stage manager

Ken Davis, the tour’s production stage manager, takes in the well-orchestrated chaos with a smile, gesturing at the massive props that occupy every possible nook and cranny in the wings.

Adler worked as a stage manager, supervisor and director on more than 50 Broadway productions - after being offered his first job by his father, who worked in the industry, while at university.

By the 1980s, he had moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his children and found steady work in daytime television as a stage manager.

There is an electric moment between the time a stage manager calls “places” and the curtain rises, Torres says.

"We call it the Formula 1 tyre change," says Richard van Rouwendaal, the affable Dutch stage manager who makes it all work.