Stunt casting is the use of a gimmick or publicity stunt to fill a role in a television series, film, or theatre production. [1] The casting itself can range broadly, from a non-actor celebrity, a glorified cameo appearance, or real-life relatives portraying fictional family members.
Stunt casting is used to generate media attention. [2] It may also be employed to garner studio support or financing for a project. For example, according to DVD featurette commentary, the 1978 version of Superman received studio support only after the producers were able to enlist A-list actors Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman to appear.
Broadway musicals occasionally cast celebrities (typically from television, film, or pop music) with little theatre experience. Celebrities are often cast for short engagements of a few months, with the hope that the draw of a recognizable name will boost ticket sales and extend the lifetime of a show's run. Producers Barry and Fran Weissler are notable pioneers of the trend, beginning in the mid-1990s with their 1994 revival of Grease . The role of Betty Rizzo was originally played by Rosie O'Donnell (then best known as an actor on television and in film), and during the production's four-year run, was played by a series of celebrities including Debby Boone, Sheena Easton, Joely Fisher, Debbie Gibson, Linda Blair, and Brooke Shields. [3] The Weisslers' 1996 revival of Chicago has been especially noted for its celebrity casting over the years, including Melanie Griffith, Wendy Williams, Jerry Springer, and Pamela Anderson, which has likely contributed to the show's extreme longevity [4] [5] (still running in 2024, and the longest-running revival on Broadway). Barry Weissler attributed the success of stunt casting to its effectiveness with tourists visiting New York City, who are less influenced by reviews and more interested in seeing "a star that they know". Celebrity casting is especially prevalent during the summer, with its higher volume of tourists. [4]
Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer and theatre owner notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York Times. He is the producer of shows including Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Oliver!, and Hamilton.
Gypsy: A Musical Fable is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. It is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business mother." It follows the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise two daughters to perform onstage and casts an affectionate eye on the hardships of show business life. The character of Louise is based on Lee, and the character of June is based on Lee's sister, the actress June Havoc.
Bonita Melody Lysette Langford is an English actress, dancer and singer. She came to prominence as a child star in the 1970s, when she had a notable role in the TV series Just William.
Jerome Bernard Orbach was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a "versatile stage and film actor".
Jesse Lamont Martin is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his role of Tom Collins on Broadway in the musical Rent and performed on television as NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order, Captain Joe West on The Flash, and professor Alec Mercer on The Irrational.
Valentine Ruth Henshall, known professionally as Ruthie Henshall, is an English actress, singer and dancer, known for her work in musical theatre. She began her professional stage career in 1986, before making her West End debut in Cats in 1987. A five-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1995 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Amalia Balash in the London revival of She Loves Me (1994).
Steve Railsback is an American theatre, film, and television actor. He is best known for his performances in the films The Stunt Man and Lifeforce, and his portrayal of Charles Manson in the 1976 television mini-series Helter Skelter.
In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a script, screenplay, or teleplay. This process may be used for a motion picture, television program, documentary film, music video, play, or advertisement, intended for an audience.
Robert Elmer Balaban is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Gosford Park (2001), in which he also appeared.
Mary Jo Slater is an American casting director and producer for film, television and theatre. She has over 100 movie credits to her name.
Lois June Nettleton was an American film, stage, radio and television actress. She received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won two Daytime Emmy Awards.
Pal Joey is a 1940 musical with a book by John O'Hara and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The musical is based on a character and situations O'Hara created in a series of short stories published in The New Yorker, which he later published in novel form. The title character, Joey Evans, is a manipulative small-time nightclub performer whose ambitions lead him into an affair with the wealthy, middle-aged and married Vera Simpson. It includes two songs that have become standards: "I Could Write a Book" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered".
Falsettos is a sung-through musical with a book by William Finn and James Lapine, and music and lyrics by Finn. The musical consists of March of the Falsettos (1981) and Falsettoland (1990), the last two installments in a trio of one-act musicals that premiered off-Broadway. The story centers on Marvin, who has left his wife to be with a male lover, Whizzer, and struggles to keep his family together. Much of the first act explores the impact his relationship with Whizzer has had on his family. The second act explores family dynamics that evolve as he and his ex-wife plan his son's bar mitzvah, which is complicated as Whizzer comes down with an early case of AIDS. Central to the musical are the themes of Jewish identity, gender roles, and gay life in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Charles Alan Siebert was an American actor and television director. As an actor, he is best known for his role as Dr. Stanley Riverside II on the television series Trapper John, M.D., a role he portrayed from 1979 to 1986, and for his numerous appearances on the $25,000 Pyramid. After 1986, although he continued working as an actor, Siebert's career was focused on working as a director for episodic television for such shows as Xena: Warrior Princess, and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
Herbert Yost was an American actor who in a career that spanned nearly half a century performed predominantly on stage in stock companies and in numerous Broadway productions. Yost also acted in motion pictures, mostly in one-reel silent shorts released by the Biograph Company and Edison Studios between November 1908 and July 1915. By the time he began working in the film industry, Yost already had more than a decade of stage experience in hundreds of dramatic and comedic roles and was widely regarded in the theatre community "as one of the country's finest stock actors". Reportedly, to reduce the risk of tarnishing his reputation as a professional actor by being identified as a screen performer, Yost often billed himself as "Barry O'Moore" while working in films. He was ultimately cast in scores of motion pictures in the early silent era, although with the exceptions of appearing in three more films in the sound era, Yost spent the remaining decades of his career acting in major theatre productions, almost exclusively on Broadway.
Gilles Chiasson is an American producer, director, composer, writer and actor. While he first came to prominence as an actor, particularly in the original cast of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning RENT, Chiasson went on to work in film and television development, then theater administration and operations, and now works in education. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Sherri Parker Lee and their two sons. He is a theater teacher at a high school in Los Angeles.
Tom D'Angora is a three-time Drama Desk nominated and Off-Broadway Alliance Award-winning New York based theatrical producer whose Broadway credits include co-producer of the 2021 revival of Caroline, Or Change and whose Off-Broadway credits include lead producer of Newsical The Musical, Naked Boys Singing!, The Marvelous Wonderettes, A Musical About Star Wars, Back In Pictures, the Backstage Bistro Award-winning Divas I've Done and A Broadway Diva Christmas. D'Angora is the creator and lead producer of the soapy new drama, Mélange, starring Morgan Fairchild, which is currently in development.
Barry & Fran Weissler are Tony Award-winning, American theatrical producers.
The Prom is a musical with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and a book by Bob Martin and Beguelin, based on an original concept by Jack Viertel. The musical follows four Broadway actors lamenting their days of fame, as they travel to the conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana, to help a lesbian student banned from bringing her girlfriend to high school prom.