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[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome, I'm Mo Brady.

[0:29] Mo Brady: Understudies are required to replicate another actor's performance, knowing exactly where they move and how they move there. They must have the bravado to lead a show, but also the humbleness to know they are merely standing in for another artist. They're asked to jump onto the moving train that is a Broadway musical and make sure it doesn't come to a screeching halt. Or that a wheelchair carrying Nessa Rose falls into the orchestra pit. What can make this challenge all the more daunting is when you're joining a long-running show as an understudy, as was the case with today's guest, Jeff Heimbrock. For more than two years, he's performed in the show's ensemble while covering the role of Boq. I was curious about the challenges of bringing yourself to a character that has almost sixteen years of history baked into its movements, vocals, and inflections, especially one that he only goes on for sporadically. Here's our conversation.

[1:24] Mo Brady: Hi. Will you introduce yourself and tell us what neighborhood of New York City you live in?

[1:38] Jeff Heimbrock: Oh, wow. I am Jeff Heimbrock. I live in Washington Heights right now.

[1:43] Mo Brady: And what's your job?

[1:44] Jeff Heimbrock: I am in the ensemble of Wicked on Broadway, and I understudy Boq, and I get to do that a couple times a year.

[1:52] Mo Brady: Couple times a year?

[1:53] Jeff Heimbrock: Yeah, more or less. It depends.

[1:54] Mo Brady: Okay. All right. We'll come to that later. When you started with Wicked, how long ago was that?

[1:59] Jeff Heimbrock: That was almost two and a half years ago.

[2:01] Mo Brady: And how much of your audition process was for the Boq understudy versus your ensemble track that you normally do?

[2:07] Jeff Heimbrock: It was pretty much all Boq.

[2:10] Jeff Heimbrock: And then they had us do one little ensemble vocal thing to make sure that you could sing, because it's also a tenor one, which is very challenging.

[2:17] Jeff Heimbrock: Stephen Aremus, man.

[2:18] Mo Brady: Stephen Aremus, yes. My second time.

[2:21] Mo Brady: Okay. So how many auditions was it?

[2:23] Jeff Heimbrock: I read once, and then I danced, and that was it.

[2:26] Mo Brady: Well, good for you, Jeff.

[2:29] Jeff Heimbrock: But they film you, so they can review the tapes. And I had been in for it before, a couple months before.

[2:37] Mo Brady: When you joined the company, so quickly, how soon into the process were you learning your understudy responsibilities?

[2:45] Jeff Heimbrock: It was pretty fast, because my ensemble track is very minimal stage time. I have a lot of offstage singing and sort of bit parts and things like that, but it's not a lot of onstage movement, I guess.

[2:51] Jeff Heimbrock: So I learned the show in about two days.

[3:01] Mo Brady: Oh, my gosh.

[3:02] Jeff Heimbrock: And then once I went in to that track, we started doing Boq, which took maybe like a week.

[3:09] Mo Brady: And this is, how long are we into Wicked's run?

[3:12] Jeff Heimbrock: 16 years.

[3:13] Mo Brady: So your track is like, they really do singer and dancer tracks over there, right?

[3:18] Jeff Heimbrock: Yes.

[3:21] Mo Brady: And this is a track that always covers Boq.

[3:23] Jeff Heimbrock: Yes.

[3:23] Jeff Heimbrock: Yes.

[3:24] Mo Brady: Since the very beginning.

[3:28] Mo Brady: So you started learning Boq very, very quickly. And who's teaching you?

[3:31] Jeff Heimbrock: It's mainly the dance captains who are teaching you.

[3:34] Jeff Heimbrock: And the stage manager will be there sometimes, too.

[3:38] Mo Brady: So even with parts that aren't dance, the dance captains are still teaching it to you?

[3:39] Mo Brady: Is there anyone from the music department there in the room?

[3:41] Jeff Heimbrock: Yeah.

[3:41] Jeff Heimbrock: We do music rehearsals separately with just you and probably the associate and just kind of sing through. The good thing about Boq is that most of it is on the album. So I already kind of, you know, have been practicing since I was very young.

[3:53] Mo Brady: You had heard it before.

[3:54] Jeff Heimbrock: Yeah.

[3:56] Mo Brady: Wicked is an anomaly in the sort of theater real estate space because they have a rehearsal studio, right?

[4:02] Jeff Heimbrock: Yes.

[4:04] Mo Brady: You guys have a rehearsal studio in the building. Tell us, where is that?

[4:07] Jeff Heimbrock: It's on the, I want to say fifth floor. I could be making that up.

[4:11] Jeff Heimbrock: It's on the fourth floor.

[4:12] Mo Brady: Okay. It is right above the Deliman Wizard Boq Nessa dressing rooms.

[4:17] Jeff Heimbrock: Okay.

[4:18] Mo Brady: And it's a beautiful studio. It's perfect for rehearsals. And it's also really nice to have that space to like warm up. And we'll do some sort of like, we have individual projects like choreography or film a scene or rehearse something. You can go up there and they'll let you use the space as long as you let somebody know. It's a really great resource.

[4:36] Mo Brady: And is that where the dance captains and stage manager were teaching you Boq or?

[4:40] Jeff Heimbrock: Yeah.

[4:41] Mo Brady: Okay.

[4:42] Jeff Heimbrock: Yeah.

[4:43] Mo Brady: All right. So when was the first time you hit the stage?

[4:45] Jeff Heimbrock: Went on stage and kind of ran through it. And then I did an understudy rehearsal. So you run through the entire show, just a piano, no set, no costumes or anything or lighting or anything, but you get to map out the blocking of the stage on the actual stage, which is so helpful. And all the wheelchair, I got the wheelchairography. So I could do that with Nessa because that is scary.

[5:03] Mo Brady: Oh, that's a, yeah. A technical part. I never thought about that.

[5:06] Jeff Heimbrock: Yeah. It's very scary. When they're dancing together in the party scene, he pushes her all the way downstage. And if you go a little too far, she is going right into the orchestra pit. So you have to, so it's always a little scary when I do it again.

[5:22] Mo Brady: Were you rehearsing with other actors then?

[5:25] Jeff Heimbrock: Yeah.

[5:26] Mo Brady: Okay. And understudies or standbys?

[5:28] Jeff Heimbrock: Usually the standbys or understudies, they kind of switch every other rehearsal. They'll call different people depending on who's maybe on that week and they try not to put too much workload on one person.

[5:40] Mo Brady: And how far into that process did you get to put in?

[5:42] Jeff Heimbrock: It was pretty soon. I mean, I started learning it and then I think she wanted me to go in as soon as I could. So I had-

[5:48] Mo Brady: Who is she?

[5:49] Jeff Heimbrock: The stage manager.

[5:50] Mo Brady: Okay.

[5:51] Jeff Heimbrock: I had a really nice timing of it all because there were personal days that the Boq at the time had put in for. So it all kind of lined up perfectly that I could know when I was going on. It wasn't, my first time wasn't going to be some surprise last minute. And that was really, really nice. And weirdly, I had already bought tickets for my mom and my niece to see the show because it was during Thanksgiving break for them. And so they'd already had house seats just to see me and the show as I do every night. And then it just turned out that that was going to be my first time on as Boq. That was so exciting.

[6:27] Mo Brady: And I didn't tell them.

[6:28] Jeff Heimbrock: Until they got to the theater?

[6:29] Mo Brady: They just sat down in the theater and opened their playbills and my niece was like, "Mimi, Mimi, look."

[6:35] Jeff Heimbrock: That is really cool. When our book writer was there, when it was there that night, that was, I didn't know that until afterward. Thank God. But she was like, "Great show." I was like, "Well, that's the first time I've ever done it." And I blacked out, but thank you.

[6:47] Mo Brady: Did you feel like you blacked out in the first one?

[6:49] Jeff Heimbrock: Yeah. I mean, I think that's kind of like an old adage that people don't remember their first time doing it. Because it's so, such a weird situation because you're kind of so focused on where you are and it's just, the show is just happening and it's flying by and then it's over and you somehow survived. But I think a lot of people don't say they don't remember.

[7:09] Mo Brady: Is there anything like the wheelchair about the Boq track that's like deceptively difficult?

[7:15] Jeff Heimbrock: There's some costume pieces that I have to wear that are a little just kind of unusual that you have to get used to.

[7:22] Mo Brady: How do you get used to them if you only do them every so often?

[7:26] Jeff Heimbrock: You don't.

[7:27] Mo Brady: You don't.

[7:28] Jeff Heimbrock: Okay. Yeah. You don't. Every time I go on again, it's kind of, it feels like the first time. If you're in a vacation situation or if someone's out for a weekend, it's so nice to have three or four in a row because then you really feel, by the end of that, you kind of, okay, I can actually act now instead of, am I in the right spot? Did I remember this prop? Is Nessa in the orchestra pit? And to kind of like ground yourself and say, okay, I can actually, my mind can relax enough that I can enjoy this process and kind of actually respond to people.

[8:01] Mo Brady: So how soon after you joined the show was this Thanksgiving surprise Winnie Holzman performance?

[8:07] Jeff Heimbrock: End of September is when I started and then mid-November.

[8:12] Mo Brady: How many times do you think you've gone on? Do you know?

[8:16] Jeff Heimbrock: I don't know. I want to say twenty-five.

[8:17] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Welcome to The Ensemblist, where we celebrate the performances and careers of ensemble performers on Broadway.

[8:42] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Today, we’re diving into the world of understudies, particularly focusing on the unique challenges they face in long-running shows.

[9:12] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Understudies are required to replicate another actor’s performance, knowing exactly where they move and how they move there.

[9:42] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: They must have the bravado to lead a show, but also the humbleness to know they are merely standing in for another artist.

[10:07] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Joining us today is Jeff Heimbrock, who has spent over two years in the ensemble of Wicked while covering the role of Boq.

[10:37] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: I was curious about the challenges of bringing yourself to a character that has almost 16 years of history baked into its movements, vocals, and inflections, especially one that he only goes on for sporadically.

[11:02] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Let’s jump into our conversation with Jeff.

[11:22] **Jeff Heimbrock**: Thanks for having me! It’s great to be here.

[11:42] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: So, Jeff, can you tell us about your experience stepping into the role of Boq?

[12:11] **Jeff Heimbrock**: Absolutely! It’s been an incredible journey. When I first joined the ensemble, I was excited but also a bit intimidated by the legacy of the role.

[12:41] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: That makes sense. How do you approach learning a character that has been portrayed by others for so long?

[13:01] **Jeff Heimbrock**: It’s all about finding a balance between honoring the previous performances and bringing my own interpretation to the character.

[13:21] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Have you had any memorable experiences while performing as Boq?

[13:41] **Jeff Heimbrock**: Definitely! Each time I go on, I try to find something new in the character, which keeps it fresh for me and the audience.

[14:01] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: That’s a great approach. What do you think is the most challenging aspect of being an understudy?

[14:21] **Jeff Heimbrock**: The unpredictability can be tough. You have to stay ready at all times, and sometimes you only get a few hours' notice before going on.

[14:41] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: That must be quite the adrenaline rush!

[15:01] **Jeff Heimbrock**: It really is! But it’s also a huge responsibility to step in and keep the show running smoothly.

[15:21] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: Thank you for sharing your insights, Jeff. It’s fascinating to hear about your journey.

[15:41] **Jeff Heimbrock**: Thank you! I appreciate the opportunity to talk about it.

[16:01] **The Ensemblist & Broadway Podcast Network**: And thank you to our listeners for joining us today on The Ensemblist. We’ll see you next time!