winston,
Please don't be naive. Producers aren't going to say, "Well, we know Miss Benanti is going to be consistentley out of our production, but she DID suffer a terrible injury and WAS treated harshly by producers in the past. Screw the audience and the investors wanting someone bankable.. let's just give her the benefit of the doubt because she is talented."
Professionally and financially, no producer is going to want to cast a leading actress who they know will frequently not be able to perform. Investing in a show is risky enough as it is, but to try and honestly tell investors to bet on someone who has had a poor attendance record time after time is an even bigger hill that is almost impossible to get over. It doesn't matter why that person is going to be out. They could have a bad injury like Benanti does or have a terrible personal life; it just isn't feasable to have investors put money on someone who can't consistently do eight shows a week. And it's not just all about the money either. It's about keeping audiences happy too, and part of that is making sure your leads will be in as often as possible.
Has Laura had to endure a bad break because of her injury? Yes. But does that make it unfair that her attendance would be held against her in the future? Absolutely not.
And I'm not being biased against Benanti either. Although she was out when I saw
The Wedding Singer, I loved her in both
Into The Woods and
Nine, and am sad to see her career having such trouble because she
is such a talent.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Updated On: 10/28/06 at 10:13 PM