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?
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.
Samantha Hill replacing Charlotte Maltby as Cosette in Les Mis
"The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
- 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.
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)
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.
"Was uns befreit, das muss stärker sein als wir es sind." -Tanz der Vampire
"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."
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.)