NEW YORK (AP) -- After stepping away from the play that would have marked his Broadway debut, Shia LaBeouf has been replaced by Ben Foster.

Foster, whose film roles include "3:10 to Yuma" and "The Messenger" and who was on TV in "The Laramie Project" and "Six Feet Under," had auditioned for the revival of Lyle Kessler's play "Orphans" but had lost the role to the star of the "Transformers" franchise.

After LaBeouf left the production due to what were described as "creative differences," Foster was picked. Foster will be making his Broadway debut.

The play, which premiered in 1983, tells the story of two orphaned brothers living in a decrepit Philadelphia row house who decide to kidnap a wealthy man. LaBeouf was to play one brother and and Tom Sturridge the other; Alec Baldwin will be the target.

The switch hasn't delayed the show. Producers said "Orphans" will still open March 19 at the Schoenfeld Theatre.

"Sorry for my part of a dis-agreeable situation," LaBeouf wrote to Baldwin in an email.

Baldwin apparently wrote to the younger actor: "I don't have an unkind word to say about you. You have my word."

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