Why did Erin Dilly leave Millie? — Page 2

I have read several articles and heard several stories about this, and I believe Erin Dilly did not LEAVE the show. She was replaced. Early on in the rehearsel process for the Lajolla run, they decided that Erin was not right for the role, so they asked her to step down. Since it was such short notice, Sutton (who was the understudy in the Ensemble) was forced to step up and take over the role, and, as they say, the rest is history. They were so impressed with her that between the tryout and coming to New York, they re-worked alot of the music (a producer was quoted as saying as much as 70%) to be tailored to Sutton's portrayal. As other people said, this whole thing was kind of unheard of, a relative unknown stepping in for a bigger name and taking the show to New York. The creative team for TMM took alot of heat in keeping Sutton, but when people actually saw her on Broadway, they quickly canged their tunes.

In regards to Kristin Chenoweth, star2be was right. She was intially brought in at the very beginning to audition for Miss Dorothy. They were so impressed with her that they then asked her to audition for Millie, and she got the part, but did leave after some readings. Not, however, to do the tv show "Kristin." She left because she was on a short list of about five people to play Roxie in "Chicago," and so she didn't want to continue on with "Millie" because of the possibility of that. Rob Marshall (the director of "Chicago") ended up thinking Kristin wasn't right for Roxie, but it was between her and Christine Baranski for Mary Sunshine. As we know, Christine ended up getting the part.

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Updated On: 11/12/05 at 09:24 PM

Honestly, I don't care what the circumstances were. Erin would have been a terrible Millie, as would Kristin Chenoweth. They made the right decision, and Sutton was able to shine.

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Was Amanda Naughton attached to it at some point, or am I confused?

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Are you sure? I'd heard that they beefed up the part of Glinda A LOT from the original plan once Kristin came onboard, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there wouldn't have been a Wicked without her. They could have still done it, it would just look nothing like it does now.

I agree. Sutton was perfect! :)

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Updated On: 11/14/05 at 08:40 AM

1. there were a million people who did readings for millie, including kristin, but kristin was never cast for La Jolla.
2. erin dilly was cast in La Jolla, and did the part until tech week before previews. right before tech, erin got a cold and sutton stepped in and did the show for 2 or 3 days for tech while erin recovered.
3. no one knows exactly what happened next, sutton just quotes michael mayer saing "erin dilly has decided to leave the show and the part is yours if you want it". i think most people assume that the creative team liked what they saw in sutton a lot (more than erin), and took a chance on her. yay for them.
4. and yeah, the show was completely redone while at la jolla, in the year between la jolla and broadway, and during broadway previews, so it makes sense that we can't picture kristin, erin, or anyone in the part. sutton says that they lowered erin's keys so she could belt more, and they tailored the part to her. gimme gimme was written for sutton in la jolla. so i guess it's unfair to try to picture any people involved in the show pre-sutton to sutton, because the part was pretty much written for her. :)
5. yay creative team for trusting a $10 million show on the shoulders of an unknown. WOOT.
6. about the kristin in wicked thing, he wrote the part of g(a)linda with her in mind, and then she came on board and did a million readings. and during the readings, people became more interested in the glinda/elphaba relationship than the elphaba/fiyero relationship, so that is why they beefed out glinda's part.
whew