Not that weird, actually. It’s a benefit reading. The women cast were cast for a reason. Why would someone pay money to see/hear people read a play that they already saw a professionally recorded production of? Erivo & Riley are names that will get people to pay.
Because alot of people actually still havent seen the original production even with it being recorded and online for a period, also they developed the show for 3 years, to not even have the original director come back seems very odd