Roles that actors auditioned for

[jamiekennywicked]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 1:30pm

Hopefully this thread wont turn into a "bash the performer" game but. . . what roles did actors audition for that ultimately went to other performers.

Carolee Carmello: Mother in Ragtime
Susie Mosher: Madame Morrible in Wicked

Updated On: 5/27/12 at 01:30 PM

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 1:59pm

Oh jeeze. These threads are pointless.

Do you realize how many actors audition for a role and don't get it?! Hundreds.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 2:26pm

^Sometimes thousands!

Most actors who aren't stars audition for everything they're right for, which means that for every audition one books, there are usually hundreds one doesn't.

[xxdrewboy85xx]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 4:21pm

I've auditioned for Wicked and Mary Poppins and made it to the final dance call for both.......

Ultimately those roles went to other performers.

[philly03]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 4:32pm

Laura Osnes auditioned for WONDERLAND, but Frank Wildhorn thought she was too young (she was 24 I think at the time, for a role with a 10 year old daughter!) and put her in Bonnie & Clyde instead. The rest is Tony-nominated history.

Would love to hear Laura sing "Finding Wonderland" though!

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 4:34pm

I think everyone knows there are a lot of candidates for every role. So I assume jamiekennywicked is looking for auditions that inspire us to wonder "what might have been":

Betty Buckley auditioned for Nora in A DOLL'S LIFE.

Now I thought Betsy Jocelyn was fine in the part and by no means the cause of the show's failure. But one can daydream about what the show could have been had Grossman, Comden and Green been writing for a different voice. Doing so isn't any sillier than most of the discussions we have here, like guessing who will win Tony Awards months before the theatrical season even starts.

And I doubt she actually auditioned, but what if Patti LuPone's negotiations to play the Witch in INTO THE WOODS hadn't fallen through? Would we have still ended up with two of Sondheim's most touching ballads? Or would the witch have been given more power numbers?

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 5:14pm

Patti LuPone auditioned for Dot in SUNDAY. Before the audition, Sondheim told her "Patti, no belting" ..... we know how that one turned out.

Updated On: 5/27/12 at 05:14 PM

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 5:19pm

That's strange... Bernadette Peters belted the whole score of Sunday, so I don't see why Patti shouldn't.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 5:35pm

^^^^Apples and oranges, apples and oranges.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 5:37pm

^Bernadette's belt has a softer tone than Patti's.

[bdn223]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 7:59pm

Agreed Patt's belt can be heard from the back any theater without a microphone and sound just as loud as Bernadette's belt in the front row. Look at both of their Mamma Rose's and you can see/hear that Bernadette sounds like a clarinette and Patti a FOG HORN. (this is in no way a dig at either acttress they are both legends and deseringly so, its just Pattis always the "Diva"and Bernadette the "damsel" or you can say one's Hilary Clinton and the other Sarah Palin they are complete opposites in style)

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 8:13pm

"Betty Buckley auditioned for Nora in A DOLL'S LIFE."

Never heard that, but Glenn Close was reported to have wanted it very much, but she couldn't sing it. Perhaps she was fortunate that she didn't get it. She wasn't that much of a name at the time, but while A Doll's Life was in Los Angeles, The World According to Garp opened and Close was suddenly on the map in a bigger way.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 8:49pm

^^^I'm married to the Assistant Casting Director for A DOLL'S LIFE, so I know that Buckley auditioned for it. Afterwards, Paul Gemingani told me he thought Buckley was the finest singer in the American theater.

My husband believes they saw Glenn Close as well (though of course she wasn't a movie star at the time, so it wasn't as memorable as it might be today).

I didn't ask why either woman wasn't cast because (a) Hal Prince often didn't give a reason, not even to his own staff; and (b) it's been 30 years: why start a rumor based on anyone's memory of the early 1980s?

Updated On: 5/27/12 at 08:49 PM

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 8:52pm

Didn't Susan Egan audition for Elphaba?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:20pm

Oh, I wasn't doubting you about Buckley, Gaveston2. I'd just never heard it.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:26pm

No problem, nobodyhome. I didn't think you were challenging me. I just listed my source, which I'm always happy to do. If I sounded defensive, then it is I who should apologize: bad wording on my part.

[NoHSMisNotAMusical]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:26pm

Five thousand girls auditioned for Annie and were denied food because they didn't get the part.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:32pm

Lorna Luft writes in her bio about auditioning for Grizabella. She makes it sound like she came pretty close to getting it. (wonder why she never did it as a replacement then.....)

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 11:18pm

Gee, I heard that's what happened to the boys that didn't get Oliver, too.

[random person 112]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 11:37pm

^Lorna also almost got Adelaide in the guys and dolls revival.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 12:18am

She did get Adelaide in the tour of the revival. (saw it: Voice-9, Acting-2)

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 11:47am

Patti and Into the Woods? Do tell!!!

[Brick]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 12:30pm

They offered Patti The Witch in the original production, but she wanted to play Cinderella. They let her come in a read for it, an offered her The Witch anyway. She decided to do it, negotiations began and then broke down.

[AC126748]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 12:31pm

Patti wanted to play Cinderella? Seriously? Everyone knows she's a little nutty, but I never pegged her as downright delusional.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 12:35pm

WOW! I wonder why she didn't say this in her book...

Cinderella?!? Not even the Baker's Wife?