actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/10/04
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better#1
Posted: 11/28/11 at 10:27am
Stephnie BLock over Sutton
Adam Pascal over Chad Kimball.
So does that mean that stephanie would have won the tony award if she was cast instead of sutton? and does that mean that the ROLE is good and any good singer/actor could come in and do just as well? i mean maybe it should be based on how baseball does their rating system calle "WINS ABOVE REPLACEMENT" . wherein how much would the show be affected if THIS person was not in the role. In suttons case..not that much. In chad's case it would have been better to have adam in the role. Nathan Lane is WORTH the money seeing as producers took a HUGE nose dive when he left as did addams family..would it matter at all if will swenson left Priscilla?
People seem to love Adam much much more than Chad in memphis..could Adam have won the tony if the casting director/director/producer had the foresight to cast someone different? and could any actor who can sing it and kinda act it do just as well? I feel like this is why some people think actors are a dime a dozen and why tourists really don't care who they see..
i mean right? Was the original tracy turnblat the best? Would carly jibson have won the tony is she was cast instead of MArisa jaret? Probably..what does that say?
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #2
Posted: 11/28/11 at 11:29amIt's all speculation really. And personal opinion. I wouldn't say that Pascal/Block are better over Kimball/Foster, but that a lot of people prefer them over the others. But in reality, you cannot measure that because I'm sure there are MANY out there who feel the opposite. I feel that Pascal is a HUGE improvement and that Block is just as good in the role as Foster, but again, just personal taste. Who knows who would have won the awards. I think they would have, but we will never know.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #2
Posted: 11/28/11 at 11:51amI love love love love love both Kristen & Idina but I have to say I thought Shoshanna Bean & Megan Hilty where better in Wicked.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #3
Posted: 11/28/11 at 12:52pm
I'm sure I'm gonna get shot down for this one but here goes.
Samonsky was ten times better than Morrison as Cable. And 100 times sexier!
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #4
Posted: 11/28/11 at 12:55pmI've written elsewhere that I thought Judy Kaye was a vast improvement over Madeleine Kahn in ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. This was quite a shock to me because I thought Kahn was the funniest woman alive (as she could be when she bothered).
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #5
Posted: 11/28/11 at 12:56pm
I agree about Samonsky over Morrison.
I also though Missi Pyle was better in Boeing!Boeing! than Mary McCormack.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #6
Posted: 11/28/11 at 1:15pm
As others have intimated, the question is, on a certain level, silly. Actors don't own roles (much as some of us like to think they do), and just because someone plays something first doesn't necessarily mean they do it best. That said, here are a few instances where I preferred a replacement over their original:
Estelle Parsons was 1,000 times better than Deanna Dunagan in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. I know many others who felt similarly.
Bernadette was better than Catherine Zeta-Jones, hands down. (Bradley Dean was also an improvement on Aaron Lazar)
I preferred Laura Osnes to Kelli O'Hara in SOUTH PACIFIC.
Beth Leavel was far superior to Christine Ebersole in 42ND STREET.
In WICKED, I'd say that Murney, Bean, and Espinosa were better than Menzel; Hilty was far better than Chenoweth; and Hearn was a better Wizard than Grey.
And right now, I'd say Judith Light is better than Linda Lavin in OTHER DESERT CITIES.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #7
Posted: 11/28/11 at 1:23pm
I find it exceptionally rare for a replacement to be better than an originator of a role (particularly in original productions rather than revivals) - but it's all plain ol' subjective opinion anyway.
The only replacement I remember preferring is Aaron Lazar - a much better actor than bland old Matt Morrison in Light in the Piazza.
Usually, though, they seem (to me) like either less-dimensional imitations, or desperate attempts to be "different" just for the sake of being different than the original.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #8
Posted: 11/28/11 at 1:42pmI ended up seeing Jeremy Jordan as Tony in West Side Story, when he was alternating with Matt Hydzik. He was great. I loved him a lot more than Matt Cevenaugh, who I saw first. He made me hate Tony and not care that he died.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #9
Posted: 11/28/11 at 1:53pmMegan Hilty over DeGarmo any day in 9 to 5.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #10
Posted: 11/28/11 at 1:55pm
Bettyboy, I didn't see Mary McCormack as Gretchen in Boeing, but Missi Pyle was fantastic!
I will never foget
"IN AAAAAIX? ARE YOU INSANE?"
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #11
Posted: 11/28/11 at 3:08pmI agree wholeheartedly about Samonsky.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #12
Posted: 11/28/11 at 3:16pmI haven't seen Adam Pascal in Memphis, but whatever he's doing has to be better than the "village idiot" interpretation that Chad Kimball gave.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #13
Posted: 11/28/11 at 3:19pm
"Bernadette was better than Catherine Zeta-Jones, hands down."
I don't know where your hands were, but in no way was Bernadette better than CZJ.
I wasn't a big fan of CZJ's "Send in the Clowns" but as a whole she more embodied the role of a European actress (which Desiree is) than Bernadette with her Queens Kewpie Doll lisp.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #14
Posted: 11/28/11 at 3:36pm
My hands were covering my ears and eyes in an attempt to block any remnant of CZJ's performance from taking up residence in my memory.
She did embody a European actress. Unfortunately, it was a 21st century, high glamour actress off a red carpet in Paris, not a journeywoman, almost over the hill, touring performer, which is what I look for in a Desiree.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #15
Posted: 11/28/11 at 5:18pmWell if by "touring" you mean touring in Astoria, Forest Hills and Flushing and if by "performer" you mean portraying Betty Boop, then yes, Bernadette was better than CZJ.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #16
Posted: 11/28/11 at 5:21pmThe classic example: William J. Macy over that mercury guy.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #17
Posted: 11/28/11 at 5:24pm
Well if by "touring" you mean touring in Astoria, Forest Hills and Flushing and if by "performer" you mean portraying Betty Boop, then yes, Bernadette was better than CZJ.
Yes, just as Zeta-Jones's accent toured America, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and various Eastern European locales. But please, continue to tell me the ways in which my personal opinion is incorrect.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #18
Posted: 11/28/11 at 6:35pmWell, I certainly liked Adam lightyears better than Chad in Memphis, also Jennifer Laura Thompson in Wicked, Norbert in Speed-the-Plow, Hunter Parrish and Alexandra Socha in Spring Awakening come immediately to mind.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #19
Posted: 11/28/11 at 7:27pm
I think Johanna Day was a better Barbara Fordham than Amy Morton, though that may have been because I saw Day from the front row and Morton from the mezz.
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #20
Posted: 11/28/11 at 7:34pmAdam Pascal may be better than Chad Kimbell, but I doubt he would have won the Tony over the La Cage men and Sean Hayes.
Wanting life but never knowing how
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #21
Posted: 11/28/11 at 7:53pm
I prefer the some of voices of the current cast of Phantom over the leads in the OLC.
Also agree about Bernadette Peters in ALNM. Disagree about Samonksy in South Pacific. I didn't really like him, but I also never saw Morrison so I can't compare the two.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #22
Posted: 11/28/11 at 11:50pm
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #23
Posted: 11/28/11 at 11:58pmI too preferred Laura Osnes to Kelli O'Hara as Nellie, since I felt O'Hara was straying into Clara Johnson territory at times.
Broadway Star Joined: 4/17/10
actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better #24
Posted: 11/28/11 at 11:58pmMarin Mazzie in next to normal.
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