Hm, no wonder she has so many Chicago credits on her entry in the Playbill. Is she from here? I've never seen her in anything here. Good for her; she's got quite a diverse resume of little-know stuff, straight plays, and now this fun novelty musical. More power to Ms. Powers.
As for the replacements...I don't care if the runners-up are the replacements. If they weren't going to renew their contracts, SOMEONE was going to have to replace them. The producers are gonna sit through days of auditions when they technically already did the nationwide search for the TV show and got the cream of the crop who auditioned? Not a bad system, considering how they ran the whole thing.
"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had the practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." --Alice in Wonderland