You say "still" as if it's already been discussed that she is. Since when has her departure been a known fact?
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
I've read the playbill article in question and I can find no mention of her stating an intention to leave at all. See the link below. Link
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Actually she has mentioned in several interviews that her contract is up in September. I have heard that several other cast members were contracted through September as well. Of course, since the show is doing so well and there's good money to be made through the holiday season, it is quite possible that some of them may choose to extend through the end of the year. But I agree, replacing this cast will be challenging!
I remember that Gavin Creel had a short contract (initially) for Hair. He then re-negotiated a (much) higher salary after it was proven that the show had legs and would be bringing in money.
I wonder if this is a similar thing: to give the actors a chance to increase their salary now that the show has proven its success.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
I totally second Jackie Hoffman. She was the first person I thought of too. She was a riot and totally memorable in the smaller role of Grandma in the Addams Family. She'd be perfect in another sassy, funny, sexy grandma role!
Mary Testa played the role recently in a regional production in Kansas City. She would be an interesting choice.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body