The Ensemblist

When people say “the show must go on,” Karli Dinardo is one of the people of makes that happen. As a swing and dance captain for Moulin Rouge! The Musical, she covers seven other women in the show. Before making her Broadway debut in the production, she was a swing and dance captain for Hamilton on the road. We asked her into the study to share her most harrowing - and most triumphant - stories of being a superhero swing. Here’s our conversation...

Today’s guest knows a thing or three about covering roles of Broadway. Those three specific things are Otho, Adam and Beetlejuice - all roles he covers in his duties as a swing at the Winter Garden Theatre. Beetlejuice isn’t his first foray into covering leading roles either; He’s been a standby on The Book of Mormon, School of Rock, and understudied Michael Urie in last season’s Torch Song. I wanted to know how he manages to standby for such grueling characters, both living and undead...

Christopher Rice spent more than four years as a swing on the Broadway production of The Book of Mormon, where he covered the seven men in the Mormon ensemble. He’s also toured the country as Baby John in West Side Story and in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Chris has spent this summer as a vacation swing on the soon-to-close Broadway production of Pretty Woman, so we caught him in the middle of his rehearsal process to tell us what the experience has been like.

Gabi Campo made her Broadway debut last season as one of two female swings on The Prom, where she covered the lead roles of Emma and Alyssa as well as all eight ensemble women and their features. A graduate of Pace University, she will be back on Broadway later this season in the upcoming revival of West Side Story.

Eliza Ohman was in the onstage ensemble and assistant dance captain of King Kong on Broadway. Her onscreen credits dancing in Fosse/Verdon and next season’s opening episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. However, her first Broadway job was as a swing on Hamilton. Working as the dance captain and universal swing, she covered the five female ensemble roles in each of the show’s four North American productions of the show for more than a year. Here’s our conversation…