bob3 wrote, "I cannot remember his name but there was a well known opera tenor who was cast in the role of Eric but he was replaced in rehearsals by Edmund Lyndeck (the original Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd)."
It was bass-baritone Giorgio Tozzi who was replaced by Edmund Lyndeck during rehearsals of A Doll's Life.
Michael Bennett wrote, "Glenn Close and Kevin Spacey were announced to replace Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman in the original Broadway run of LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES but the show ended up posting a closing notice. At the time, both were only semi-well known names -- of course that would all change within a few years and Close would get an Academy Award nomination for the film."
And Kelly McGillis was to take over as Madame de Tourvel. The producers must have kicked themselves for canceling. The production closed on September 6, 1987. On September 18, Fatal Attraction opened and Glenn Close got huge publicity. They might have had two weeks of iffy business but then they would have been packed.
Re Lansbury, Sondheim, Prince and Sunset Boulevard:
In the 1960s, Sondheim and Burt Shevelove were considering trying to musicalize the film. They had started very early work on it. (According to the somewhat unreliable Secrest bio.) Then Sondheim met Wilder at a party, and shyly told him about the project. Wilder replied that it couldn't be a musical, it would have to be an opera because "it's about a dethroned queen." Sondheim decided he was right.
In 1980, Lansbury was not interested in doing the Sweeney tour. Cariou had also decided not to do it. As early as January 1980, it was announced that Estelle Parsons had been offered the tour, and they were negotiating over money. In the end, for whatever reason, things did not work out with Parsons (who I don't think would have been much of a draw).
In September, shortly before the tour started, there was a big article on Lansbury in the Sunday Times. The article mentioned that in 1982 "there is the mouth-watering prospect of a new Stephen Sondheim-Hal Prince musical based on 'Sunset Boulevard.' Lansbury was quoted, "Hugh Wheeler has already written the outline, and it seems to me the most perfect subject for a musical: an aging 1950s musical comedy star desperately trying to make a comeback."
I was told a few years after that by someone that Sondheim never had the slightest intention of writing it, that they told that to Lansbury to get her to sign for the tour. Was that true? I don't know, but the Wilder story that Sondheim himself tells rather suggests it. It could be, of course, that he thought he'd give it another try, that perhaps if they made it about a musical-comedy star, it might work. But perhaps what I heard was true and he never intended to even seriously try.
For all of that, the Sweeney tour did not do very well even with Lansbury. But perhaps business would have been even worse without her.
Plannietink08 said: "In 1997 an Australian production of Jekyll & Hyde was announced and cast, starring Simon Burke as Jekyll/Hyde, Delia Hannah as Lucy and Terri Crouch as Emma, and a highlights album was recorded to advertise the show. For whatever reason the production was cancelled and the album was recalled."
Australia don't have much luck with Jekyll & Hyde as in 2015 another tour was announced with Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Jekyll/Hyde and Jemma Rix as Lucy before, again, ultimately being cancelled.
The first professional production didn't take place until 2019 which was a staged concert, before finally being realised as a fully staged production in 2022.
Great thread for reviving. Not a specific actor who never got to go on, but famously (maybe only to me) Nerds was announced for Broadway and never opened. I think it shut in rehearsals? And what was that small cast "play with music" adaptation that was cancelled just a year or two ago?
I did get to see "Busker Alley" in Denver on the pre-Broadway tour. (It may have been just "Buskers" when it was here but I think Alley may have been added right before its run here.)
"Bare: A Pop Opera never had it's run at Dodger's Stages\New World Stages.
The one woman show that Barbara Cook was to do, Directed by Tommy Tune, at New World Stages never happened
Donna McKechnie never got to go on for Chita in "The Visit"
Late in the run of the original production of Tommy Tune's NINE, Frank Langella was announced to play Guido but the producers abruptly closed the show before he began rehearsing.
