Announced replacements that never happened — Page 2

Jefferey Tambor of Transparent was set to, and might have actually done a couple of performances of La Cage Aux Folles a while back as Georges.

While never officially going anywhere, cast members were hearing for the 10th anniversary of the original run of Les Miz, that Tom Jones was going to be Valjean on Broadway. Again, not sure how far that ever got in reality. 

And the late Louis Gossett Jr. was announced to play Billy Flynn on Broadway. Not sure if he actually performed the role.

And there are those who were cast and then let go before opening for whatever reasons.

 

While not officially announced, it was rumored, and even reported, back in 2013 that Nicole Scherzinger might be stepping into the Pippin revival as a replacement for The Leading Player.

Updated On: 5/29/26 at 05:36 AM

bwayphreak234 said: "While not officially announced, it was rumored, and even reported,back in 2013 that Nicole Scherzinger might be stepping into the Pippin revival as a replacement for The Leading Player."

and waitress

Cloris Leachman was scheduled to step into YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN as Frau Blucher and was about to begin rehearsals when the stock market crashed and the show closed (along with many others) in Jan 2009. 

Tsao5 said: "Jefferey Tambor of Transparent was set to, and might have actually done a couple of performances of La Cage Aux Folles a while back as Georges.

While never officially going anywhere, cast members were hearing for the 10th anniversary of the original run of Les Miz, that Tom Jones was going to be Valjean on Broadway. Again, not sure how far that ever got in reality.

And thelate Louis Gossett Jr. was announced to play Billy Flynn on Broadway. Not sure if he actually performed the role.

And there are those who were cast and then let go before opening for whatever reasons.

"

Tambor did about two weeks of performances in LA CAGE before he was replaced. There were conflicting stories at the time -- one that he left the production for health reasons, another that he wasn't up to the role's vocal demands and was let go.

Gossett did go into CHICAGO very briefly -- I think it was two or three performances -- before he withdrew for health reasons. (I believe he claimed the dust in the theater exacerbated his asthma.)

 

Updated On: 5/29/26 at 09:36 AM

An earlier post seemed to imply that the reason After Midnight closed was because the unions wouldn't allow them to shut down over the 4th of July week. The reason that the producers wanted to shut down for that week was they wanted to save money.

In other words, they did not want to pay anyone in the show for that week. No one. The actors, the musicians, the crew, the ushers, the cleaning staff, bix office, etc. it was an unreasonable concession to ask for.

What union would agree to that? None of them, and rightly so. I enjoyed AM very much. Dule Hill was charming, KD Lang sublime.

 

The simple fact is that AM was never a big money maker. The fact that it ran as long as it did was a mystery.

https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/after-midnight-to-close-after-8-months/

 

On topic: the actor (I'll have to look up his name) who was to follow Christopher Walken in James Joyce's The Dead never had a chance to appear because the show closed.

ghostlight2 said: "On topic: the actor (I'll have to look up his name) who was to follow Christopher Walken in James Joyce's The Dead never had a chance to appear because the show closed."

Stephen Bogardus replaced Walken and played the last two weeks of the Broadway run (April 4-16, 2000), then went on to do the mini-tour with Blair Brown's replacement, Faith Prince.

 

Updated On: 5/29/26 at 01:14 PM

MimiChika said: "carolinaguy said: "Question related to this kind of thing: Would someone like JoJo be eligible for any kind of compensation in a circumstance like this? They may have declined other work due to a commitment that is now void."

Nothing. Jojo herself posted on Instagram that she never even signed a contract. So there’s no legality."

 

If that's true, I'm sure that her reps told her to delete it immediately and to STFU!

"If someone asked me if I would take a pay cut for one week but job would keep me employed after then, I’d take it. Versus what happened, which is immediate layoff and no pay after…"

...said no union person ever, BJR. Over TWELVE unions said no to that request. The show was losing money week after week. I am surprised that the show wasn't closed by the theater, as it underperformed consistently.

 

Do you really think that it was reasonable to ask all employees of After Midnight to forgo pay for a week in the hopes of it miraculously became a box office smash?

 

Thanks for the correction regarding Stephen Bogardus, ACetc.

Updated On: 5/29/26 at 02:23 PM

Donna McKechnie, on her PLAYBILL: My Life in the Theater series, speaks about her time in the 1971 Broadway revival of ON THE TOWN. The show wasn’t doing so great at the box office the producers asked everyone in for a meeting (cast, crew, creative team, and musicians). They basically asked everyone for a pay cut in order to be able to keep the show running for a couple of weeks. Everyone agreed but it didn’t help much as the production ended up closing about 2 weeks later. 

The original La Cage was to transfer theaters in 1987 and I recall seeing an ad featuring new leads Lee Roy Reams and Mace Barrett. The show didn't transfer and closed on Broadway with Peter Marshall and Keene Curtis. 

(In '94, I saw Mr Reams as Albin in a brief tour of La Cage opposite Walter Charles, a one-time Albin, as Georges...)