Actor relishes swing role

The YSU graduate has played the role of the Phantom 253 times.
TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK -- James Romick is one of the few actors who doesn't have to worry about job security. A Lake Milton, Ohio, native, Romick has been performing in the Broadway production of "The Phantom of the Opera" for the past 16 years.
"Phantom" will become the longest running show in Broadway history Monday.
The show, which has been on Broadway for almost 18 years, is the most successful entertainment venture of all time, surpassing not only stage productions in box office gross but also the highest-grossing films of all time, "Titanic," "The Lord of the Rings" and "Jurassic Park."
Romick is one of the two male "swings" in "Phantom." Swings fill in for regular actors who cannot perform due to illness, vacation or other reasons.
"I cover all of the men except Piangi, the fat tenor," Romick explained during a phone interview from his New Jersey home. "When you look on stage I could be just about anybody."
Romick has played the role of the Phantom 253 times, making him one of the top 10 actors who have most frequently performed the role on Broadway.
A rarity
Snagging a long-term, well-paying job is a rare event in the life of an actor, according to Romick.
"Our situation here is very, very unusual," he said. "This is not typical of Broadway, of theater or of people in live theater at all. We are very, very fortunate."
Romick said 85 to 90 percent of the members of the Actors' Equity Association, the union that represents professional theater workers, are out of work, and only 5 percent of those people who are working are actually on Broadway.
As a swing, Romick has to know all the parts of those he might fill in for, so it is a little more difficult than having a regular role, but he says he likes it that way.
"The weird thing is I have been doing it for a long time and I sort of have a mind for it. ... I have done one particular role for long stretches, and it's like, 'let me out of here!'"
Romick said there are also long stretches when he does nothing at all but he still has to be at all shows, six days a week, eight shows a week.
YSU graduate
Romick, 49, graduated from Jackson-Milton High School in 1974 and graduated from Youngstown State University, where he studied music, in 1979. He moved to New York in 1980 to pursue a career in theater. Romick and his wife, Liz, live in New Jersey. Romick's mother and brother still live in Lake Milton.
"I was always kind of a show-off. I have a picture that my mother took in 1959 at Christmas of me in my Zorro cape, my mask and my hat with my sword, that I have blown-up, and when I do the Phantom I hang that on the door to give me good luck."
As a youth, Romick performed at the Youngstown Playhouse, Trumbull New Theatre, King's Island Amusement Park and in several high school and YSU plays.
He said landing the part with "Phantom" was a dream come true.
"[Phantom] has afforded me to do a lot of things that I probably never could have done in my lifetime had I not gotten in the show.
It's like any other [job], we just do a different thing than most people do. Our hours are a little different. We continue to have rehearsals and we'll be rehearsing [Monday] morning."
Romick was not certain if he will be in Monday's record-breaking performance.