The best stunt casting ever? — Page 2

The discussion on this thread--all very interesting--just goes to show that stunt casting is a very grey area. I would never consider Larroquette stunt casting. Do people consider Radcliffe stunt casting or star casting? Was Whoopi joining the cast of SISTER ACT in London stunt casting or not? Was it stunt casting for Joan Copeland to play the mother of her real-life niece, Rebecca Miller, in THE AMERICAN PLAN? What about Melanie Griffith in CHICAGO? Is Kara Dioguardi, who seems to have no performance experience beyond AMERICAN IDOL, stunt casting? These definitions all seem very fluid.

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Updated On: 9/2/11 at 07:35 PM

I always understood "stunt casting" to mean a celebrity parachuted into a role that they would otherwise not get based on their skill set. For example, Jerry Springer as Billy Flynn in Chicago.

I think the previously cited example of Lea Salonga in Les Miserables might be one of star casting in that she may have been more famous (more of a star) than the leads in the show. Add the fact that she was an Asian woman playing a role usually played by a white actress, and this provided some temporary newsworthiness to a long-running show.

Reba in Annie Get Your Gun would also be star casting in that her celebrity as a country music superstar brought some newsworthiness to the revival of an older musical. She is not stunt casting, because she has the acting and singing abilities and could have been cast on her skills (unlike, say, Jerry Springer).

But couldn't star casting also be when a show is produced specifically because stars are involved? For example, the recent revival of Driving Miss Daisy with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave. I can't imagine that show being revived on Broadway with no-name stars. Or the Daniel Radcliffe How to Succeed in Business... as has been cited by others, that show was revived only because the producers could attach a big name.

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Updated On: 9/2/11 at 11:54 PM

I would've Loved to see Victor Garber Reprise his role on stage in Legally Blonde.

Think the recent revival of NIGHT MUSIC shows the two to good effect - Peters is star casting, Stritch was stunt casting.
Any one else here remember the first revival of GREASE? A precusor to the CHICAGO in terms of stunt casting - Maureen McCormick as "Rizzo"? Jennifer Holiday as the "Teen Angel"?
And where does Brooke Sheilds fall into all of this - what with GREASE, WONDERFUL TOWN and ADDAMS FAMILY?

I think Whoopi going into Forum was stunt casting. And having Mary Tyler Moore and Dick van Dyke do Mary Poppins (a few decades ago) would have been stunt casting. But as for Reba, she had done several movies and her own TV series and therefore WAS known as an actor. She wasn't stunt casting as Annie, just unexpected.

Her biggest acting credit to date at that point was what, The Gambler: Part Whatever Number They Were Up To?

(sadly, I never got to see her in this show )

Updated On: 9/6/11 at 03:57 PM

Sorry, AC, I stand corrected. Thought Reba's series pre-dated Annie.