Swing! The Broadway Savior

What does it take to step onstage with minutes—or sometimes seconds—to spare and perform a role you may not have played in weeks, months, or ever in front of an audience?

Welcome to the world of the Broadway swing.

In this episode of Stay Booked on Broadway with Zurin, we pull back the curtain on one of theater’s most demanding, underappreciated, and absolutely essential jobs. A great swing isn’t simply someone who knows the choreography. They are part athlete, part archivist, part detective, and part superhero—ready to jump into multiple tracks without missing a beat.

Zurin shares her own unforgettable swing moment from The Book of Mormon, when a split-second adjustment from swing and dance captain Colin Bradbury kept a complicated finale moving seamlessly. She also recounts the terrifying reality of covering multiple tracks in Mean Girls, where confusing one character’s choreography for another’s could have meant a collision onstage.

Then, Colin joins the conversation to reveal what separates a good swing from an indispensable one.

We get into the real secrets of learning and retaining multiple tracks, staying sharp when you aren't performing, building trust with stage management, taking notes you may not be able to practice immediately, staying organized, and surviving those moments when everything goes sideways onstage.

And because being a swing is only part of Colin’s story, we’re also going deep on the Dance Captain role: the show book, rehearsal-room leadership, giving—and receiving—notes, communicating with creatives, maintaining authority while remaining part of the company, and what it really takes to keep an entire production moving at its best.

This is an honest, funny, behind-the-scenes look at the people who make Broadway’s impossible moments look effortless.

Because when the pressure is on, the best swing doesn't just know the steps. They know the show.

🎭 Swing! The Broadway Savior

Stay Booked on Broadway with Zurin

Be indispensable—with grace and style.