I would strongly question the assertion that Sean Hayes damaged PROMISES, PROMISES. The production recouped, I believe (or came close to recouping), and his notices were pretty positive overall. The main problem I have with some of the names put forth in this thread is that they seem to come from a place of personal displeasure in an individual performance, rather than a case in which someone's presence actually HURT a show.
One example I thought of that I think works on all levels is Ben Stiller and Jennifer Jason Leigh in THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES. Both were miscast and not very good (Stiller mostly just weak, Leigh downright embarrassing), and their performances seemed to tank the revival, which closed early and at a loss despite having a decent advance prior to opening. That's what I consider a miscasting that damaged a show--if it leads to financial difficulties and the like.
"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
