actors taking over other actors roles...and doing better

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?

I love love love love love both Kristen & Idina but I have to say I thought Shoshanna Bean & Megan Hilty where better in Wicked.

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I'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).

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.

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I 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.

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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?"

I 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.

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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.

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The classic example: William J. Macy over that mercury guy.

Well, 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.

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Adam Pascal may be better than Chad Kimbell, but I doubt he would have won the Tony over the La Cage men and Sean Hayes.

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Isherwood's take on the subject

Marin Mazzie in next to normal.