Let's Play a Game: Casting That Almost Was...

Hi everyone,

Having read that NYT article on all the attempts at producing a revival of FUNNY GIRL got me thinking about all of the Fanny Brices that never were. Naturally, I began to consider some funny casting choices which lead me to this game...

Come up with the funniest, entirely fake "casting that almost was" scenario and post it below. Hopefully it will give us all a good chuckle. Here are a couple of mine:

"Fran and Barry Weissler desperately wanted Paula Deen to play Mrs. Lovett in a Broadway revival of SWEENEY TODD. The plan was to tour it around the country and partner with local bakeries and cafes to have a cook off to find the 'worst pies in London'. The production fell through when Deen's butter based skin moisturizer proved to be a fire hazard."

"Rosie O'Donnell has famously campaigned to play Ms. Hannigan in ANNIE and Rose Brice in FUNNY GIRL, but very few outside the industry know that she aggressively campaigned to replace Alfred Molina as Tevye in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. The producers ultimately compromised and cast her as Golde."

Just some lighthearted humor to finish out the week. Happy Weekend! :)

After Spring Awakening, Lea Michele decided to play title roles only. She campaigned hard for several of these roles, and got callbacks for the title roles in Oklahoma, The Color Purple and The Book of Mormon.

The New York Times reported that Frank Wildhorn was hard at work writing a new musical for Laura Osnes and Chad Kimball in the midst of the pandemic. When it was brought to light that both actors were anti-vaccine, Wildhorn said, "Screw it, forget this project, the show was probably going to get universally obliterated anyway."

Updated On: 4/16/22 at 12:48 AM