Why was patti lupone fired from sunset blvd?

Answer 1

Patti LuPone was fired from Sunset Boulevard for a number of reasons.

First of all, when the production opened it was in the very early stages of Sunset.....there was an altered score, different set, etc. The show that would come to Broadway was very different than the world premiere at the Adelphi.

Second, after Sunset opened critics from both London and America weighed in their opinions. In London, the reviews were mixed, but many enjoyed LuPone's performance. In America, almost all of the critics gave the show a negative review. They claimed that LuPone was "miscast and unmoving" and that "she doesn't seem to understand how a great star would behave"

Third, before LuPone was ever in rehearsal, Glenn Close was cast as the Los Angeles Norma and after they opened she received good reviews.

After all of this, Andrew Lloyd Webber decided that it would be commercially safer to fire LuPone and hire Close for Broadway. Lloyd Webber chose not to tell LuPone and she infamously found out by her agent who had just read Liz Smith's column, "It's Glenn as Norma."

Basically, Andrew Lloyd Webber is overly greedy and wanted to make sure that he would wring out every penny he could from audiences, so he chose a bigger name.