Putting together a Broadway show is a collaborative process, one that involves cooperation between producers, directors, designers, choreographers, and performers, among others. The unsung heroes of many Broadway productions are those performers who rarely, if ever, get a chance to grace the stage, but who are always ready when needed. These include understudies, alternates, standbys, and swings. Understudies and alternates typically replace principal cast members due to injury, illness, or prior commitments. Standbys are similar, but unlike alternates are required to attend every performance in case they’re needed mid-show.
Swings, meanwhile, have similar responsibilities as understudies, but are replacements for ensemble performers. In January 2016, the Actors’ Equity Association honored some of the hardest-working performers on Broadway when it created the National Swing Day campaign. A decade later, here is a list of some of the most notable performers who launched their Broadway careers in swing roles.
Jonathan Groff
Jonathan Groff is a distinguished theater and TV/film actor who in 2024 won the Best Actor in a Musical Tony for Merrily We Roll Along. He has also appeared in series such as Glee and Mindhunter. He was also the voice of Sven and Kristoff in Disney’s Frozen franchise. On Broadway, he most recently starred as singer-songwriter Bobby Darin in Just in Time. His prior credits include Hamilton (2015) and Spring Awakening (2006). Groff received Best Actor in a Musical Tony nominations for Just in Time and Spring Awakening, and a Best Featured Actor in a Musical nomination for Hamilton.
Before his breakout performance in Spring Awakening, Groff made his Broadway debut as a swing on In My Life (2005), which, according to Playbill, “is generally regarded as one of the strangest shows ever to have graced a Broadway stage.” He later served as dance captain and was also an understudy for two principal performers.
Norbert Leo Butz
A two-time Tony winner, Norbert Leo Butz has 16 Broadway credits to his name, including, most recently, My Fair Lady (2018), in which he played Alfred P. Doolittle. He received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and Chita Rivera Awards nomination for Outstanding Male Dancer in a Broadway Show for that performance. Butz also earned a Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony nomination for Thou Shalt Not (2001), his first time in a principal role. He won the Best Actor in a Musical Tony for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005) and Catch Me if You Can (2011).
Butz is also an Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Drama Desk Award, and Astaire Awards winner. He began his Broadway career as a swing on Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Rent (1996), which had more than 5,000 performances until closing in 2008. Butz was also an understudy and replacement for the Roger Davis character.
Kate Baldwin
A two-time Tony nominee, Kate Baldwin joined the cast of the 1996 revival of Chicago, the second-longest running production in Broadway history, as a replacement for Roxie Hart in November 2025. She made her Broadway debut across the street from the Ambassador Theater, home to Chicago, as a swing in The Full Monty (2000).
Baldwin subsequently appeared in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002) and Wonderful Town (2003) before earning her first Tony nomination for Finian’s Rainbow (2009). She also starred in Big Fish (2013) and Hello, Dolly! (2017), the latter of which earned her a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Joshua Henry
Celebrated for his powerful vocals and stage presence, Joshua Henry made his Broadway debut as a swing in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights (2008). He was also part of the ensemble and an understudy for the Benny character. Henry has since appeared in more than a dozen other Broadway productions, including Porgy and Bess (2012), Carousel (2018), and Into the Woods (2022).
Henry has earned two Best Actor in a Musical Tony nominations (Carousel and The Scottsboro Boys) and was nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Violet (2014). He won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for the off-Broadway show The Wrong Man (2020) and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Into the Woods.
Donna Murphy
A veteran stage performer and familiar character actor in TV and films, Donna Murphy has had a decades-long career that includes Broadway productions like The King and I (1996), The People in the Picture (2011), and Hello, Dolly! (2017). Her TV credits include popular shows like All My Children, Another World, and The Practice. She is currently part of the main cast of HBO’s The Gilded Age.
Murphy debuted on Broadway as a swing in the Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch, and Carole Bayer Sager musical They’re Playing Our Song (1979). She later won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for Passion (1994) and The King and I, while also receiving nominations for Wonderful Town (2004), LoveMusik (2007), and The People in the Picture.