Worst and best examples of stunt casting.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 1:10pm

What are some examples where it worked or didn't work.

[Jamie Pierce]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 1:16pm

Reba McIntyre in AGYG worked out great.
Sebastian Bach in J&H was pretty terrible.
Melanie Griffith in Chicago - opinions seem split right down the middle on that one.

[smallworld]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 1:17pm

I thought Raven in Sister Act was a great choice. Ricky Martin in Evita would be an example of bad stunt casting in my opinion... Dreadful

[dreaming]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 1:18pm

Corbin Bleu was surprisingly good in In the Heights. I thought he was incredible.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 1:19pm

DIDNT WORK -

Tonya Pinkins - HOLLER IF YOU HEAR ME
Brian Stokes Mitchell - WOMEN ON THE VERGE
Chuck Cooper - CAROLINE OR CHANGE

[darreyl102]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 1:21pm

Didn't work:
Wendy Williams in Chicago (Just horrible in all aspects)
Fran Drescher in Cinderella (Really did not work, but i loved her anyway)

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 1:23pm

Cinderella was an example

Best:
Fran Drescher

Worst:
Carly Rae Jepsen. Didn't hate her, but her singing voice was so unfitting :/

[Musical Master]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 2:21pm

BEST:

In Cinderella, Fran was actually not bad and at moments was pretty funny, though Harris and Opel played the role better.

WORST:

In the Evita revival, I agree that Ricky Martin was astonishingly bad; plus I wished that Antonio Banderas would appear and save the show.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 2:32pm

Worst examples:

Rosie O'Donnell in Grease
Rosie O'Donnell in Seussical
Rosie O'Donnell in Fiddler on the Roof

None of those roles fit her.

Updated On: 8/17/14 at 02:32 PM

[wickedfan11]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 3:56pm

Fran Drescher in Cinderella is the worst stunt casting I've seen.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 4:03pm

most of the examples given here are not stunt casting. They are just celebrity casting. There is nothing meaningful conveyed in listing which celebrities an individual liked and didn't like.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 4:14pm

I'm with Hogan. If an actor/celebrity/star originates a role in a production, it's not really stunt casting. Or, if they take over a role. To me, stunt casting is someone with no real theater creed coming into a part for a limited time.

Worst/Guilty Pleasure: Jerry Springer in CHICAGO. I probably should see the show again with a viable Billy.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 4:20pm

"most of the examples given here are not stunt casting. They are just celebrity casting."

But both are designed for the same purpose. To sell tickets.

In which category would you put a celebrity who is clearly not a correct fit for the part?

[blaxx]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 4:27pm

Melanie Griffith in Chicago - opinions seem split right down the middle on that one.

By "split" you mean between her family and everyone else?

[thespian geek]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 4:49pm

Personally, I think some of the best "stunt" casting I've seen would be Billie Joe Armstrong as St. Jimmy in American Idiot. He was better in the role than Tony Vincent, in my opinion, and definitely kept that show afloat much longer than it would have been had he not stepped in (especially given some of the other stunt casting they did for that role in his absence).

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 4:56pm

How would you define stunt casting? Is it just any example of someone being cast for the purpose of selling tickets? Or does the stunt cast have to be someone who isn't known for doing theatre?

[darquegk]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 5:15pm

Billie Joe was significantly better reviewed than Vincent, if I recall. Partially because he brought real rock energy, and partially because he looks a good bit like the character he is a facet of, making their vague relationship much more clear.

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 5:29pm

As a few others have pointed out, there is a difference between "stunt casting" and "star casting", and much of this thread is actually talking about "star casting." Stunt casting is a term in casting that refers to hiring of well-known actors, such as movie stars, to play small roles on television series, films and more recently Broadway shows. Stunt casting makes roles traditionally played by character actors unavailable to them. Examples of stunt casting include Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness in Star Wars, and Marlon Brando as Jor-El in Superman.

Star casting, (and to me, a great example was the casting of Catherine Zeta-Jones in ALNM) is the casting of a true star/celebrity in a leading or major role. Even the objectives of stunt v. star casting are slightly different, as stunt casting is usually done to generate publicity (buzz) that is temporary, while star casting is very definitely a way to generate greater ticket sales. And it works, more often than not, which is, to me at least, a bit unfortunate.

Updated On: 8/17/14 at 05:29 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 5:41pm

RaisedOnMusicals, so then in your opinion what are true examples of stunt casting in Broadway or stage shows?

[JRRTolken]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 6:02pm

So Cate Blanchett is stunt casting????? I do not think so. Its using an actor/actress appropriately

[Hairspray0901]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 6:14pm

I consider stunt casting every time an actor or actress, not known for broadway, with a more "known name" than a Broadway actor/actress, comes in to a show for a limited time with hopes to boost ticket sales.

ie: Haylie Duff, Diana DeGarmo, Ashley Parker Angel, Lance Bass, George Wendt & Aubrey O'Day in Hairspray; Christy Carlson Romano & Annaleise VanDerPol in Beautiful & The Beast; Taylor Hicks and Ace Young in Grease; Raven Symone in Sister Act; Christine Brinkley in Chicago; Fran Drescher & Carly Rae Jepsen in

[haterobics]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 6:27pm

Is Bille Joe even considered stunt casting? I mean, he was onstage performing his own songs in a show based on his own concept from his band's own album? I think he would be stunt casting if he showed up in Tommy, but not American Idiot.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 6:30pm

Joey Fatone in Rent.

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 6:35pm

I looked up the term stunt casting in the dictionary, and they had a picture of Billy Ray Cyrus in Chicago.

[darreyl102]

Posted: 8/17/14 at 6:53pm

^LOL -That was a painful peformance to sit through