Actor Ciara Renée has filed a suit against the producers of the upcoming Broadway musical Wanted, after being re-cast in the musical. Renée, formerly of Broadway's Frozen and Waitress, co-starred as Mary Clarke when the musical played the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey in 2024. At that time, the Angelica Chéri-Ross Baum musical was titled Gun and Powder; Renée played opposite Liisi LaFontaine as Martha Clarke. 

Casting for the Broadway production of Wanted has not been announced, though the show is expected to bow on Broadway next year. According to Renée's suit, she will not be starring on Broadway.

In June, a workshop of the musical was held with LaFontaine and Solea Pfeiffer as the leads (Pfeiffer played the role of Mary in the show's 2020 world premiere at Virginia’s Signature Theatre). Pfeiffer and LaFontaine also sang on the musical's newly released EP.

The suit alleges that Renée's contract for the Paper Mill run guaranteed her "the right to continue [in the role] in a production of the Play mounted by the producers] in New York or London upon completion of good faith negotiations[.]" The filing shares that Renée completed the Paper Mill run and was later hired to record some of the musical's songs, to perform for potential investors at a 2024 Martha's Vineyard event, to participate in an October 2024 developmental reading, and attend the 2024 Vivian Robinson/Audelco Recognition Awards for Excellence in Black Theatre as a representative of the musical.

In late November of last year, Renée's suit alleges, Samuel Lopez (of P3 Productions, one of the project's producers) and Alecia Parker (of National Artists Management Company, an executive producer of the musical) told Renée in a phone call that they she would not be continuing with the show to Broadway. As reasoning, Renée says Lopez and Parker said they felt she had "materially failed to collaborate" during the Paper Mill run and that "she was unwilling to accept feedback from the creative team."

Renée says those claims are false. In the filing, Renée says she was never previously told of any breach of agreement, and says the events she was hired for after the Paper Mill performances indicate that Lopez and Parker had not considered her in breach of their agreement either.

Renée is asking for a jury trial and $486,000, or nine months of the $13,500 weekly salary she anticipated earning while in the show; along with "punitive damages, pre- and post-judgement interest, consequential damages, attorneys' fees, costs, and other relief."

Featuring a book and lyrics by Angelica Chéri, who is a descendant of the Clarke sisters, and music by Ross Baum, Wanted follows the true story of Mary and Martha Clarke, Black twin sisters who take extraordinary measures to settle their mother’s sharecropper debt and save her home in 1893 Texas.

"We vehemently deny [Renée's] allegations and will vigorously defend her falsehoods," reads a statement from Richard Roth, the lawyer representing Sisters Clarke Limited Liability Company, Make Way Broadway Limited Liability Company, National Artists Management Company, Alecia Parker, P3 Productions, and Samuel Lopez, the defendants of Renée's complaint.