Original Wicked Casting Changes
Original Wicked Casting Changes
#1Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 5:13am
In my anticipation of WICKED: FOR GOOD, I was looking at the Wikipedia cast changes for the OG production. I know there are definitely threads on here that are 20+ years old that talk about this, but why were Kirk McDonald, Robert Morse, and John Horton replaced? Were they all not right fits for the role? I feel like it's not common for three principals to be replaced before Broadway.
Broadway61004
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/14/11
#2Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 7:35am
Not certain about the other two, but Robert Morse turned down the Broadway transfer because he didn't want to leave his family in L.A. to come back to NY.
BorisTomashevsky
Broadway Star Joined: 4/30/22
#3Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 7:43am
I believe another component of the Robert Morse situation was that he didn’t approve of how Mantello would be quite hard on Idina sometimes. I heard Morse gave Mantellon “a piece of his mind” which may have led to Morse feeling less at home in the whole thing.
Joel Grey was of course fine, but I think the plot twist from friendly old man to malevolent man would have been more shocking with Morse. Joel Grey already has a bit of sinister clown/scheming leprechaun energy to him. Morse was inherently more warm and unassuming.
Broadway61004
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/14/11
#4Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 8:02am
BorisTomashevsky said: "I believe another component of the Robert Morse situation was that he didn’t approve of how Mantello would be quite hard on Idina sometimes. I heard Morse gave Mantellon “a piece of his mind” which may have led to Morse feeling less at home in the whole thing."
Absolutely, I'm sure there were other factors than just his family being in LA that led him to not want to come to NY. But publicly at least, that's how they spun it. But could also see that being a convenient excuse for just not wanting to be a part of the production anymore.
Crusty Bagel
Swing Joined: 7/27/25
#5Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 11:27am
Wicked has a couple Friday matinees coming up in August
#6Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 11:31am
I’m not sure why Kirk McDonald was released after the San Francisco tryout, but he did go on to play Boq for a time on the first national tour, which suggests no hard feelings. He’s since left acting and works as a news producer.
"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
witchoftheeast2
Featured Actor Joined: 9/25/24
#7Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 5:32pm
I really want a book, podcast or something about casting "what if's?" People who were in workshops for something, or almost got cast but did not. I feel like it would be fascinating
#8Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 5:51pm
Sentimental Men is a great podcast for that. There’s a lot of discussions (particularly with early/OG Elphabas) that discuss that sort of thing (who, why, etc).
I am big. It’s the REVIVALS that got small.
altonido
Swing Joined: 6/10/03
#9Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/28/25 at 6:26pm
San Francisco curtain call, with all of the original tryout cast
https://www.facebook.com/61555350041572/videos/245939968546493
Quinn Wilson
Stand-by Joined: 10/25/21
#10Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/29/25 at 7:57am
witchoftheeast2 said: "I really want a book, podcast or something about casting "what if's?" People who were in workshops for something, or almost got cast but did not. I feel like it would be fascinating"
It certainly doesn’t count as a “what if” but one the very earliest recordings of Defying Gravity was performed by Liz Callaway all the way back in 2001. I don’t think she did any workshops, but in the 90s if this had come to fruition she would have been a shoo-in.
#11Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/29/25 at 8:19am
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kristin Chenoweth is the only actor in a principal role who was consistently involved in the development process from the first workshop on, yes?
"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
BorisTomashevsky
Broadway Star Joined: 4/30/22
#12Original Wicked Casting Changes
Posted: 7/29/25 at 8:20am
AC126748 said: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kristin Chenoweth is the only actor in a principal role who was consistently involved in the development process from the first workshop on, yes?"
Yep she’s the only one who was there from day one to opening.
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