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Several things - he MUST get to an EENT - only way to know definitively if he's strained the voice or not. Complete non-use of the voice is imperative if it's to improve - and then only using it VERY VERY cautiously at all to get it back slowly. I once did a MUSICAL of all things - The Secret Garden - playing Archie. And if you know that show, the music is insanely tough on the lead characters - beautiful, but tough stuff. I mean, come on, Mandy Patinkin did it on Broadway....not that HE is the end all, but he certainly has the chops. AT any rate, the first weekend was amazingly good for me - top form, powerhouse voice, etc. BUT the Lily character wound up with layrngitis and while she was able to get past it relatively ok, still fought it.
Fast forward, the second weekend - I got laryngitis. Trouble was we did Thursday through Sunday shows the second week. Thursday was rough, but I got through it, Friday improved a bit but it was weak, Saturday gave me hope that I might get past it. SUNDAY - I could hardly talk at all. THANK GOD the director was also a very good singer as well. And it's the ONLY TIME I have ever done this but I lip-synced all the songs (yes, Milli-Vanilli) while the director sang the songs from the pit. Dialouge I could muscle through - couldn't sing a note one!!! SCARY at least. But we got it done and MOST people I must tell you didn't know.
Moral to the story - I think I blew the pipes with that show which has been about 7 years ago because I can hardly sing anymore at all. I've lost the top end (I was a uber-high dramatic tenor voice) and the voice has dropped almost an octave overall - such that most people think I'm a baritone now. And for the last 40 years I've been a top-end tenor. CANNOT even come close anymore. Heck my audition song that people dubbed "mine" was Bring Him Home from Les Miz. BUT I DID NOT go to the doctor - which was the biggest mistake of my life. GET YOUR ACTOR TO AN EAR, NOSE and THROAT SPECIALIST ASAP if you can. ONLY way I think they're ever going to improve. And yes, I've been in shows where another actress - with great help from the rest of the cast - took over for an actress who contracted pnuemonia and used the script. However it was so artfully done that it was not a distraction and the audience knew what was going on and actually were most gracious and STILL loved the show. But to lip-sync dialogue is NOT normally done. We only dealt with the songs I had to sing when I lost my voice (first time ever in over 45 years that's ever happened). But we didn't sync the dialogue - I still muscled through that. If it can be done and be point perfect - that is no-one has slightly even altered the dialogue then maybe you can get by it. Actually as I recall now - I think that happened in one song - I was singing along - well MOUTHING along - and realized I wasn't (and hadn't been) singing the right words because for a line or two they didn't quite mesh. Luckily still most people never caught that. How funny it was that people came up to me afterwards and said how much they liked my singing. HAHA!! HAD to laugh at that and the director got a kick out of it because it was HIM doing the singing.
SHOULD it be done? Well if you have NO other possible way you can try the lip-syncing and see what it looks like. In 16 days they MIGHT have enough time to get it pretty tight. Could work if there are absolutely NO hiccups!! BUT I STILL suggest getting your actor to a doctor who can make a real assessment of what's gone/going wrong that prevents them from having their voice. Medications can help - NON USE is better. IF IT IS laryngitis - that can pass in a few days with complete non-use or it can hang on for weeks. And given that you have 16 days you do have some room to work out alternatives.
Good luck and I hope it works for you how ever you make it work.
TonyDi
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"Almost famous"
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