A weekly column of high-profile cast changes in Broadway shows.
As previously reported in Playbill On-Line, Daphne Rubin-Vega has departed the much-lauded cast of Rent in order to co-star in a movie. Marcy Harriell, recently seen as Maria in the national tour of West Side Story, makes her Broadway debut as Mimi, the AIDS-infected dancer who strikes up a romance with Roger.
Given the volume of e-mail I receive regarding the cast of Rent, this appears to be a good opportunity to inform readers that the rest of the cast will remain intact for the near future. According to the show's spokesman, Richard Kornberg, the entire cast has open-ended contracts that allow the actors to leave the hit show whenever they want to. Other than Rubin-Vega's recent exit, there are no other departures on the horizon.
Beauty and the Beast's Mrs. Potts, Beth Fowler, is on vacation this week; her understudy, Beth McVey, fills up the teapot until Fowler's return.
-- By Andrew Ku