I saw the Great Comet a few months ago, and at the time, I thought it was the strangest thing I'd ever seen. It was bizarre and I just didn't get it. The staging and theater are beyond gorgeous, but the story was just incomprehensible to me. I sat there completely confused for the entire 2 hours. Also, I was slightly annoyed (yay understudy because you were awesome!) because Josh Groban was out with a cold, and he was the reason I was seeing the strange show in the first place.
Flash forward a few months to the show being touted as the best thing to hit Broadway in years, and everyone and the show being nominated for Tony awards. I was still confused by it, but I really did love everyone involved in the show so I was ok with them getting the accolades. I didn't agree, but I was ok. Then Josh Groban left sadly, and the fabulous Oak Smash stepped in and he got amazing reviews. And for a hot minute, I thought about seeing it again, just to see Oak and figure out if maybe seeing it again would make me like it more.
But then, this week happened. The Great Broadway Kerfuffle of 2017. Somehow Mandy Patinkin saw the show. Then in a matter of hours, Oak was leaving 3 weeks early to make way for Mandy to play a 3 week engagement, and the producers were hopeful that Oak would come back after Mandy left. When I first heard the news I had 2 thoughts. One, how cool that Mandy is making his return to Broadway in such a loved show. And two, what the heck happens to Oak. This is super rude to him. Well, it turns out those were the same thoughts everyone else had.
In another manner of hours, Oak would release a gracious statement thanking the show, and saying he wouldn't be back after Mandy left. Mandy would realize he was to replace Oak and bow out, because he thought it was handled badly. And the producers would take to Twitter to apologize for the "optics" and tell everyone that there's a chance the show wouldn't be running much longer because the sales were dismal. Whoa.
Talk about a lot to handle in a manner in 12 hours. It's a lot to take in, but I, like a lot of people, think that Oak was slighted. The producers apologized for the optics. But not exactly what happened. If they take color completely out of it - even though it's hard not to see an African American actor replaced by an Older White actor - you have a relatively new actor replaced by a bigger name, just because that bigger name is a bigger name. Oak was brilliant in the role. No one was saying he needed replacing. He spent months preparing. The man even learned to play the accordion. Replacing him with Mandy Patinkin is just rude, especially when it doesn't even look like you spoke to Oak first about it.
In the end, like I said I didn't like the show. But I don't want them to close. The actors are incredibly talented and deserve to continue to get the accolades. But I do believe the producers messed up royally, and need to apologize to Oak and Mandy alike - Oak for obvious reasons, and Mandy, because I'm pretty sure he was a bit slighted in this whole situation, and didn't realize what he walked into. He was gracious in stepping down though, when he learned what had happened. I hope the show finds a way to make it through, but I also hope the producers learn that numbers aren't everything. Treating these actors like people instead of dollar signs is a much better way to run the business of show business.
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