“The whole cast is great, but I wonder why Linda Lavin, originally cast as the grandma, didn't return.”
Lavin was initially announced for the original run in 2020, but that fall, got a guest spot on Annaleigh Ashford’s new TV show on the West Coast. What started as a pandemic gig turned into a full-time job, as she was promoted last October to series regular and therefore wouldn’t have been available back in NYC in February or whenever they began rehearsals.
My bigger question is, how many performances has Caissie Levy actually done (if any)? Based on her IG page it looks like after getting Covid the day of the first show, she wasn’t allowed to return to work before May 10th (last Tuesday), but then had a Covid relapse only 2 days later and is still out again awaiting a negative test - so if all that is correct, she couldn’t have done more than 2 or 3 performances during the several weeks of previews, for a show that opens in less than a week. Assuming that it’s been going through rewrites in previews, are they going to postpone the opening, or is there a chance that, even if partly out of necessity, the musical will open with Lauren Marcus and that she’ll take over the role full-time? |
