How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#1
Posted: 6/13/26 at 9:40pm
I want to be clear up front: I admire Betsy Wolfe and have enjoyed her work for years. She's a talented performer and she's perfectly fine in "Death Becomes Her."
That said, I don't think she's Megan Hilty.
When the four original leads were in the show, the word-of-mouth felt almost impossible to resist. It was a genuine "you have to see this cast" event. Since the recasting, that urgency seems to have faded.
So I'm curious: did the producers make a mistake replacing a star who was such a major part of the show's appeal? Or is it unfair to put any of the show's struggles on one casting decision when there are so many other factors that determine whether a Broadway show survives?
I'm interested to hear what others think.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#2
Posted: 6/13/26 at 9:47pm
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. 🤣
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#3
Posted: 6/13/26 at 9:53pm
Fair point. To be clear, I’m not suggesting Megan was pushed out or that the producers chose to replace her while she was still under contract. Megan left when her contract ended and Betsy was hired to fill a vacancy.
What I’m really questioning is whether the producers underestimated how much of the show’s appeal was tied to the chemistry and star power of the original cast. In hindsight, was replacing Megan with Betsy the right creative and commercial decision? That’s the discussion I was trying to have.
Broadway Star Joined: 8/31/08
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#4
Posted: 6/13/26 at 10:01pm
I don't think the issue was really Betsy Wolfe joining so much as it was Jen Simard not leaving. If it were a brand new pair I think there would have been a different energy.
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#5
Posted: 6/13/26 at 10:10pm
I do think that much of the draw of DBH was seeing Simard and Hilty together. Although both have fans, neither are really a massive draw on their own, but together they were an extremely marketable and compelling pair.
That being said, had Hilty been replaced with somebody who was giving a comparable performance with comparable chemistry with Simard, it may have worked. But Wolfe- and I say this as somebody who really likes her- just isn’t doing that. She is rather miscast here and as for Simard, there is a sense that she’s going through the motions now.
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#6
Posted: 6/13/26 at 10:46pm
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 PMHow Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#7
Posted: 6/13/26 at 10:53pm
I don’t think this was a show that would’ve run for years, but it suffered a surprisingly stark decline.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/4/04
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#8
Posted: 6/13/26 at 11:49pm
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.
How Much Did the Recasting Affect "Death Becomes Her"?#9
Posted: 6/14/26 at 12:34am
Sharp declines happen. One could argue that recently it happened to Chess and SB and MHE and even The Outsiders. Everyone forgets to remember that DBH never had a week where discount tickets were not a significant portion of the total number of tickets sold; it still had some great grosses because it was in a large theatre, but its average ticket prices were generally around $120, as I recall.
It just ran out of steam; had Hilty stayed -- and remember she missed a ****load of performances -- it might have lasted a little longer, but not much.
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