PHOTO CALL: Off-Broadway’s Bingo Opens with Understudy Stepping-In at Last Minute

By Morgan Allen
November 9, 2005

The new Off-Broadway musical Bingo, which opened on Nov. 7 at the St. Luke’s Theatre, got off to quite a start as understudy J.B. Wing stepped up to the plate and performed one of the lead roles when co-star Liz Larsen was hurt right before curtain.

The show follows three “estranged friends” as they “reunite among the number-calling, strange rituals and fierce competitions of the Bingo game at Hamerin County's St. Luke's Church basement,” according to production notes.

Larsen, one of the show’s leading ladies along with Klea Blackhurst, Janet Metz and Broadway vet Liz McCartney, was injured before the show, forcing understudy Wing to go on in her place for the show’s opening night.

At left, McCartney and former Mamma Mia! co-star Judy McLane, as well as choreographer Lisa Stevens and director Thomas Caruso are seen after the curtain fell. Below, Wing, Metz, Blackhurst, and co-writers Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid are seen at the opening night party for Bingo at B. Smith's on West 46th Street in New York City.

Photos by Aubrey Reuben