BackStage: Taking Your Voice on the Road

By Michael Goodrich
Singers and actors are expected to be at peak vocal performance every day, regardless of their punishing eight-show-a-week schedule. It’s hard enough when you’re playing the same theatre in the same city. But what happens when you take the show on the road? Whether in a musical or a play, vocal challenges on tour are greatly multiplied. Performers must contend with everything from climate changes to jet lag. Extra rehearsals, moving in and out of theatres, and ever-changing living situations all create their own problems.

Taylor Sternberg is a young actor with one of the toughest jobs in the business: He’s a swing in the first national tour of Jersey Boys, still one of Broadway’s hottest tickets. A swing is required to know multiple roles and be prepared to perform each one at a moment’s notice. Sternberg is swinging four roles, including Frankie Valli, one of the show’s leads, which he has performed many times. I asked him about the vocal challenges he’s encountered on the road. “I’d say the biggest thing is going from climate to climate,” he says. “Singing in Arizona is going to be different than singing in Florida. In Florida you walk outside and it’s a personal humidifier 24/7, whereas you go to Arizona and it’s very dry; you have to stay hydrated all the time. You’ve got to be protective of your voice and your health. You only get a certain number of sick days. You’re a product, and you’ve got to take care of that product. I travel with a humidifier, and I’ve been really liking the saline nasal sprays.”

Being a swing on the road also carries with it a whole new perspective. “One of the biggest things for me, especially because I don’t do eight shows a week, is the stamina training,” Sternberg says. “That really keeps me there, so that I can be on the same level as people who do eight shows a week. I keep my heart rate up in case when I have to go on, I’m not dragging everybody else down — I’m hitting the ground running.” Approaching his 500th show, Sternberg still exercises diligently by running and working out: “Finding a gym in each city can be a task in itself. How do you maintain your body for 500 shows? You’ve got to be in shape.”

Maintaining a solid vocal technique can be more challenging on the road. Performers who take regular voice lessons are often far from their teacher. Sternberg’s solution is to “take phone lessons from my teacher in Los Angeles, because he knows my voice and I trust his judgment.” The actor views himself as “any athlete that needs to keep himself in shape.”

Bus and Truckered Out

Gil Darnell, an actor who performed for nine months throughout the U.K. in The Real Monty, a play by Michael Rattigan based on the film The Full Monty, had another challenge. “We were playing to houses that varied in size from 450 to 2,500 people, which is quite large for a straight play,” Darnell says, “and most of the time without sound enhancement. The real problem was projecting over 2,500 women screaming, ‘Get your gear off!’” He often found himself staying in a bed-and-breakfast on the coast of England. It sounds luxurious but was not without its challenges: “I would go back to the B-and-B after the show to rest, but my roommate would go out and party and come back at 1 in the morning and open the window. It was freezing. I’d need my warm lemon water in the morning just to get my voice going.”

The length of time a show spends in a single theatre varies. Jersey Boys has had some three-week runs and a six-month run. Non-Equity stays are usually shorter, and some tours move quickly from place to place, leaving little time to settle in. Darnell says his U.K. tour was “in a different place every week, sometimes two a week.”

Nonunion tours pose additional issues. With the tour having less money to spend, the accommodations can take some getting used to, as well as the lengthy bus rides. The environment changes with each location; not only is the city different, but the quality of the theatre and the housing can vary greatly. Air conditioning can play a big part in drying out the voice and creating problems, and allergies can act up in response to dusty theatres or new environmental conditions.

And unless your per diem allows you to stay in an apartment, condo, or nice hotel, you’re pretty much relegated to eating in the local restaurants, whose cuisine varies from place to place. Strange foods can have a negative effect on the voice, says Jen Talton, currently playing Mimi in the non-Equity national tour of Rent: “I have acid reflux, which is really hard, especially when you can’t have a consistent diet.” When you eat is also a problem, she says: “You’re trying not to eat late at night, but you’re getting out of a show and you’re starving, so you do — and that affects your voice.”

Indeed, Talton thinks “the worst thing about tours is you’re never on the same schedule, especially on a non-Equity tour.” But that’s not all. “You’re constantly around people, so you’re always talking — your voice doesn’t really ever get any rest. Buses are dry and cold and dusty, and if you have any allergies, of course that’s going to affect your voice. You’re going to old theatres, which are dusty, dry. The temperature is always different in every theatre — either way too hot or way too cold. You have no one to teach you, so when your voice starts to get tired — I know for me, I have to make sure old habits don’t kick in. You don’t have anybody to keep you in check.”

The most important thing when on tour is to take good care of yourself physically and mentally. As Sternberg says, “I feel that your soul very much affects how your voice is going to do. If you’re a happy camper, you’re going to sing better than if you’re miserable.”

Tips for your Voice and Well-Being When You’re On the Road

Stay hydrated—especially when traveling by plane.

If you have special dietary concerns, check ahead of time for markets and restaurants in the area that will have the types of foods you need to stay healthy.

Find a gym if you’re going to be in an area for an extended time.

Take regular phone or webcam lessons with your voice teacher back home.

Always warm up your voice properly.

Keep the partying to a minimum.

Be aware of time zone changes and the potential challenges associated with them.

Get the proper amount of rest.