Understudy Up for 'Shaggs'

Understudying is among the most thankless jobs in the theater--until you get to go on.

"It's something I really enjoy," said Elizabeth Tobias, who's understudying all the women's roles in the new musical "The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World," about the best worst rock band in history. "You get the rush of opening-night adrenaline that you can rely on to get you through. Also you get to be the fabulous pinch hitter, and do one or two adrenaline-push performances, and everyone thanks you. You don't get that when you do the whole run of a show."

She was on for two performances this past weekend in the supporting role of the Shaggs' put-upon mother -- guaranteed stage time she knew was coming when she signed on, because Laura Lamson, who usually plays the part, had a prior commitment. Tobias said also she's preparing for the possibility that star Hedy Burress may get a film job she can't turn down. The three leads are "really committed to these parts and to this production," though, and she could see them missing performances only "if somone gets deathly ill or they get a phone call from Spielberg."

Tobias is a regular L.A. theatre actor and producer, but by day she runs a children's theatre company as well as the "classroom enrichment" programs for the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, where she's also worked as an actress (and an understudy). "Enrichment" doesn't refer to her bottom line. "The only thing that pays less than acting is teaching," she joked. "I made more money on a Siemens cell phone commercial I did last year that aired only in Britain than I did the whole year teaching."

But having a day job that's at least related to her performing is a plus -- and there may be some truth to the notion that the more work you do, the more comes to you. She's started to "cook" a little more, as she put it, with on-camera bookings for commercials and episodic roles.

They say you've got to be ready when opportunity knocks. Maybe this is why Tobias doesn't mind understudying: What better practice for the everyday life of the L.A. actor than to always be waiting for the call that offers the job that starts right away?