I think the situation with NO, NO NANETTE is a little more complicated than that. Demas had played the Girl in THE FANTASTICKS Off Broadway for several years prior, and so I don't think her singing was the key element for her firing.
If anything, I'd say the one thing THE BAKERS WIFE and NANETTE had in common was that they were, early in the rehearsal process, shows in trouble. Both had legendary fallouts between creative teams. As such is often the case, when shows are in trouble and producers are desperately scrambling to find some way - any way to fix it - the first thing to go is the Leading Lady.
Susan Watson had sort of been everyone's first choice for NANETTE all along: she was a text book ingenue of the period and a strong dancer. When they finally replaced Demas, and brought in Watson - it was the logical ending to very silly casting drama that never should have been played out. I think Demas may have ultimately played the role on one of the national tours.
THE BAKER'S WIFE was just a mess and David Merrick fired just about everyone originally hired. Perhaps the arguement was made that Demas wasn't exotic enough or didn't have a big enough voice - but Merrick was probably just looking for anything to save the production.
Ironically, Loni Ackerman (the daughter of the producer of NANETTE) came close to replacing Demas in both productions, but ultimately replaced her in neither.
Updated On: 2/20/07 at 08:49 AM
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