The Sondheim Original Cast Curse?

Okay, not really sure how to put this, and I might get shot down, but...
I get the feeling that there might be a "curse" on Sondheim leads. Many of them who were previously unknown never really returned to Broadway or returned in much smaller parts. Here are the "exhibits", if you will:

Kim Crosby - Original Cinderella in "Into the Woods" - Later understudied leads in "Guys and Dolls"
Edmund Lyndeck - Original Turpin in "Sweeney Todd" - Later played Cinderella's Father (an extended cameo) in ITW.
Merle Louise - Original Susan in "Company" and Beggar Woman in "Sweeney" - Played variety of roles in ITW and is now ensemble in Billy Elliot.
Ben Wright - Original Jack in "ITW" - Was in "State Fair" revival. Never heard from again.
Jere Shea - Original Giorgio in "Passion" - Never returned to Broadway.

I mean, I'm happy that some of these actors are still working, but it feels like a downgrade, no? Am I the only one who feels this way?

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Kim went on to play Sara Brown
Edmund went on to play the Mysterious Man


There are some who do not return. The original Angel did not really return and he won a tony.

The same is true of the original cast of Chorus Line:
Renee Baughman - Never returned to Broadway
Pam Blair - Hasn't been on Broadway in a major role since 1991
Clive Clerk - Only Broadway credit
Kay Cole - Coreogrpahed the Mark Hamil/Polly Bergen flop "Six Dance Lessons..." and that's been her only credit since.
Ronald Dennis - Hasn't been seen since "My One and Only"
Patricia Garland - Never returned to Broadway
Ron Kuhlman - Only Broadway credit.
Nancy Lane - Only Broadway Credit.
Cameron Mason - Never returned to Broadway
Don Percassi - hasn't returned since 42nd Street
Michel Stuart - Did a few more shows, but hasn't been on the boards since 1985.
Sammy Williams - Hasn't returned to Broadway.

The only real "success" came for:
Kelly Bishop - Film, TV and theatre
Wayne Cilento - Choreographer
Baayork Lee - Choreographer/director/keeper of Bennet's flame
Priscilla Lopez - Some film, and theatre
Robert LuPone - Fairly successful producing career
Donna McKechnie - Cabaret/choreography
Thommie Walsh - Choreographer

If anything, these people showed the most promise.

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She was in All My Sons.

And that Chorus Line list really troubles me - even Kelly Bishop, who won a FREAKING TONY, followed it up as a standby for a play.

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Sarah Rice? She's alive right?

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Phyllis-
Well, she was in the original cast, and that was the comment I was trying to make. A lot of articles at the time talk about the bright future of everyone...and of the main 20, only 7 went on to much. Kelly Bishop arguably, has had the most success.

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But, Phyllis, it's not as if any of the people you mention in your first list were names whose careers went downhill after. It's not even as if any of them played the lead, except for Jere Shea, who has retired from acting.

You didn't mention that Merle Louise was in La Cage aux Folles and Kiss of the Spider Woman. She was extraordinary as the Beggar Woman, but it's not a star-making role.

As has been mentioned, from the cast of any big musical, some people go on to have major careers and some don't. Look at the original casts of almost any Rodgers and Hammerstein show.

There are some original cast members of Sondheim shows who I think deserved to have much bigger careers, like Kim Crosby, but most of them were at points in their careers where a big career was not likely to still happen. Many people in Sondheim original casts have gone on to very solid careers. And you can't argue that Victor Garber hasn't had a good career since Sweeney or that Brent Spiner, Dana Ivey and Charles Kimbrough haven't had good careers since Sunday in the Park With George. For that matter, even the much-excoriated (at the time) original cast of Merrily We Roll Along had a bunch of people who've gone on to have good careers: Tonya Pinkins, Jason Alexander, Lonny Price, Jim Walton, Giancarlo Esposito. Not all stars, but good careers. Ann Morrison kind of chose to drop out of sight for a long time.

Elaine Stritch didn't suffer too much for being in Company, nor did Barbara Barrie, Kimbrough, John Cunningham (never a star but a very good career as a working actor), Susan Browning, Beth Howland or Donna McKechnie (even if she had a tough period).

Btw, Ben Wright has retired from the business. Kim Crosby and Mark Lambert got married, moved to Utah, and semi-retired, but Mallory was on The Young and the Restless for long time before they left New York.

Nobodyhome, I don't think you mean me! :)

It seems my presence on this thread has caused nothing but confusion!

"Ben Wright chose to give up acting only to return in State Fair."

But didn't he really stop after that? That's what I meant, that he hadn't done anything since State Fair (or shortly thereafter).

"I don't think you can use Kelly Bishop as an example. Didn't she pretty much try to make it in Hollywood after the success of A Chorus Line."

I'm not sure if that's true. Maybe it is. I do see that her first TV appearance in a role was in Hawaii Five-O in 1976, but her first movie (and she did get some notice for it) was An Unmarried Woman, filmed in New York. And wasn't Dirty Dancing shot on location in the Catskills? It's too bad that the first TV series in which she was one of the stars, The Thorns, was not a hit. My memory is that it was very good, but it was too New York to have popular success, concerning a really snooty Upper East Side family. I'm pretty sure it was shot in New York.

Even now, if you except Gilmore Girls, she doesn't have all that many TV and movie credits.

When she stood by in that play, PiraguaGuy2, I'd guess she was trying to establish a reputation for herself in New York as someone who could act in plays as well as musicals. She was the understudy for the star, Judith Ivey.

But she worked pretty regularly Off-Broadway and regionally. She was a replacement in Vanities Off-Broadway, she played Charlotte in A Little Night Music in Philly and some years later played Vera Charles in Mame at Paper Mill, she played Maxine in Night of the Iguana at the McCarter, she was in Nicky Silver's Pterodactyls Off-Broadway, she was in the original cast of Six Degrees of Separation and played Ouisa for a while when it was still at the Newhouse and then for a good period of time when it was at the Beaumont (and I personally feel she was even better than Stockard Channing).

Here's a site that has a pretty extensive list of her theatre credits:

http://flyingmaniac.compi-01.de/work/theatre.html

Btw, husk_charmer, I'd say that Donna McKechnie has done more than cabaret and choreography. She toured as Charity in the Fosse revival of Sweet Charity, she was in State Fair on Broadway and in Annie Warbucks Off-Broadway, she starred in a London revisal of Can-Can, and apart from her Sally in the Paper Mill Follies, she's played roles like Desiree, Rose and Carlotta Campion regionally.

It's possible that she might have had a bigger career if she hadn't had to take time to deal with her rheumatoid arthritis. In 1980, she was told she might never be able to walk again, let alone dance.

And Merle Louise was also seen in featured roles in Kiss of the Spider Woman and La Cage Aux Folles.

did i miss something? did kim crosby and robert westenbert get divorced? isn't mark lambert the youngest of suzanne sommer on step by step?? haha.. that was a joke... but seriously... i thought kim and robert were still married