Okay, so I've got a stinking rotten cold and I'm feeling sorry for myself.

Luckily, I've not had a bad cold when needing to be onstage. But I'm sure it does happen, and my experience is that very few clubs have understudies.

So, how do you guys go on when you've got a cold? What are your magic potions and remedies?

Mine include

1) Strepsils - I think I live on them during a show. And yes, I also live on the toilet seat
2) Sanderson's Specific - I was intriduced to this at Ripon. Wow, WHAT a foul taste!

/alan

PS I know I shouldn't reply to my own posts. But I do want to make it clear that the fact I was in HongKong and China last month has NOTHING to do with the cold I've got now, OKAY????

Hmm careful guys, we'd better clear that stuff out of the sick room and put alan in quarantine...


To answer your question: Honey & Lemon and Potters lozenges.

Merocaine or Merocets, doses of Lemsip.

Also experienced a death in the family during one show week. Thats much worse.

Claire

I get severe asthma and usually it doesn't affect shows. If necessary I go to town on the steroids if I even suspect it might flare up during a show. However, in March I was performing in Pride and Prejudice and I had a one scene part - Darcy's housekeeper. The first night was a nightmare. The asthma flared up without warning and I wasn't quick enough with the tablets. I did my scene completely out of breath and had a coughing fit in the dressing room directly afterwards. To me the out of breath sounded exactly like nerves! I was so glad that I had such a small part.

Jane

We usually keep a box of Altoids to hand. They don't cure anything but you can certainly sing once you've had one....they give you about 15 minutes of clear head on stage!

But I did have a leading man in Return to the Forbidden Planet who had laryngitis. I didn't know what to do, but by the end of the run when his voice was giving up we just happened to have a large group in the audience from Newbury Nomads who had recently done the show (they turned up in costume) and they kindly sang all the words in for us from their seats in the middle of the auditorium!

......and much as I hate people having alcohol ANYWHERE near the stage, or before ANY performance at all - a small glass of port does wonders for a sore throat or a disappearing voice.

QUOTE (Anne-Marie @ Apr 13 2003, 12:53 AM)

......and much as I hate people having alcohol ANYWHERE near the stage, or before ANY performance at all - a small glass of port does wonders for a sore throat or a disappearing voice.

That is indeed a favourite of mine, both for its medicinal effects and the taste!

Curiously, I was once in an amateur musical society ehere, before the opening night, the club President went round every performer and gave each a wee tot of whisky! I have never seen the like, before or since

regards,
/alan

QUOTE (Anne-Marie @ Apr 13 2003, 12:52 AM)

We usually keep a box of Altoids to hand. They don't cure anything but you can certainly sing once you've had one....they give you about 15 minutes of clear head on stage!

..A-M, - That's pure exibitionism - where can i get some??

* wicked grin *

I think a lot of people get a cold in show week as a result of nerves. There's always one person in every society who ALWAYS gets a cold in show week. It's your body's defense mechanism saying, "if you're that nervous about it, don't do it".

I don't suffer from it myself, although I did get a very bad bout of laryngitis two days before my graduation show - probably the worst possible time in the entire life of a performer to get sick. The theatre was full of agents, casting directors, theatre managers, etc, and I had to speak my way through my musical numbers. We were miked, but it was at The Cambridge Theatre in the West End, which is HUUUUGE!

I must have pulled it off though, cos I got a call from an agent who wanted to sign me up the next day.

A word of warning - don't take anything which numbs your throat - you'll do even more damage if you can't feel the pain. This includes chloraseptic sprays, Victory V's and merocaine lozenges.

Gargle with cider vinegar if you suffer from cattargh, and suck on vocalzones, or take a sip of port before going on stage.

When I did my first principal part (and this was only my second show EVER) I had a bad bout of tonsillitis and was only able to croak. The lib sounded great - husky and sexy - the songs sounded DREADFUL. Viewing the video afterwards was only when I realised just how dreadful I sounded. The poor audience. I wish now the decision had been taken to either cut my songs or having someone sing backstage to me miming (I have known other societies do this).

And let me tell you, when you lose your voice like this NOTHING gets it back. I tried port (warmed up and cold), cider vinegar (warmed up and cold - vile stuff!), Halls mentholyptus, Vocalzones, Strepsils, various cough linctuses, THE WORKS! Nothing even came close.

Needless to say these days I am VERY careful about protecting my health before a show - and particularly one in which I'm going to be singing. For a month beforehand I take vitamin supplements and also drink more Vitamin C and avoid anyone with a cold as if they had the plague.

QUOTE (Maureen @ Apr 14 2003, 12:37 PM)

When I did my first principal part (and this was only my second show EVER) I had a bad bout of tonsillitis and was only able to croak. The lib sounded great - husky and sexy - the songs sounded DREADFUL. Viewing the video afterwards was only when I realised just how dreadful I sounded. The poor audience. I wish now the decision had been taken to either cut my songs or having someone sing backstage to me miming (I have known other societies do this). And let me tell you, when you lose your voice like this NOTHING gets it back. I tried port (warmed up and cold), cider vinegar (warmed up and cold - vile stuff!), Halls mentholyptus, Vocalzones, Strepsils, various cough linctuses, THE WORKS! Nothing even came close. Needless to say these days I am VERY careful about protecting my health before a show - and particularly one in which I'm going to be singing. For a month beforehand I take vitamin supplements and also drink more Vitamin C and avoid anyone with a cold as if they had the plague.

You mean you sing - with those teeth!

On the same lines one of our principals was taken into hospital the day before our last performance of our pantomime a few years ago.. we didn't have understudies.. we just had a group member wearing a big big big wig with headphones underneath having his lines of the script read to him through the WHOLE show!!!
It was amazing how it worked... considering we were so worried - and no one in the audience admitted to realising what had gone on!!!

We've used recordings of Singing in the past, when one of our principals couldn't make a show and the understudy wasn't a confident singer - and again you could hardly tell the difference

The show must go on afterall!!

I remember doing a school production of "A Winter's Tale" (must be 21+ years ago now).

One of the leads broke his leg playing football on the day of the first night, so an understudy was hastily recruited. He decided the character would always have a guitar slung round his neck, and sellotaped the lines to each scene to the top of the guitar. He carried it off with such aplomb (I love that word!) that only a few of the audience realised he was reading his lines.

We were convinced he was going to become a great actor one day. His name was Jude Durr. He didn't make it big, but his younger brother (who was one of the "3 gentlemen" alongside me) DID. His name is Jason Durr, and he plays Mike Bradley in Heartbeat!

The last time I saw Jason he was playing Malcolm in the Scottish play at the RSC with Derek Jacobi in the title role. It was about 3 years later he got the part in Heartbeat.