I have a great interest in the kind of theatrical jobs for actors that don't involve performing in shows that you or I might ever see…industrial shows, national tours of small towns, cruises, theater camps, etc. I once dated a lady who made a very decent living singing musical comedy without ever doing so in a big city or in the same place for very long. As long as she didn't yearn to be home, she could be acting and singing on a stage in front of happy audiences for 6-8 shows a week and the paychecks were fine.
"I wouldn't work anywhere near that much if I tried living in New York and getting into Broadway shows," she explained to me. "I also wouldn't be singing leads." She told me that if I wanted to see her in a show, it was easy. All I had to do was go to Puerto Rico during the ten days her touring company would be there before heading for the Dominican Republic. I told her Anaheim was about my limit which might have something to do with the fact that I haven't seen or heard from this woman since 1997.
A lot of such performers do tours of Japan, sometimes in a show called Disney on Classic. When there isn't a pandemic, it roams about that country, a few nights here, a few nights there with English-speaking singers from New York vocalizing from the Disney Songbook with a Japan-based 60-piece symphony orchestra before usually-packed houses for tours of four-to-six months.
We have below a two-hour example from 2017 which I enjoyed kind of half-watching as I did my taxes. Every so often, one number was so good, I gave it my non-binary attention. There's probably a certain age when kids who know most of these songs would be mesmerized by this show and if it were playing nearby live, I think I'd go see it.
The singers are — I copied this from the end credits — Lawson Young, Patton Chandler, Mara Jill Herman, Charis Vaughn, Steve Markarian, David Wiens, Maigan Kennedy and Rob Hancock. They're all pretty terrific with ample solos with which to shine. The performers seem to change from year to year and I bet if I post this, I'll hear from someone who did one of these tours who'll tell me more about what it's like to be part of one. Maybe I'll even hear from that lady who dumped me last century. She was more than good enough to be in this…
