Actors being fired / replaced — Page 2

Andrew Lloyd Webber has a history of doing this..
-Dunaway was fired and the production canceled.
-LuPone was fired and replaced with Close.
-Ben Vereen was one of the only aspects of the original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar to get a Tony nomination and he got fired halfway through the run and replaced with Carl Anderson.
-Steve Harley was fired and replaced with Michael Crawford.
-When Jesus Christ Superstar came back to Broadway in 2000, Jason Pebworth played Judas for a few previews and was replaced first with temporarily with Manoel Felciano and permanently replaced by Tony Vincent. A TINY clip of Jason is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLVFTxv_zfM
-Judy Dench was set for the original production of CATS and had to drop out due to a torn Achilles tendon. She was replaced by Paige. (Not ALW's fault.)

He just has a huge history of blaming cast for his poor material.

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Updated On: 12/11/14 at 05:35 PM

Sondheimite, check your PMs.

Madeline Kahn, On The Twentieth Century, 1978.

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-Ben Vereen was one of the only aspects of the original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar to get a Tony nomination and he got fired halfway through the run and replaced with Carl Anderson.

Correction, from Ellis Nassour's Rock Opera, interviews with the cast, and my own speculation:

According to cast members we interviewed, Ben knew his voice could hit the notes, but wasn't cut out for doing Judas' material eight times a week. (This led him to lead a loner lifestyle trying to preserve his voice, staying quiet, spending most of his time in his dressing room.) Ben was a last-minute audition because Tom O'Horgan had this vision of Ben in the role and Ted Neeley as Jesus, whereas the producers preferred Carl and Jeff Fenholt from the concert tour; the final compromise was Ben and Jeff (with Ted getting chorus and Jesus understudy, Carl getting the L.A. opening, and both Carl and Ted getting screen tests for the film).

This made the backstage situation tense, according to Nassour's book. Lines were drawn between Fenholt on one side and Vereen on the other; Ben felt he was being held back, and he had no problem complaining about things he didn't think were going well. He apparently didn't take kindly to the producers "creating an unhealthy atmosphere" by hiring/firing at will and being so engrossed in making money that they didn't care about hiring/firing the right people. The situation became even more tense when the Tony nominations came in: Ben made quite a stink about his (and, to his credit, Fenholt's) name not being given above-the-title billing, and nothing being done in the way of a promotional campaign to win the Tonys (they didn't even mention the nominations in the ads).

The producers apparently got their chance to react as they chose when Vereen developed polyps on his throat, went in for major surgery (during which time an understudy, I believe it was Kurt Yahjian, filled in), and when he got back, Ben was willing to do eight shows a week, but the management felt it was too strenuous and didn't want him to blow his voice out again, so they arranged a split-week performance schedule where Ben did four shows a week and Carl did four shows a week. When Carl left to play Judas in L.A., the management said, "Okay, Ben, time to do eight shows a week." But Ben now agreed with the management's original feeling that eight shows a week was too strenuous. Saying they were "only thinking of the good of the show," they fired Ben, who got the last laugh by going right into rehearsals for Pippin. He was replaced not by Carl, who was in L.A., but by Patrick Jude.

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Updated On: 12/11/14 at 07:10 PM

There are also tons of cases about ensemble members, resident directors have a personal thing against someone, wanting to have a friend in the show as replacement, etc.

Tons of dancers from A Chorus Line. Seems that they found out when they arrived at the theater to sign in and their names weren't on the call sheet.

Christopher Hoff injuring his foot during the previews of the recent PAL JOEY revival and quickly being permanently fired/replaced by his understudy Matthew Risch.

Diane McAfee (singer Fiona Apple's mother) was the original Eve Harrington in the original Broadway cast of APPLAUSE but was fired/replaced by Penny Fuller during previews.

SNL alumni Chris Kattan was fired/replaced during previews of THE FROGS by Roger Bart.

I've often wondered whether producers/PR people cite an injury or vocal rest instead of saying someone is fired (it wouldn't surpise me, I guess, but I was just wondering).

For instance, the regional theater near where I live replaced two high profile leading ladies right before performances began, and both cited a "back injury" as the reason for their departure.

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company hired Lillian Russel as a guest star to create the title role in the original production of Princess Ida. She was fired by W.S. Gilbert for repeatedly being late to rehearsal, or missing a rehearsal entirely, depending on which account you read.

....right and REPLACED by Idina Menzel. So she falls into the "replaced" category of the threads title: "Actors being fired/replaced".

Shia LaBeouf in Orphans

pretty sure marisa perry was replaced by marissa jaret winokur back in 2008 when hairspray was preparing for its closing. marissa got bumped down to stand-by for Tracy instead of being the closing one