Casting Gone Wrong
Casting Gone Wrong
bernadettelupone17
Swing Joined: 7/16/11
#1Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/19/11 at 7:05pmI want to hear some thoughts on who people they think were wrongly cast. I personally think Sutton Foster was wrongly cast as Reno. I think she's an amazing actress and she does a great job in the role, but I just feel like she didn't play Reno in a seductive way that Reno is supposed to be played in. Who else?
#2Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/19/11 at 7:10pmWell... the obvious one from the last season was Sherie Rene Scott in "Women on the Verge" .... I am a HUGE fan of Sherie, but she was horribly miscast.... And the way you can tell that it is 100% a casting mistake and not the actor's performance itself is that, in my opinion, she did absolutely nothing wrong onstage, she did her best, but she just was not right. It was a bizarre casting choice.
bernadettelupone17
Swing Joined: 7/16/11
#2Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/19/11 at 7:15pmI completely agree with you! When I saw it this past December, I felt like everyone was really in-tune with their character except for Sherie. It felt odd.
#3Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/19/11 at 10:44pmJohn C. Reilly as Stanley Kowalski. Whoever thought that was a great idea must be blind. As Mitch, I can see it. But hot, studly Stanley?!
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#4Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 9:35am
I'm a huge Chenoweth fan. I think, in addition to the fact that she was miscast as Fran in Promises (an otherwise great production IMHO), she also simply gave an uncharacteristically bad performance. I remember most vividly that in the last act, after her suicide attempt, she didn't seem like a woman regaining equilibrium after trying to take her own life. She gave me the impression that she was a woman who had just spent an afternoon shopping at Bonwit Teller.
Kristen is not my idea of the gamine, down to earth, salt of the earth 60s charmer Fran is. In this she couldn't begin to compete with memories of Maclaine, O'Hara or the great Kerry O'Malley at Encores. (O'Malley or Rachel York, although perhaps too old, probably would have aced the revival IMHO). Fran is also not a great fit musically for Kristen. At least in spots, however, she sounds great on the cast recording, particularly in her duets with Hayes (whom I thought was totally winning and perfectly cast as Don, a character that doesn't require a swagger he might not be right for, in spite of that famous homophobia-inspired complaint by the one whose name we shall not speak). Katie Finneran, in a performance that must mirror seeing God IMHO, stole the show, but that's another story.
I have, in small doses, seen Kristen genuinely vulnerable and affecting as an actress in some cabaret performances so I thought, for our sakes and for hers, a fan that I am, she might surprisingly pull Fran off, but no dice. I felt bad for her.
btw, if anyone's interested, at the movies the classic miscasting for me is Robert Redford as Dennis Fitch-Hatton in Out of Africa.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#5Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 9:35am
I'm a huge Chenoweth fan. I think, in addition to the fact that she was miscast as Fran in Promises (an otherwise great production IMHO), she also simply gave an uncharacteristically bad performance. I remember most vividly that in the last act, after her suicide attempt, she didn't seem like a woman regaining equilibrium after trying to take her own life. She gave me the impression that she was a woman who had just spent an afternoon shopping at Bonwit Teller.
Kristen is not my idea of the gamine, down to earth, salt of the earth 60s charmer Fran is. In this she couldn't begin to compete with memories of Maclaine, O'Hara or the great Kerry O'Malley at Encores. (O'Malley or Rachel York, although perhaps too old, probably would have aced the revival IMHO). Fran is also not a great fit musically for Kristen. At least in spots, however, she sounds great on the cast recording, particularly in her duets with Hayes (whom I thought was totally winning and perfectly cast as Don, a character that doesn't require a swagger he might not be right for, in spite of that famous homophobia-inspired complaint by the one whose name we shall not speak). Katie Finneran, in a performance that must mirror seeing God IMHO, stole the show, but that's another story.
I have, in small doses, seen Kristen genuinely vulnerable and affecting as an actress in some cabaret performances so I thought, for our sakes and for hers, a fan that I am, she might surprisingly pull Fran off, but no dice. I felt bad for her.
btw, if anyone's interested, at the movies the classic miscasting for me is Robert Redford as Dennis Fitch-Hatton in Out of Africa.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#6Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 9:37amsorry about the long and duplicated post. I got an "error code" the first time I tried to post.
#7Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 9:49amI know my choices will infuriate some here, but the first names that came to mind were Bernadette Peters in Gypsy and Harvey Fierstein in Fiddler. I love to be proved wrong when I voice my concerns about apparent miscasting. I didn't think Sean Hayes would work in Promises, Promises and I wasn't sure about LuPone in Company. I was among those who questioned the idea of Corbin Bleu in In The Heights. All three of them proved me wrong, and there have been many other instances like that. However, for me, although I am a fan of both Peters and Fierstein, they just didn't convince me in those roles.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#8Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 9:52amThe whole Reno debate has been done to death now, debating whether Reno needs to be sexual or not. Yes, Patti Lupone played her as such, but lord knows Ethel Merman (the original) didn't. After seeing Sutton, I thought she did a wonderful job. Anything Goes is a pretty by the numbers musical as is, and the character of Reno reflects that. There's not a lot of depth to her. In fact, there's practically no depth to her, or to anyone in that show. Sutton was exceptionally charming and sung the score powerfully. She did have sexuality in her portrayal, but it wasn't her whole portrayal of the role.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#9Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 9:54am
Tony Danza as Max Bialystock in The Producers. Really. Who made this decision??
Also, I saw Laura Benanti in The Wedding Singer. Completely miscast. She was great, did nothing wrong and she was charming and adorable, just not what the role called for.
Christy Carlson Romano as Belle. Just because you're on the Disney channel, it doesn't mean you're a Disney princess.
Sarah Jessica Parker in Once Upon a Mattress. That entire show was a mess.
#10Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 10:10am
Sutton was exceptionally charming and sung the score powerfully. She did have sexuality in her portrayal, but it wasn't her whole portrayal of the role.
I definitely thought Sutton was miscast going in, but I did enjoy her after I saw it. Interestingly, it wasn't her lack of sex appeal that bothered me, but her singing (which I thought was going to be the sure-fire hit for me). There were several moments where she adopted some weird vocal mannerisms (like she was imitating Ethel Merman) that just didn't work for me.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
#11Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 10:40am
Sherie Rene Scott in WOTV...I love her singing, but she was way too white-bread for that role. (Although, I would've soon chosen her for a Tony nom over Beth Leavel).
Also, Robin de Jesus in LA CAGE comes to mind. Although I found him endearing, the whole "Puerto Rican maid in St. Tropez, France" thing threw me.
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#12Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 1:29pm
John Stamos in Nine. He's as Italian as a potato.
Matthew Broderick, John Stamos, and Daniel Radcliffe in How To Succeed. None had the effortless ownership of the stage the role needs.
Eric McCormick in The Music Man. As charismatic as a coffee table.
Tyne Daly in Master Class. As much diva quality as Billie Jean King.
Peter Gallagher and Patti Lupone in Noises Off. All the comic expertise of pudding.
Gina Gershon in Bye Bye Birdie. Less dancing talent than Totie Fields.
Nolan Gerard Funk in Bye Bye Birdie. The dangerous sexuality of Shirley Temple.
Laura Linney in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The sophistication of a soccer mom.
Enough to start with...
pinoyidol2006
Broadway Star Joined: 5/3/11
#13Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 1:48pmDaphne Rubin-Vega as Fantine. Oh man.
I like your imperturbable perspicacity.
philcrosby
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/17/04
#15Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 3:55pmRecently, Christine Lahti in God of Carnage. She had neither the humor nor the temperament for Veronica.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#16Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 4:10pmnew in town you're after my own heart! I especially agree with you about Broderick and his paint by numbers Finch.
Q
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/3/05
#17Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 4:56pm
"John C. Reilly as Stanley Kowalski."
Yep. There were many things about that production I couldn't wrap my head around, but that was definitely at the top of the list. I ended up running from the theater at intermission with a splitting headache!
#18Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 5:09pm
New In Town - Nice list - though I would disagree with Tyne Daly - I thought she was brilliant.
My own list.
Matthew Broderick - The Music Man, The Philanthropist, H2$, Night Must Fall
Tony Randall - The Music Man
June Havoc - Sweeney Todd
The entire recent cast of House of Blue Leaves
Lorraine Newman - Fifth of July
Leonard Nimoy - Equus
Richard Kind - Tale of the Allergists Wife
#19Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 5:33pm
You can't blame STREETCAR entirely on Reilly. Natasha Richardson was even worse than he was in that.
#20Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 6:42pmPeople seem to forget how dreadful and miscast she was--perhaps even worse than Reilly.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#21Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 7:12pm
Daphne Rubin-Vega as Fantine??? ... Um. NO.
Tony Danza as Max in THE PRODUCERS. So bad.
John Stamos in anything... especially anything he's been in.
I agree with all above about Sheri in WOTV.
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Updated On: 7/20/11 at 07:12 PM
#22Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 8:15pmI can tolerate just about anything, but Reba McIntyre in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN? When she was onstage by herself, yeah, okay. But when she was within touching distance of anyone playing Frank Butler, I kept thinking I'd wandered into a country/western version of OEDIPUS REX.
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#23Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/20/11 at 9:00pmI agree with Laura Linney in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and she is one of my favorite actresses.
A little swash, a bit of buckle - you'll love it more than bread.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#24Casting Gone Wrong
Posted: 7/21/11 at 8:47am
The great Julie Harris in a tour of Lettuce and Lovage. Object Lesson in how a great artist can simply be wrong for the role. Ironically, she might have been superb as Lotte -played as I recall by the well cast Roberta Maxwell in that production - instead of Lettuce. Harris had niether the zaniness nor the scale of eccentricity required for that role and the hilarious play was a bomb.
BTW At the time the only American star I could envision who was right for the role - although there may have well have been others - that I could think of holding a candle to Maggie Smith as Lettuce was Nancy Marchand, whom I think would have been brilliant.
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