rose: B/H, A/S, C/P Leah Vassell: S/P, C/H, A/B and the 23-24 UKT now is too: Ellie Jane Grant: A/C, B/P, S/H Izi Maxwell: B/H, S/C, A/P Tamara Anne Morgan: S/P, A/H, B/C

I'm guessing they will try to continue using scrambled in the future because of the coverage benefits, but we'll see.

Swings

For the 2021-22 and the 2022-23 cast, the West End used two swings. Each of them had three primary covers, but also cover the other three commonly enough as needed.

The UK Tour just has one swing, who covers all six roles technically equally (but just like with all prior swings there does still seem to be some sort of unofficial priority/preferred roles).

However, starting with the 2023-25 West End cast, Six started hiring only one full-time swing for the West End, but also added a universal who can go between both the UK Tour and West End productions.

Alternate Costumes Starting with the 2021-22 West End cast, the alts have principal-style costumes for their first covers. If/when they cover 2nd or 3rd covers, they wear an alt costume.

The 2021-22 and 2022-23 WE + 2022-23 and 2023-24 UKT casts followed this system:

(Pictured: Paisley Billings, Danielle Rose, Leah Vassell) A/C wears teal, B/H wears orange, and S/P wears pink. There's only one consistent variation: teal is always pants w/ peplum, orange is always pants w/ peplum, and pink is always the standard A/H.

However, stating with the 2023-25 cast, the system was once again changed. For the first time, the alternates received reused alternate costumes worn by prior queens, just altered for them. Due to this, alt costumes were assigned based on what fit each alternate from existing stock. In this specific instance, that means A/S wears silver (a swing costume), B/C wears teal, and H/P wears orange.

Swing Costumes

Historically, the swings have worn regular swing costumes for all six costumes. Those are typically black and silver:

(Pictured: Rachel Rawlinson, Esme Rothero; Rachel Aragon photo by Pamela Raith)

The black alt was historically used as the primary swing costume. The silver alt was added later as a secondary swing costume.

For the 2021-22 and 2022-23 West End casts, which had two full-time swings, both the black and silver costumes were used with variations as depicted.

For the 2023-25 West End + 2022-23 and 2023-24 UK Tour casts, the one full-time swing wears the silver swing costume. The UK Tour swings had all variations as depicted above with the exception of Boleyn; the West End swing exclusively had the first (far left) variation.

The universal swing who joined as part of the 2023-25 West End cast wears her old costumes from the 2022-23 UK Tour cast, including S/P principal costumes and a pink alt costume.

Ok so if we go with the hunch that Danielle is now 2nd A/S and 3rd C/P.....do you think it's strange that she's had quite a few S/P shows but has yet to redebut Aragon? Also in general it feels like second cover/third cover shows have rapidly decreased comparing old casts to new ones. (Ex. Vicki Manser had 18 Parr shows, Cherelle Jay 15 P shows, Paisley 14, and now, Monique with.... 1. Or Courtney S with 37 Aragon shows, Hana Stewart with 6 [technically 7 if you count Bway], Danielle with 6, and she hasn't played it since September) It's halfway through the run and both Monique and Leah have had 3 shows as second covers. Whereas in the original West End (and UKT2 to a lesser extent) the alts were debuting within 2 months of opening and had a lot of shows as the other four.

Also I just miss seeing teal, orange and pink costumes :(

We know she's 2nd A/S and 3rd C/P! Leah and Monique had both said theirs outright.

As far as how much she's been on for Seymour/Parr vs Aragon, there's a few reasons: - Statistically, there have been WAY more shows where Seymour or Parr, or Seymour AND Parr covers have been needed. That means she's had a lot more chances to go on for those roles, and relatively significantly fewer to go on for Aragon. I wrote up all those stats here wrt Leah and Monique (since it's in response to you I'm sure you've seen it, but linking for anyone else). - And, a big part of Danielle's Parr shows were just the context. Both Esme and Roxanne Couch were going to be out on holiday for a while soon after cast change which left them pretty show on Parr covers. It seemed like they very intentionally set Danielle up to effectively function in Esme's place as B/H/P swing during that time frame to help with that coverage. She debuted Parr soon before cast change and she actually had some scheduled Parr shows, and she likely was doing additional Parr rehearsals to make sure she could go on for it if needed. And so...her first Parr with this cast was about a week in. She wasn't intended to go on, but it was prior to Leah's planned debut, Rachel was out, Esme had to cover a pre-scheduled Aragon cover, and that left Danielle for Parr. They technically could have sent Danielle on for Aragon and Esme for Parr, but Danielle had just been on for Parr in the last week or two and again I think they were intentionally keeping that track fresh for her, whereas she hadn't done Aragon in about a month. Just given the recency of Parr, it made more sense to send her on for that. Her next few Parr shows were during that period with both Esme and Roxanne out. She just filled in for a few of those shows when Leah had to be on for Seymour or had her required shows off. The rest of her Seymour and Parr covers have just been relatively straightforward: several of the alts had a show off or were already on for other roles, which just left her as the easiest person available to cover those roles. If that scenario happened and she was needed as Aragon I'm sure they'd send her on, but so far it seems like it just hasn't. With regards to why these alts are on so little for second covers...SWINGS!!! I mean, back with original West End, if they had both Seymour and Parr out, they automatically had to send a second cover on. Compare that to now, where they just send on one of the swings for the second role (and even more specifically they can send on a swing who already has that as their priority cover). Five swalts just improve their coverage SO much. Plus, they've had Harriet Watson able to jump in. All of that together just means they've really very, very rarely needed to go on as anything other than their first covers. And even when they're in a rough spot, they still usually prioritize sending alts on for their 1st covers and having the swings cover anything else. With all the relative coverage they have now, the 2nd and 3rd covers are really more of a contingency plan rather than the day-to-day practicality they used to be.

@fandomfan246 I drafted like 90% of this a few months ago so some of it (particularly bringing back several rehearsal alts as principals) is much more obvious now, just a heads up. We've also seen Jaelle LaGuerre with now only one rehearsal cover. --------------

All of the NCL contracts would have had to be renegotiated when coming back from Covid closures, and some would have been again since (Six seems to have for one). I would guess that during that Six renegotiated their contract with NCL to increase the number of rehearsal alts that they want to have for any given NCL cast (as in Bliss 4.0, Bliss 5.0, etc). I'd guess that that's why we've seen that increase from a "who decided that" standpoint. As for why... - There's the basic job description of needing actors who already know the show and can go onboard if any onboard actors are unable to continue with the show. However, it's built into their contracts that they're allowed to go on to pursue other shows instead, so not every rehearsal alt will be available at every point during their productions' run. The more rehearsal alts you have, the higher the likelihood that you'll have someone available if needed. - Rehearsal swing contracts get used as a launchpad for an actor to get another onboard contract with Six on NCL. Several Broadway shows (Aladdin, Hamilton, Moulin Rouge, among others) have a portion of the try-out process called workshops/intensives: they cast an ensemble cast from auditions to take part in a week-ish long intensive where they learn some of the major numbers in the show. It's no guarantee of being hired by the show, but actors who take part often are. It gives the creative team a chance to see performers in action in a more show-like environment than auditions, see who might work best in which track, who might work well as a swing, etc, and have actors available who have learned enough of a show that they can join a production at a moment's notice if a position opens up. Six NCL rehearsal alts seem to have a similar function or benefit: it gives the actor an additional contract to learn the full shows' material and the ins and outs of the show, which is especially valuable in terms of assigning future swings/dance captains/show captains (Amy Bridges and Sarah McFarlane became show captain, Princess Victome returned as an alt). It gives Six (and the actor!) a chance to see how the actor works in the production, if they might be a better fit as a principal or if they have a skill set that's great for being a swing (or dance/show captain), and which principal roles an actor might be the best fit for. - But that's yet another barrier to rehearsal alt availability. Like if there's only two rehearsal alts, an A/C/P and a B/S/H, and the A/C/P gets asked to join a different ship/contract as principal Aragon, but a few weeks later the Aragon or Cleves or Parr on their initial rehearsal alt contract has to drop out....they now don't have that initial rehearsal alt available. So having several rehearsal alts gives them more room to move everyone around AND still have coverage as needed. - I'll also note that they've been really focusing in recent months on each rehearsal alt having one or two priority covers (which it seems like are essentially a try out for them to get a principal contract in). While they're meant to learn all their tracks on their own at least, those are the ones they focus on in rehearsal and are able to actually do cover runs for. If you have an A/C/P whose priority covers are A and C but you need a P to jump on ship at the last second, of course I'm sure they could do it but it could make things easier if there's already someone who was priority P and has already done cover runs as such.

and for 3 vs 2 vs 1 covers: - Rehearsal alts getting promos with a future contract are usually joining those as a principal. (Like I said above, many of the rehearsal alt contracts seem to be essentially a tryout where most then get a principal offer rather than swing) - And if a rehearsal swing jumps on a ship at the last second, it's almost always going to be as a principal. It's just so much easier logistically. If they do a situation like they did with Bryony, where they promote the onboard alt and bring in a new alt, they have to find a rehearsal alt who has the same cover combo as that initial onboard alt, do all the cover runs and brush up ASAP to make sure that new alt is ready, and rush to either make three new costumes or find three old ones that fit well enough that they can be repurposed for that new alt, especially now that they don't use alt costumes. They got lucky that Lori fit Bryony's costume, but her covers didn't match up so they got a weird situation with Bryony as principal AND cover and Lori just as understudy H. All around it is MUCH easier to just promote a rehearsal alt straight to principal: then they just have to make or repurpose one costume rather than three, and only have to do put in runs for them in one role. (We saw that with Bliss 4.0) - So...rehearsal alts don't need three covers; they just need to be in for whatever covers NCL might be seriously considering giving them an onboard contract as. For some of them it might be that they're in consideration as an alt with three covers, but for others it might be that they're just considering one or two principal roles and there's not really a need for a third.

Unfortunately there’s not really any feasible way that could even happen with the set up they have. Current set up doesn’t have any scheduled shows for third covers just for the sake of a debut. The only way someone can go on for a third cover is because they’re really, really needed to (could be pre-scheduled or last minute). For that to happen with both Roxanne Couch AND Danielle Rose in those covers at the same show would be crazy.

It also doesn’t really work with their priority set up. Priority for cover is always given to first covers then second covers with third as last resort. So…

- if they were prescheduling covers, only had Roxanne and Danielle in, and needed a Parr and Cleves, they would schedule Roxanne Parr and Danielle Cleves.

- if it was a last minute cover, the only way that would work is if one of them was already scheduled to be on for their third cover and the other got called in at the last second. But for them to even get to that point means that the second cover of that role must have been planned to be out of the show that day and only came in because of an emergency cover scenario. So, say Danielle has a Parr show scheduled. For that much to even be scheduled, Roxanne, Paisley, Rachel, and Esme all must be either out of the show that day or unable to perform as Parr. Then, say that whoever was meant to be on as Cleves calls out day of. Roxanne, and only Roxanne, is for some reason the only one able to get to the theater that day and perform. So in that scenario they can either let Danielle Parr and Roxanne Cleves happen, or they can still switch them at the last minute to Roxanne Parr and Danielle Cleves. Depending on how last minute it is, how long they each know which role, all of that, they could keep or switch. And if they’re ever in a scenario that’s this extreme, they’d likely call in Harriet Watson or someone from UKT.

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