Riedel on more Comet Drama

[Plannietink08]

That 'Poison Oak' tweet!!!

You lot are some of the shadiest people I have ever come across in my long and traveled life but that one tweet puts all of you to shame. I've never experienced pure, undiluted shade like that.

 

I love it.

[cam5y]

That's not shade. That's a straight up burn.

[Dancingthrulife2]

Audrey33 said: "I'd love to know how Phillipa Soo feels about all of this considering she has the Great Comet connection, she has the Oak/Hamilton connection and she's a woman of color so has that perspective too. Would be interesting.

 

"

You can't just expect any woman not of Caucasian heritage to have "that perspective," especially when one's upbringing has more to do with the "perspective" he or she has than simply the color of skin. I know for a fact that many of my Asian American friends are just as oblivious to issues such as race and gender as most people not negatively affected by them.

[schubox]

Dancingthrulife2 said: "If, I mean IF, this article is true, I wonder whether Chavkin would insist Mandy "play it as written, reminding him repeatedly that he was a 'replacement'" and how she would feel if Many would end up not being able to play the piano and accordion parts.

 

"

She probably would have insisted he okay it as written. The lyrics are structured pretty intricately. And Mandy wasn't given 4 months of lead time. They were brought in for different reasons and expectations. I'm sure learning new instruments in a couple of weeks was never asked or expected of Mandy. When you give a youngish star months of lead time and he promises to be prepared and, allegedly, doesn't even know all his lines let alone the new instruments, that has to be frustrating. I'm sure if he had come in to rehearsals fully prepared she would have been a lot more open to his interpretations and requests 

[Bibliot]

 said: "I'm not saying that Cassata is wrong but what about  Azudi's lengthy essay defending Oak that Denee co signed on?  Azudi and Cassata were both in the building so to speak but they seem to have very different ideas of what really happened 

"

This is a misreading of Azudi's posts. 80% of what he wrote was insisting it was NOT a race-based or racist decision, it was about capitalism, Rachel and Dave were allies, and it was totally wrong to have this pitchfork mentality. He said he liked and respected Oak and yeah, race always exists and matters. But he was very clearly defending the show from the accusations.

Nothing Azudi wrote is in conflict with what Riedel's article says transpired behind the scenes.  

 

[JayElle]

agree Bibliot

[PaulWom]

As a side note, seeing Ariana DeBose tweet now that everyone should go see GC is a delicious irony, especially because she praised Mandy for pulling out.

[Audrey33]

Dancingthrulife2 said: "Audrey33 said: "I'd love to know how Phillipa Soo feels about all of this considering she has the Great Comet connection, she has the Oak/Hamilton connection and she's a woman of color so has that perspective too. Would be interesting.

 

"

You can't just expect any woman not of Caucasian heritage to have "that perspective," especially when one's upbringing has more to do with the "perspective" he or she has than simply the color of skin. I know for a fact that many of my Asian American friends are just as oblivious to issues such as race and gender as most people not negatively affected by them."

This is a reach, Phillipa has spoken about these things before. I'm Asian-American myself.

[Lot666]

VintageSnarker said: "Sally Durant Plummer said: ""

Nothing against you, Hogan,[...] what's the point in posting [...] To show you know more than all of us?

Fixed it for you. This. It's always this."

[smidge]

I don't wish to be antagonistic, just trying to clarify something. Unless Hogan is a principal involved with every aspect of this production, how is he able to discount anyone's version of events. Is he just saying he knows absolutely nothing, like the rest of us know absolutely nothing, about the truth of the matter.

[PaulWom]

A friend just sent me this- apparently Casal has been liking tweets linking him to Comet's demise. I just... 

 

https://twitter.com/TheBrendanV/status/895073116560470017

[Call_me_jorge]

Rafael needs to go back under his bridge. 

[AC126748]

Maybe Casal subscribes to the any-press-is-good-press theory? Because I'd certainly never heard his name before he inserted himself in this fiasco, and now I know who he is.

[HogansHero]

there are several well-meaning posts in this thread suggesting that Groban did everything he needed to do and attempting to draw a parallel to Midler. 

That's an appealing narrative, but simply not accurate. After the entire time Groban spent in the show it had recouped only about a quarter of the capitalization. I am not laying the blame on him at all, but by design the production required a LOT more. Midler by contrast delivered that "more." Over the same number of frames Dolly will have a healthy profit and whether or not it can find a way to sustain a post-Midler life, it will have been a huge success. As I said before, Comet has NEVER had a path to success, unless one was convinced Groban could render the demand for tickets up in the Midler stratosphere.

[GlindatheGood22]

Poor, poor beautiful show. It's ten o'clock in the morning and I've already had far too much internet for today.

As for Oak, I hope he gets booed for the rest of his run.

[raddersons]

I'm in shock. I knew this was coming but didn't know it would hurt this bad when the news broke.

Pure speculation: Oak/Casal used race to control the narrative of him getting fired, so that instead of it being "Oak was fired because he was unprepared and didn't learn the accordion or know his lines", it was "Oak was fired due to racism."  And it would have worked if Mandy didn't drop the show and Dave didn't tweet how the show was on its last legs. It put the final nails in the coffin of a struggling show and possibly ruined his career.

[GlindatheGood22]

raddersons said: "I'm in shock. I knew this was coming but didn't know it would hurt this bad when the news broke.

Pure speculation: Oak/Casal used race to control the narrative of him getting fired, so that instead of it being "Oak was fired because he was unprepared and didn't learn the accordion or know his lines", it was "Oak was fired due to racism."  And it would have worked if Mandy didn't drop the show and Dave didn't tweet how the show was on its last legs. It put the final nails in the coffin of a struggling show and possibly ruined his career.

Sounds right.

"

 

[schubox]

PaulWom said: "A friend just sent me this- apparently Casal has been liking tweets linking him to Comet's demise. I just... 

 

https://twitter.com/TheBrendanV/status/895073116560470017

 

"

He's just doing it to troll 

[HogansHero]

raddersons said: "Pure speculation: Oak/Casal used race to control the narrative of him getting fired, so that instead of it being "Oak was fired because he was unprepared and didn't learn the accordion or know his lines", it was "Oak was fired due to racism."  And it would have worked if Mandy didn't drop the show and Dave didn't tweet how the show was on its last legs. It put the final nails in the coffin of a struggling show and possibly ruined his career."

But to suggest that is why Oak was fired is a pure invention. I realize you are just speculating but to suggest this is some conspiracy (and that's your speculation) has no foundation. (And to be clear, that comment is not intended to address the merits of the racism claims, in either direction.)

[JustAnotherNewYorker]

HogansHero said: "raddersons said: "Pure speculation: Oak/Casal used race to control the narrative of him getting fired, so that instead of it being "Oak was fired because he was unprepared and didn't learn the accordion or know his lines", it was "Oak was fired due to racism."  And it would have worked if Mandy didn't drop the show and Dave didn't tweet how the show was on its last legs. It put the final nails in the coffin of a struggling show and possibly ruined his career."

But to suggest that is why Oak was fired is a pure invention. I realize you are just speculating but to suggest this is some conspiracy (and that's your speculation) has no foundation. (And to be clear, that comment is not intended to address the merits of the racism claims, in either direction.)"

I have to say, I think Hogan is mostly right on this one (even though I think it contradicts something he wrote before). Had they not gotten Mandy with a TV scheduling restriction, they would have left Oak in for the three weeks then run with Mandy-giving them another 3 weeks to find a replacement. The racism charge was purely due to a set of blinders that only allowed some people to view any slight through the lens of racism coupled with a propensity to tweet first and think later.

He's also right that the ultimate responsibility for the failure is the producers not lining up an A-lister (of Brendon Urie stature) as a replacement months ago. Given the 4 months they gave Oak to learn the instruments and parts, they should have had a signed contract months ago, not been still in discussions now.

Did the outcry accelerate the closing? Possibly. Would the show have closed sometime in the early fall without this mess? Probably. I don't see a road forward without someone to bring in the tourist crowd

[PaulWom]

2 Days Later: Oak confesses to the whole thing, HogansHero maintains that all the accusations are just speculation. 

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

A friend in the cast called me to talk for about 45 minutes last night...we've been friends for over a decade and I truly trust and believe them. The stories coming out are sad, disheartening, and flat out ugly. The cast is proud of what they've done over the past 5 years to few months, depending on the members length of involvement, but there's a lot feelings of things being incomplete.

As much as the people involved--not just the cast, but the crew and everyone involved with the production--just want to walk away from the current ugliness and have some closure, I don't think this will neatly tie itself up on September 3.

[HennySlay]

Which cast members have spoke out against Oak? I haven't seen any on social media.

[asimplegal2]

Loving those shady tweets. 

Also ironic that Groban, the "big name" superstar has gotten praise from the cast for his professionalism, kindness, etc. and it turns out Oak the unknown is the diva! I guess you never know with these people.

And yes, Oak is an unknown, despite Hamilton fans trying to convince themselves otherwise.

[asongaboutlove]

Itonlytakesajourney said: "Ever since his "I've done other things than Hamilton" phrase on his playbill bio, I've known Oak was rude and, generally speaking, disrespectful. I hope this story gets out to more people and it gets recognized, let's try to see the Oak apologists play the victim card now. 

 

"

he puts "I have done things" in all of his playbill bios. it's not that deep. there are plenty of things to be mad about here. playbill bios are not one of them

 

[raddersons]

HogansHero said: "But to suggest that is why Oak was fired is a pure invention."

I understand that his run was ultimately cut short because they needed a bigger name to sell more tickets. However by that point, he was already making a bad name for himself (amongst Chavkin by not doing the work), and speculation was already floating about why he was starting a week late (because he didn't do the work). Why not control the narrative so that when someone asks Rachel how Oak was during the show and and she says "He didn't do the work", he already has an edge? "No, they fired me for a white star because they think black stars can't sell tickets!"

Side-note, black stars can sell tickets. Oak is not a star.

HogansHero said: "I realize you are just speculating but to suggest this is some conspiracy (and that's your speculation) has no foundation. (And to be clear, that comment is not intended to address the merits of the racism claims, in either direction.)"

I'm not saying it was a conspiracy to close the show, obviously no one wanted to do that. I just think Oak wanted to control the narrative for his own reputation.