The High Stakes of Broadway Recasting

Recasting a star who is above the title of a musical is a tricky endeavor. That balance of someone who artistically fulfills the role and someone who can sell enough tickets to be worthy of the above-the-title placement is a complex one, and it seems to becoming a more and more common trend recently for shows, particularly star-driven revivals, to not do a second casting, even if they are financially successful. This includes the last three winners of the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, all of which decided to end their run rather than extend with a new cast.

This trend persists beyond just revivals of a musical, to many new shows that have chosen to open with actors above the title. We’re going to look at some recent examples of shows, with actors who were above the title, who did recasting, and analyze how it went for them. 

Funny Girl (2022 Revival)

Starting off strong here, The 2022 revival of Funny Girl was a commercial success- but it wasn’t an easy road to get there. They started off, as most revivals do, with very strong ticket sales for the first 12 weeks of their run. However following a lukewarm critical and awards reception, grosses had plummeted to an average of $683,000 in the summer of 2022, not enough to cover the expenses of a show that size. Beanie Feldstein, who had previously announced her departure from the show to take place in September 2025, announced that she would instead leave the production at the end of July. The next day, the production announced that Lea Michele, of Spring Awakening and Glee fame, would take over the role of Fanny Brice in September. The choice was absolutely the right one for the production commercially. Following Lea Michele’s debut with the show, it grossed well over $1.6 million per week, and set the gross record at the August Wilson, grossing $2.4 million in the week ending January 1, 2023. 

Funny Girl closed in September 2023, recouping their $16.5 million capitalization before close and turning a small profit.

Sweeney Todd (2023 Revival)

The following season, a highly anticipated production of Sweeney Todd opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. Directed by Thomas Kail and produced by Jeffery Seller, production recouped its initial investment during the run of the initial duo, grossing an average of $1.7 million per week (while only doing 7-performance weeks no less). It was enough of a success that production took the risk of recasting the show with Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett. Though this cast did not gross as well as the previous duo, they did average a very respectable $1.4 million per week, enough to make money and cover the cost of switching between casts (the show averaged $809k a week in the interim). 

Sweeney Todd closed in May 2024 at the conclusion of Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster’s run in the show. They recouped their $14.5 million capitalization in November, 2023. 

Cabaret (2024 Revival)

Cabaret started off very strong, and it needed to. At a $24.5 million capitalization, it still is the most expensive revival in Broadway history, mostly owing to the significant renovation undertaken at the August Wilson Theatre, and it needed to run for a year at nearly $2 million a week in sales in order to turn a profit. The initial Emcee and Sally, Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin, held their own for the initial six month run, averaging well over $1.6 million per week. That average dropped to $1.1 million per week with Adam Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho as the starry duo, still enough to cover expenses. The third cast, Orville Peck and Eva Noblezada, only grossed an average of $872,000 each week, likely not enough to cover weekly expenses, leading to the decision for Billy Porter and Marisha Wallace to be the final duo of this production. That casting has been off to a rocky start, with the first week of them in the roles garnering $648,886 in sales.

Cabaret announced last month that they will close on October 19. They have yet to recoup their capitalization up to this point, and it seems unlikely that they will before closing. 

New musicals is a slightly different ballgame, mainly because it is pretty rare to have above the title stars in a new musical- it usually only happens as a way of easing investor fears, if a show may be too niche or too expensive to run without a celebrity helping things at the box office. In fact before this season, since Broadway’s return from the pandemic, there had only been two new musicals to have a star above the title, Billy Crystal in Mr Saturday Night in the 2021-2022 season, and Brian D’Arcy James and Kelli O’Hara in The Days of Wine and Roses in the 2023-2024 season. Both productions closed at a loss. However, this season, there were six new musicals to feature actors above the title, the most in a season in recent memory. Three of those six are still running. One has announced a replacement cast. With that in mind we will take a look at the most recent new musical prior to this season to recast an above the title star

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

Great Comet was one of the favorites of the 2016-2017 Tony season, leading the pack with 13 nominations. Josh Groban was cast as leading man, Pierre Bezhukov, earning a Tony nomination for his efforts, and was a significant factor driving ticket sales, the production grossing a respectable $1.1 million a week, peaking at $1.4 million in his final week. It had been announced the previous February that a original principal cast member from Hamilton, Oak Onaodowan, would be taking over the role of Pierre following the departure of Josh Groban. However, Oak Onadowan did not prove to be the same box office draw that Josh Groban was, with the show grossing ~$910,000 a week, which was not enough to reliably cover operating expenses. Thus the show’s producers made the decision to pivot, bringing in stage and screen star Mandy Patankin for a limited run. This casting created a firestorm of controversy, largely due to the act of prematurely firing a black actor and replacing them with a white actor. In the end, Mandy Patankin pulled out of the show amidst the controversy, Oak Onadowan quit the production, and show composer Dave Malloy took over the role for the remainder of the show's run, which was cut short to September 2017. Great Comet remains one of the “what-ifs” of recent Broadway history, as they are perhaps the only show up to this point where a casting miscue definitely caused the early closure of the show. 

The other major new musical to announce a replacement casting of an above the title star recently is Maybe Happy Ending, with the recent announcement that Andrew Barth Feldman is taking over the role of Oliver from Tony Award winner Darren Criss. This is a decision that has proved to be controversial, with many prominent members of the Broadway community speaking out against the decision. Maybe Happy Ending’s fate is unknown, they are in unique circumstances here. There hasn’t been another show that has won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and then less than three months later made a controversial casting decision- a stark difference from Great Comet, which undoubtedly needed a name to continue operating the show. What happens next with that show is anyone’s guess, but with a running cost of $765,000 a week (according to the New Yprk Times), the casting of another name to be above the title of the show was likely unnecessary to keep the show running.

It does beg the question, what will the other shows this season do? Death Becomes Her has four of their actors above the title, although none have announced final performances thus far. Just In Time, starring Jonathan Groff, also faces the question of what to do when their main box office draw’s contract is up. All things to monitor in the coming weeks and months.