That Tall Blonde at the Callback — Take That Final Bow, Ladies
We all crave status, right? Everyone wants to feel like they are valued and admired. In business, you get fancy titles, more money and corner offices. In the theatre we get (if you are lucky) a nicer spot in the dressing room, you move the scenery a little less than others and you get the most visible perk — a later bow.
Bows are full of long-held theatre traditions. It’s not just a moment of glory for the actor — it’s the opportunity for the audience to show their appreciation for each of the performances, and for the actor to in turn thank the audience for being there. Typically blocked only a day or two before opening night, usually around midnight following a long dress rehearsal, running the bows signals to the cast and team, “whew — we’ve made it to this point, and we are ready for an audience”. It’s a moment when you get there!
Even casual theater-goers have probably noticed that when the cast comes out to bow, it’s always in reverse hierarchical order. That “status” thing I mentioned earlier. Ensemble roles first, followed by supporting characters, and last of all the leads, with the “main lead” (the character who is most central to the story) getting the final bow and often leading the rest of the cast in the full company bow. Often actors are paired up in this process, as it makes the bows run more quickly to group people up logically. However, that means “couples” often bow together, with the woman always bowing first, followed by the man. This practice is viewed as polite and chivalrous to the woman (like letting her go through the door first) but within this hierarchical format it actually results in men consistently getting the final places of honor over their female counterparts, which is a tiny bit irksome. Granted, there are MUCH bigger challenges facing theatre and this isn’t that huge a deal, but it’s part of a somewhat larger problem.
It is a goal for many actors (particularly women) to secure a “final bow” role as kind of an “I have arrived!” moment. I love the interview with Angela Lansbury, where she says she truly felt like “wow — I have arrived!” when the billboards for Mame put her name ABOVE the title of the show. Mame is certainly a final bow role if there ever was one. Unfortunately, there are still quite a LOT fewer female final bow roles. On Broadway, women had only 37% of the 233 principal roles in the 30 new shows mounted last season, according to the organization ProductionPro (which provides a bunch of interesting “Broadway by the numbers” stats). In my own audition data, the shows I went out for had a female “final bow” role less than 45% of the time, and I actually think that’s artificially high, because I purposefully seek out female-driven shows for which to audition. So it’s quite a lofty goal in the better community theatres to nab that final bow role — probably on par with nabbing a local theatre award like a Shellie, TBA or Critics Circle award. I’ve been “female lead” a few times, but only “final bow” status once — as Sandy in Grease in my high school years. But even then (if I remember correctly — it was a REALLY long time ago), I’m pretty sure I bowed in a couple with Danny Zuko, and that he actually got the final solo bow, even though the story arc is undoubtedly Sandy’s. I’m not saying that in every situation we should break up couple groupings, but I’d love to see more directors consider it — perhaps it’s a tiny way we keep working at the larger issue of featuring women equally.
My current show, Company, is full of married couples, and each couple is practically a character in of itself in this show. Therefore, it’s right on point for each couple to bow as a unit. I can’t imagine it otherwise. But for practically every other show, I think you can mix things up a bit more, and it certainly wouldn’t take that much extra time to have Danny enter and bow alone, followed closely by Sandy with her final solo bow. Likewise with secondary lead roles. Let’s take Sophie in Mamma Mia (since it’s being done at 5 billion theatres this year). Should she bow as a couple with her fiancé Sky? Sophie is a WAY larger, more central role than Sky. Why not instead group Sophie with her two best girlfriends — giving her the final bow in the trio — or even better, make the final grouping Sophie and her mother Donna. Sophie takes first bow, and Donna (undoubtedly a final bow role) gets the place of honor, then they join their “men”. After all, this show really is all about the women. Certainly do NOT have Donna bow with Sam and give him the final bow in a show where he is — at most — a supporting character. Makes sense, right?
And I certainly hope the larger issue is being looked at too. Artistic Directors — are you looking at how many stories are female-led vs. male-led in your seasons? The percentage of speaking roles available to men vs. those available to women? The percentage of roles specifically written for POC? I really hope so! Keep chipping away at it.
