Good for you Linda!!!!   I would not have even given her the one hour to decide after hearing that.   The offer would have been immediately withdrawn and the next sound she would have heard would be a click and dial tone.  But hey that's me.

 

I had to laugh at this one as I had a very similar issue to deal with.  I too was a BIG voice.  Actually the University of Kentucky Summer Theater was doing SWEENEY TODD and they needed singers - specifically top tenor and one with volume.  A friend of mine was already in the show and I didn't even know it was going on - much less did I know that UK cast local folks besides students from UK to do their Summer productions.  SO she called and since it was Summer and I was not doing anything, I thought it might be fun (LOVE the show).  SO I go in and the music director (who had seen me before but had to "audition" me even though I was called in as a BIG GUN) put me through my paces in his studio.  Well I was cast.  Enjoyed the whole process, the music (did I say I LOVE the show?   )  and went all the way through.  Well when we had our first ORCHESTRA rehearsal, we were singing along - some high notes...whatever....and the orchestra director kept looking at me.  Well first of all he was a notorious jerk (and to preface his remarks didn't bother me) he only slightly politely said he knew I could sing but could I sing a little less loudly?!!  HAHA!! I HAD to laugh because there were some HUGE voices in the show along with a 30 piece orchestra (at least) and I was still loud.  NOW it wasn't a case I couldn't blend - I learned to do THAT LONG before.  I just thought it was funny because they WANTED a big voice, they GOT a big voice and then they had to ask me to tone it down even in the loudest of the loud passages in the music.  So go figure.  Tough to be a big voice.  It's a lonely place to be.    They got what they needed/wanted and then shot me down because I COULD do it.  Well they didn't shoot me down really, because I still had loads of fun and enjoyed being even in the chorus in the show.  I swore I was going to have the guy who played Sweeney arrested on the night the show opened so I could do the role (he was a friend of mine too and I'd worked with him before).  But it never happened.  I still had fun.  Such a creepy, dark and wonderfully rich, difficult and challenging score/show to do.  So I know what you're going through.  In this case I WAS cast and DID say thanks.

 

The ONLY time I ever turned down a part (and I wish now I hadn't) was when a company I'd worked for was doing JC Superstar and they auditioned for that show and another on the same night, in the same location.  JCS was a show I really wanted to do - but they couldn't tell me what role they would offer me if I took it (as it turned out I would have had the role I wanted - PILATE) BUT I opted for the other show which was a paying gig.  I took the paying gig and it was one of the worst directed, cheesiest shows I ever did and wish now I hadn't.  But that's the ONLY thing I ever turned down in my 46 years of doing shows.  Some others I SHOULD have turned down - but oh well.  And as director, I have had to make some tough calls too about people who wanted to "wait" to decide.  If you are offered a role you WANT and tell a director you'd like to wait to see if you're going to get cast in THAT show to decide, it would take NO hesitation to inform them if they don't want to accept or reject the role when offered there will be no waiting nor second opportunities.  THEN I write THAT down in my book (head) and remember it the next time I ever see them audition for anything I direct AND I let other directors know with whom they MIGHT be dealing when having that same person audition for other things.  THIS town I work in is too small to be doing that too many times or you're out of most shows ever.  How arrogant or ignorant - one of the two.

 

TonyDi