How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?

Megan Hilty left the show when her contract ended. She wasn’t replaced due to some illegal activity. Betsy Wolfe was cast as her replacement. You make it sound like you’re implying the producers just chose to replace Megan, which looks to have turned out to be a big mistake in judgement. 🤣

While the original cast was of course a draw, I continue to be baffled by people implying this show could have run for years and years if (insert idea here) had happened. This was a pretty decent run for a show like this - a show based on a cult movie that was never going to have the mass appeal that long-runners have. Whether Hilty stayed or Simard left, this show was always going to run out of steam sooner than the long-runners currently playing.

Updated On: 6/13/26 at 10:46 PM

Exactly that ^^^
 

To get repeat viewers, it’s easier to convince someone to drop money on a new group of Broadway divas in a show rather than just one replacement and the rest of the cast the same. 

At the end of the day, Betsy just wasn’t exciting enough of casting to bring people BACK to the show. 

I never saw the musical because my spouse wasn’t interested, so I am probably not qualified to comment, but I continue to be baffled by the conventional wisdom that Death Becomes Her could have been saved by exciting new casting. 

Everything I have heard about the musical makes it sound like the two stars have very demanding roles. There was a reason why Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard missed a lot of performances. For some reason, that didn’t hurt the show in 2024.

What happened in January 2025 that might have affected big Broadway musicals that appeal to overseas tourists? 

These dropoffs keep happening to musicals and we keep attributing it to errors by producers or the creatives in charge, and maybe every decision wasn’t the right one. Perhaps Betsy Wolfe wasn’t right for the role or the chemistry didn’t work. I can’t say. But it seems like we may be ignoring a possibility - that being a replacement in this show wasn’t that attractive a gig for the sort of actress who would have excited people. It’s not like they could bring in someone from ‘Dancing With the Stars.’

And it’s just hard to ignore the trouble with musicals, which is the destination of overseas tourists who in many cases aren’t coming anymore. This hurt a show like Death Becomes Her, which has a lot of cool-looking special effects that might appeal to those folks. So it did well for a while until the domestic audience dried up.

As Jarethan mentions, other musicals are seeing big dropoffs too. There’s a reason why a family member is seeing The Outsiders today for $59 a ticket. There’s a reason why Maybe Happy Ending is offering steep discounts on its best seats, and it’s not just because Darren Criss left. There’s a reason why Sunset Blvd. closed at a loss and was an easy ticket for months. I don’t think Wicked’s average ticket price has dropped and has had some surprisingly tepid box office weeks recently just because people were disappointed with the second movie.

Musicals are in trouble because the government made decisions to discourage tourism.

What’s holding up? A couple of musicals with decidedly American topics: Ragtime and Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Death of a Salesman is printing money and will sell out the remainder of its run at premium prices. I don’t know if that will be enough for the production to recoup but they’re trying. What’s that revival of a classic American play not dependent on? International tourists.

Updated On: 6/14/26 at 05:46 AM

It feels like nowadays these shows lose all their steam when the original cast leaves, and I don’t remember it ever being this way?  Shows seem to live or die based on the casting instead of settling into a long run.  Maybe Happy Ending is going through the same thing too.  

Megan and Jenn were the power duo. The spark left after Megan. Also all those call outs didn’t help

I saw it five times with Megan and zero with Betsy. Megan was irreplaceable to me but let’s face it, it wasn’t gonna last more than three years even with Megan still on the cast.

ACL2006 said: "Williams should have left the show and the producers could have gotten a name in the role"

I can't comment on stunt casting because I find it baffling who people will spend money to see in person, as evidenced by the ups and downs of Chicago.

That said, I doubt that replacing that role would have had a big impact for very long.  It was a niche musical, did not have great music, and the regular theatregoers who loved the original movie had seen it.

I disagree with the prior attempt to compare it to Death of a Salesman.  The latter is a limited engagement run of a classic play that got spectacular reviews.  Unless they replaced Lane with George Clooney or Harrison Ford, its grosses were going to plummet when the original cast left.  

Mad and Hel are roles that require major singing/screlting/screaming chops along with major comedic abilities.

No one ever mentions the actual physical demands of the roles over everything else mentioned above. The roles are quite physical which is one of the factors why numerous actresses declined offers to replace in the show. No one was up to handling any of this 8 performances a week. Laura Benanti is probably the only one on record to state this during an interview when asked if she’d consider replacing in DEATH BECOMES HER. 

BrodyFosse123 said: "No one ever mentions the actual physical demands of the roles over everything else mentioned above. The roles are quite physical which is one of the factors why numerous actresses declined offers to replace in the show. No one was up to handling any of this 8 performances a week. Laura Benanti is probably the only one on record to state this during an interview when asked if she’d consider replacing in DEATH BECOMES HER."

Oh I agree 100%. This show just wasn't built for actual human beings to do 8 shows a week in a healthy way. 

I just wonder if they had decided both of the lead women would be on the same contract in regards to time in the show. Meaning, the two lead women should both start on the same date, and end on the same date to make it more of an event casting, if this would have helped at all.

It's been fun to see the different Mad/Hel combos, but at a certain point, it needed fresh takes from some Broadway powerhouse women, and we just didn't get that for one reason or another. Stephanie J. Block confirmed she had convos with the team, and Vosk also mentioned that as well, and only they really know why they weren't able to it for one reason or another. 

I also think Viola could have been cast in a lot of really cool/various ways. 

I've been rooting for this show, but it does seem like they kind of backed themselves into a corner, but who knows what convos behind closed doors look like.