Grey Replaces Morse In 3rd Wicked Cast Change

Although a production spokesperson for Wicked insisted to Broadway.com as recent as last week that Robert Morse was still set to play the Wizard in the musical, the Tony-winning star has now officially been replaced by Joel Grey. This latest casting change marks the third switch in just two weeks for the tuner, which is fighting mixed out-of-town reviews in hopes of success on the Great White Way.

Grey was last seen on Broadway as Amos Hart in Chicago. He is best known as the Emcee in Cabaret, a role that earned him a 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the original Broadway production, as well as an Academy Award for the 1972 film adaptation. He was also nominated for Tonys for his work in the shows George M!, Goodtime Charley and The Grand Tour. Other Broadway credits include Borscht Capades, Come Blow Your Horn, Stop the World--I Want to Get Off, Half a Sixpence and the 1989 revival of Cabaret. Off-Broadway, he has been seen in Marco Polo Sings a Solo, The Normal Heart and Give Me Your Answer, Do! He's also been seen on the big screen in films like The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Kafka, The Music of Chance, Dancer in the Dark and The Fantasticks. Television credits include the HBO series Oz and 1995's The Wizard of Oz in Concert, in which he first played the Wizard.

Although Morse received positive reviews during Wicked's out-of-town tryout earlier this summer at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, he is joining original cast members Kirk McDonald and John Horton on the list of performers that will not appear in the show when it starts performances on Broadway on October 7. As previously reported, Christopher Fitzgerald and William Youmans will replace the other men, respectively.

Wicked, starring Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, is scheduled to open at the Gershwin Theatre on October 30.