THE GREAT COMET Announces September Broadway Closing; Final Performers for Role of 'Pierre'

[Hairspray0901]

BroadwayConcierge said: "adamgreer said: "Cynthia Erivo is an immense talent, and her performance in the recent Color Purple revival was absolutely spellbinding and she deserved every accolade she received.  I will never take that away from her. 

That being said, her behavior on twitter- not even so much her opinion, but her attitude about it- has made me like her a lot less now.  She's really let the success she attained with her singular Broadway credit go straight to her head. Miss Keyboard Warrior really should have stayed out of this. "

Perfectly put.

I still can't rationalize the fact that this gorgeous production's demise will forever be at least somewhat attributed to two people who weren't even associated with it in the first place. Truly crazy.

 

"

I 100% agree. Her last few tweets are making me dislike her.

I still don't even understand how this Rafael Casal person even got involved, though? Who IS he? How did his tweets pick up so much steam?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Hairspray0901 said: "I still don't even understand how this Rafael Casal person even got involved, though? Who IS he? How did his tweets pick up so much steam?"

Apparently he's friends with Oak (and Daveed Diggs, for what it's worth), and it's been rumored that Oak was using Casal as his mouthpiece during his "silence" on social media. I can't ever imagine being so self-important as to come near this, though. Infuriating.

[schubox]

Love the people in here telling others how they should be feeling 

[BroadwayConcierge]

https://twitter.com/CynthiaEriVo/status/895094291655081984

Beyond self-indulgent and not classy.

[adamgreer]

Hairspray0901 said: "BroadwayConcierge said: "adamgreer said: "Cynthia Erivo is an immense talent, and her performance in the recent Color Purple revival was absolutely spellbinding and she deserved every accolade she received.  I will never take that away from her. 

That being said, her behavior on twitter- not even so much her opinion, but her attitude about it- has made me like her a lot less now.  She's really let the success she attained with her singular Broadway credit go straight to her head. Miss Keyboard Warrior really should have stayed out of this. "

Perfectly put.

I still can't rationalize the fact that this gorgeous production's demise will forever be at least somewhat attributed to two people who weren't even associated with it in the first place. Truly crazy.

 

"

I 100% agree. Her last few tweets are making me dislike her.

I still don't even understand how this Rafael Casal person even got involved, though? Who IS he? How did his tweets pick up so much steam?

 

I've been wondering that as well. While I don't think either he or Erivo is the ultimate cause of their closing, they succeeded in turning what should have been a "that's showbiz!" story into a whole tempest. 

Ask David Shiner about "vacation" and "stepping aside" some time. 

 

[schubox]

Glad I have tickets on the 19th and 20th. Shame I'll miss Dave but so glad I get to see this a couple more times. May have to stage door, something I rarely if ever do, just to thank the cast.

[MinervaMoon]

Hairspray0901 said: "I still don't even understand how this Rafael Casal person even got involved, though? Who IS he? How did his tweets pick up so much steam?"

His connection to Oak is no big mystery and easily Googlable. He's Daveed Diggs's best friend. [1] [2] [3] 

[zainmax]

While people should be free to express themselves, I do think that the whole thing was blown out of proportion. It was all about business, and not about race. Would Mandy have prolonged the life of the show? Probably. Would it still close soon? Yes.

Also, Forbes is saying that the whole mess might not be over. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2017/08/08/great-comet-controversy-could-continue-after-closing/#2667884b2c31

[JayElle]

UMM... "Gutted" "Crying," "in pain," destroyed"...do you folks have a real life?  My god...it's a show, not a nuclear war. "

Uhhh...did you read or see today's news.  Nuclear war on the way.  We have two impulsive children threatening each other with their war toys...i.e, Trump and the dude in No Korea with the bad haircut.).  

Perhaps they're ticked too over the closing...(Nahhhh....that would require too much intelligence). Let us weep in private while we can.  

 

[Itonlytakesajourney]

I will always respect Cynthia Erivo for her performance in The Color Purple, but outside of that, she seems terribly selfish and inconsiderate. It's not her opinions that are the problem, it's her tone, as has been stated. 

[BroadwayMan5]

Who would have guessed a month or two ago that Great Comet would announce a closing before Groundhog Day, Bandstand, or War Paint. So sad that the actions of a few put so many people out of work and closed an innovative show prematurely.

[10086Sundays]

schubox said: "Glad I have tickets on the 19th and 20th. Shame I'll miss Dave but so glad I get to see this a couple more times. May have to stage door, something I rarely if ever do, just to thank the cast."

Can't hurt to call Telecharge and see if you can switch to one of his dates. If they work for you. Worst case, they say no. 

[PaulWom]

(Joey is Comet's drummer)

https://twitter.com/JoeyCassata/status/895095727550083073

Also, one of the shadiest tweets I've seen in years (Poison Oak had me ROLLING) https://twitter.com/JoeyCassata/status/895047571500093442

 

[wolfwriter]

Sad to see this go before its time. I would love musicals more, if they were all like this. The show and, specifically, Brittain's performance, will stay in my head for a very long time. It's rare that someone rips my heart out in a musical, but each time I see her, she slays me. What an immensely talented cast.

I feel like this show may be reproduced, but it's like a comet that comes by once every hundred years. There will be other comets, but it just won't be the same.

 

[schubox]

10086Sundays said: "schubox said: "Glad I have tickets on the 19th and 20th. Shame I'll miss Dave but so glad I get to see this a couple more times. May have to stage door, something I rarely if ever do, just to thank the cast."

Can't hurt to call Telecharge and see if you can switch to one of his dates. If they work for you. Worst case, they say no. 

 

"

I'm flying in on the 19th and out the 21st, so sadly I can't.

 

[CallMeAl2]

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "Skimbleshanks2 said: "Thanks, Oak!"

What I immediately thought. I hope he's satisfied with himself and the fact that he has destroyed his career completely. "

I don't get this at all. Oak literally did nothing. He showed up and did the show. He was fired. He showed up and did his shows. Social media went crazy. He showed up and did his shows. 

Maybe you wanted him to do something to save the production, but that was not in his contract. It's the producers responsibility to deal with PR disasters that they create.

And let's be frank, once this became about race, Oak's hands were tied. If he backed the producers (who had just fired him) he would be labeled as an Uncle Tom. He couldn't do anything unless he had his own PR people in place to look after his interests. And in all likelihood their advice would just be to stay out of it.

Oak's job was to play Pierre, not keep it running. That was the producer's job and they failed spectacularly.

[schubox]

zainmax said: "While people should be free to express themselves, I do think that the whole thing was blown out of proportion. It was all about business, and not about race. Would Mandy have prolonged the life of the show? Probably. Would it still close soon? Yes.

Also, Forbes is saying that the whole mess might not be over. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2017/08/08/great-comet-controversy-could-continue-after-closing/#2667884b2c31

 

"

I hope they leave Mandy alone. I wish he had reconsidered too, but I can completely understand why he backed out

[uncageg]

BroadwayMan5 said: "Who would have guessed a month or two ago that Great Comet would announce a closing before Groundhog Day, Bandstand, or War Paint. So sad that the actions of a few put so many people out of work and closed an innovative show prematurely."

 

Just my opinion but I am thinking, the "actions" of not preparing in advance for when Groban left are what is closing this show down.

 

[Rainah]

Going after Mandy at this point, tbh, will only wreck what little they have left of the brand and wreck the slim chance we have of a tour. 

[HogansHero]

Hershberg in Forbes is an embarrassment. He doesn't know what he is talking about. No basis for a lawsuit. Which of course doesn't mean that Kagan won't file one to dig himself deep into ignominy.

[PaulWom]

HogansHEro- just curious- have you seen the Joey Cassata tweet? Is Oak destroying the show still a made up narrative now?

[GeorgeandDot]

Hogan has no idea of what he's talking about.  He's clearly are only interested on pinning the blame on Kagan, even when multiple, reliable sources have said that Oak and Casal were clearly the one's at fault in this situation.

[HogansHero]

yes, you can't kill a corpse. Cassata (among others) doesn't like Oak. that's the narrative of Riedel's piece. Wanna guess his source?

[PaulWom]

HogansHEro, why would Cassata tweet that if it wasn't true? I don't think anyone would like to subject themselves to possible attack ...

[GeorgeandDot]

HogansHero said: "yes, you can't kill a corpse. Cassata (among others) doesn't like Oak. that's the narrative of Riedel's piece. Wanna guess his source?"

Are you in the show? No.  NEXT.

 

[JBroadway]

The good news that is that it's a wonderful show that many people got to see. None of us lost any of our investments or our jobs because of this. It closed off-Broadway in 2014, and it would have more or less died there if it weren't for the continued efforts to bring it to Broadway. It went from being a footnote in the book of Musical Theatre, to a full-fledged member of the musical theatre canon, which will hopefully live on to inspire many artists for years to come. 

Was this a crappy situation? Yes. Am I worried about the message this sends about what can and can't be viable in commercial theatre? Absolutely. I won't make the ludicrous request that people stop complaining or focusing on the negatives. But while we do that, let's not lose sight of the positives, and what really matters: the love of the art form. 

#TheCometLives #ArtIsn'tEasy