Actor Hugh Jackman closed out a Broadway performance this week with an impassioned tribute to the understudies and "swings" who must step in to perform on a moment's notice.
"It humbles me," Jackman, 53, told the audience during a curtain call Thursday night after a performance of "The Music Man" at New York City's Winter Garden Theater, where he is starring as con man Harold Hill.
"The courage, the brilliance, the dedication, the talent," he said. "The swings, the understudies, they are the bedrock of Broadway."
Jackman's speech came after his costar, Sutton Foster, tested positive for Covid-19 and was unable to portray librarian Marian Paroo, a lead role in the classic musical about a hustler who poses as a boys' band leader to make money, planning to skip town.
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