Dave Malloy commets on Oak's Leave

[leighmiserables]

I think someone posted this in the "Mandy Joining" thread, but I thought it deserved one of its own: 

(From Dave Malloy's Twitter): 

"hey all. bit of a devastating last 24 hours. so sorry for how everything went down. nothing but love and awe for @OakSmash. the show was in desperate shape. sales after ingrid leaving August 13 were catastrophically low. show would've closed. it's apparently a weird show. turns out it needs a name to sell it. mandy is a beautiful legend. had no idea. he didn't ask to out oak, the show asked him to come asap because we were on the brink of closing. so sorry to have missed the racial optics of it. we had to do same thing with dear beloved brittain so in my head it was no different. please don't give mandy grief, he's devastated. i am not sure that the show has a future now. signing off now. going for ice cream or whiskey or likely both. so sorry. thank you for the love." 

Um. Wow. 

(Link: https://twitter.com/dave_malloy/status/891015638751248388)

[haterobics]

Ack. My Anatole seat for January 7 seems very optimistic now.

[broadwayboy223]

WOW is right. So they also pushed out Brittain? Didn't they say she was gonna come back too. What a huge mess this is.

[leighmiserables]

broadwayboy223 said: "WOW is right. So they also pushed out Brittain? Didn't they say she was gonna come back too. What a huge mess this is."

No, she's coming back (assuming it stays open). He just means they put her on a forced vacation for Ingrid's run. 

Also, can someone tell me why I have the most awful feeling that Mandy is going to pull out now? 

[Kad]

Oof. Malloy is a very genuine, heartfelt guy- the emotion behind that is palpable.

[LizzieCurry]

Daaaang.

[BroadwayConcierge]

SO much respect for Malloy's transparency and earnestness.

[haterobics]

leighmiserables said: "No, she's coming back (assuming it stays open). "

She will be in it with Mandy.

[broadwayboy223]

It really does sound like this is just an unfortunate circumstance. It had nothing to do with race at all. I can't imagine how everyone must be feeling.

[NYadgal]

That's a tough one.  So much emotion and honesty.

Respect.

Hope it's not too little, too late.

[froote]

Terribly sad, Broadway can be a cruel business. What a shame that the Tonys didn't share the love with other deserving shows instead of just ones that were already big hits. Absolute respect to Dave.

[Kad]

It'd be viciously ironic if Mandy withdrew due to the controversy and the production shuttered quickly, putting an entire diverse ensemble out of work.

[BroadwayBaby4]

I don't think anything on twitter has ever made me this sad, and twittier is a hostile, angry place.

Imagine how awful he must feel, not only is the show not doing well, but he's being called a racist for just trying to keep it afloat. 

[David10086]

leighmiserables said: 
Also, can someone tell me why I have the most awful feeling that Mandy is going to pull out now? 

 

I'm thinking the EXACT same thing. I don't think at his age and legacy he needs to be in all this drama. He still has a few weeks before he does debut, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him pull out.

Also, I'm going this Sunday afternoon. I hope knowing all this 'backstage drama' going on won't ruin the experience for me. It may be hard to sit there and enjoy the show when you know the lead actor has been pushed out. 

 

[LizzieCurry]

Kad said: "It'd be viciously ironic if Mandy withdrew due to the controversy and the production shuttered quickly, putting an entire diverse ensemble out of work."

Was this ever a rumor, or are you just being spicy?

[frogs_fan85]

So are the producers looking at Mandy as a stopgap measure until the next Pierre is announced or were they just in damage control to get to Labor Day or both?

[Kad]

LizzieCurry said: "Kad said: "It'd be viciously ironic if Mandy withdrew due to the controversy and the production shuttered quickly, putting an entire diverse ensemble out of work."

Was this ever a rumor, or are you just being spicy?"

The latter, I assure you! I have heard nothing that even remotely suggests this is a possibility.

 

[10086Sundays]

froote said: "Terribly sad, Broadway can be a cruel business. What a shame that the Tonys didn't share the love with other deserving shows instead of just ones that were already big hits. Absolute respect to Dave."

This.  I met him and he seemed like a such a genuine, great guy. I feel for everyone who could soon be out of a job.

It's really unfortunate that come Labor Day we could lose 3 shows at once. (GHD, Bandstand, GC)

[haterobics]

Nick Choksi retweeted Dave's first tweet and said: "Facts: 1-POC have it rough 2-@dave_malloy and @rachelchavkin are allies 3-Oak is amazing 4-This decision wasn’t about race. #makeroomforoak"

https://twitter.com/NickChoksi/status/891018770981978113

[yeah]

Actors being released, let go, fired from shows is nothing new in this business.  Especially when it comes to the almighty dollar.  Why everyone feels the need to coddle, explain, and apologize for this situation is starting to get a little annoying.  

I saw Oak and Ingrid a couple of weeks ago - I was underwhelmed by Oak.  In my opinion, he's not a name, not selling tickets, producers want to sell tickets.  

[JennH]

Egads...Wow, that bad?? I'm not saying I was a fan of the show, I wasn't, but It's still a good show overall, but reminder...it's such an eclectic piece of weirdness that was still very risky and was always going to be hard to keep open because of it. I think it got TOO interactive (among other things) and audiences still don't know what to make of that. They'd still rather SEE a show, not be in one. I have a feeling this will be a December-January closing victim now. I'm honestly surprised it lasted this long.

[LesWickedly]

People keep insisting a big name is coming in. Why aren't they announcing it if it could help advanced sales? Only reason I can think of is for people to go see Mandy and then go back, but that seems unlikely for most. Out of towners might see the name and plan a trip or include it on their trip and buy tickets. That's the only thing keeping me from going back. I want to see it again, but would like to know the Pierre.

[KnewItWhenIWasInFron]

froote said: "Terribly sad, Broadway can be a cruel business. What a shame that the Tonys didn't share the love with other deserving shows instead of just ones that were already big hits. Absolute respect to Dave.

 

"Huh? At the time -- with Groban -- "Great Comet" was a big hit. And many people seemed to think it would remain one without him. Turns out they were wrong.

[Mr. Nowack]

What a pity so sad for this beautiful show and the beautiful people involved.

[froote]

I don't think I saw anyone predict that it would remain a big hit without a name, that was obvious whenever Groban called out and the sales went down. People were very pleasantly surprised it was making it to $900k the last two weeks and that's WITH Ingrid.

[AC126748]

This is a remarkably forthright statement from Malloy. Still, I imagine many of the people who've already constructed their own narrative around this won't be swayed by any amount of empirical evidence, and will continue to look at this as whitewashing.