Actors being fired / replaced

[Burke4]

Last night I had the chance to see The Standby's. One of the things that stuck out the most to me was (spoiler) Alena Watters being replaced in Bette Midler's Las Vegas show and being offered the swing position, thus firing the current swing, only for them to get rid of her (and the swing position) completely a short time later. What are some other instances where someone has been completely fired from a show or 'down graded' to a lesser role or position that you know of?

[LarryD2]

There are many instances of people being fired/replaced in previews or in rehearsals, but speaking specifically to your question of someone being demoted, one that comes to my mind immediately is Kecia Lewis in SHREK. She was played the role of The Dragon in the musical's out-of-town tryout; between the tryout and Broadway, it was decided that The Dragon would no longer be played by a single actor but would rather be a puppet voiced by the chorus. Lewis was offered a spot in the chorus, but she declined.

[Emmaloucbway]

Jeremy Jordan in Finding Neverland.

[ChrisTyler12882]

Jeffrey Tambor in the most recent revival of La Cage.

[evic]

Natascia Diaz And Solange Sandy in Christina Applegate Sweet Charity revival.

[haterobics]

"Jeremy Jordan in Finding Neverland."

Umm, he was hired to do the out of town preview, and was never fired or replaced the entire time.

[HighFlyingAdored97]

Samantha Hill replacing Charlotte Maltby as Cosette in Les Mis

[ShakinBaconGirl]

- Lupone in Sunset Boulevard.
- Ellen Foley as The witch in Into The Woods
- Kristen Virgard as Annie in Annie
- Jeffrey Tambor in La Cage aux folles
- Erin Dilly in Thoroughly modern Millie.

[evic]

Roger Rees-The Red Shoes
Joanna Pacitti-Annie

[Johnnycantdecide]

Pat Caroll, Erin Dilly. Tony Pinkins, and Jim Stanek all vanished from Throughly Modern Mille.

[LarryD2]

Carolyn Mignini - GUYS AND DOLLS ('92 revival)
Dorothy Loudon - DINNER AT EIGHT
Jack Noseworthy - LESTAT
Jasmine Guy - THE VIOLET HOUR
Mary Tyler Moore - ROSE'S DILEMMA
Annabelle Gurwitch - WRITERS' BLOCK (which inspired her book and documentary FIRED)

[Burke4]

Here's a link to a Barbara Walters episode of Turning Point regarding the firing of Joanna Pacitti from Annie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEp-wtqpwCU

[Burke4]

If memory serves me correctly, wasn't someone fired and replaced by Tory Ross in Cry-Baby?

[Sutton Ross]

Matt Caplan was replaced by Stark Sands when American Idiot went to Broadway.

[haterobics]

I never saw Stark, but Matt was so good. I saw him three times.

[Sutton Ross]

I missed American Idiot completely, wished I could have seen it.

[haterobics]

Check out the Broadway Idiot documentary, you get to see a lot of what it was like... plus, it's a really good doc.

[LizzieCurry]

Pat Caroll, Erin Dilly. Tony Pinkins, and Jim Stanek all vanished from Throughly Modern Mille.


Yeah, but 3 out of the 4 actually made it on stage before an audience in La Jolla.

[Elfuhbuh]

The infamous case of Steve Harley being cast as the title role in Phantom of the Opera, only to have the producers realize that his rocker voice just wasn't working and deciding to cast Michael Crawford instead.

[Emmaloucbway]

haterobics: oops, sorry. Should I delete that post?

Also, how about Craig Bierko in Matilda? Wasn't he fired/replaced?

[Sutton Ross]

No. He got injured.

[Mr Roxy]

Larry Kert replacing Dean Jones who walked away from the original Company.

[Musical Master]

The infamous Faye Dunaway firing of the LA production of SUNSET BOULEVARD is more infuriating and sad than the Patti LuPone scandal.

[loliveve]

"Jeremy Jordan in Finding Neverland."

"Umm, he was hired to do the out of town preview, and was never fired or replaced the entire time."

Actually, apparently he was replaced. Jeremy Jordan was offered the role for the FN workshop "but then they reneged and informed [him] that Matthew Morrison would be doing it. Afterwards, he was offered the out-of-town production at A.R.T. but wasn't guaranteed the Broadway production."


Jordan replaced by Morrison

[LarryD2]

Dunaway never should have been hired in the first place. They set her up for failure, then blamed her when she failed. As it was with Patti's firing, it was a very poorly handled situation.

(The first person who was approached to replace Glenn Close in LA was also a non-singing film star, like Dunaway. She wisely turned down the part, knowing that vocally she couldn't do the role justice. Perhaps Dunaway should have done the same--but the fact remains that neither should have been offered the role in the first place.)