Great Comet TRUE STORY

[troynow]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 3:50pm

here are the facts:

 

oak showed up day 1 well over 3 months behind schedule. There was preperation that never took places. Lessons never attended and paid for by the show.

this set Rachel off DAY 1. So rehearsals were already off to a horrible horrible start because e began behind. Thats aside, to HELP HIM. His opening was delayed a week.

Also to assist the box office with Oak coming into the show, Ingrid stepped in and Brittan stepped aside for a small period of time. This plan was used to "roll out Oak" into a new show. To get him up and running and real following. 

One week into Oak's arrival at the actual show Rachel yes Rachel went into Oak's deessing room and fired him. Told him he was awful and being replaced by Mandy Pantik& . Which was untre. Rachel speaking to Oak BEFORE Oak's agent and Press Rep had a chance to get around Oak and explain the roll out plan. The SAME plan used with Brittan and Ingrid, and Betsy Wolfe And Sara Barelles... the plan was to do a joint press conference with mandy and oak and announce a return, NONE of that happened when Rachel opened her mouth and fired oOak.

Oak went solent, rumors swirled and now the show is cloaing. There was never NEVER any racial overtones here. Rachel over stepped as a director, Oak is good working actor who showed up un prepared, and then his silence allowed these things to continue. 

If these people would simply come clean and stop "leaking" things to the press, and putting their fellow actors out of jobs none of this would be happening. 

Take responsibility for the actions they created! Let other people know who was at fault so the show could be saved. But at this rate it will not happen.

the black white conversation does not apply to this show. People should really stop commenting on this rhetoric. Encourage peole to buy tickets. Make the show a better place to come to work so other people will lnow being apart of the wonderful company that is The Great Comet pf 1812 is stunning and beautiful. Otherwise it will sink. 

 

All because of a few folks who will not speak up. And others who have NO knowledge first hand have put put some bad press!

 

[Itonlytakesajourney]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 3:53pm

This is interesting to read but it's very hard to when there are numerous grammar mistakes and previous threads for this. Nonetheless, it's sad what happened to the entire production in general. 

[leighmiserables]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 4:00pm

I don't really believe Rachel Chavkin would say that Oak was "awful" or being replaced like that. She's a professional and that claim is extremely inconsistent with what those who actually know her have said about her as a director/person.

Do you have a source? A connection to the show? Anything to make us believe you beyond your own word? 

Updated On: 8/10/17 at 04:00 PM

[JayElle]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 4:17pm

Okay, Troy...  Can you elaborate how you know all this?  If you can identify source, it might help.

I will agree that Oak wasn't that good.  I saw him 2 days into his first week and I was sorely disappointed, but I expected it.  I've said since winter he wasn't a good fit, but so many chatters here disagreed.  He had a minor Ham role.  Ergo, I believed Hagan only wanted to exploit the Ham moniker and not skill.

Why wasn't anyone contacting him from day 1 to question his no shows?  What was he doing since February?  Some article  said he asked for performance changes to accommodate his style and Rachel said no.  Why didn't they dump him earlier?

But one question I had but never heard answered was, why was his term limited to July - Sept. I read he would only commit to that. Why? And what did the producers and Malloy doing to fill that Sept slot.

Oak performed much better last night than he did at the 2pm matinee.  He strongly belted out Dust & Ashes, but in other songs he sounded flat.  And he never does more than a whisper to the final song/speak with Natasha where he says he'd ask to marry her if he was free. If you weren't on the stage, it's a bare whisper.

And what's with all the nasty comments prior to mine?

[JayElle]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 4:20pm

I never believed the staff weren't ready for Oak following Groban.  My first thought was he didn't want to follow Groban with only a day between them.  Getting Malloy on the stage created an expectation buffer, i.e., lower your expectations.   That's when I saw Malloy for first time.  He's no Groban; neither is Oak.  Hell, Dixon from Shuffle Along and Ham has a better voice than Oak.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 4:36pm

From what I have heard this all is basically true.  I wouldn't put Chavkin in such hot water however.  She did her job.  Oak didn't do his.  He was unprepared and gave a very rough performance early on in his run and his performance is still pretty inconsistent.  His performance at the box office has also been extremely weak.  He wasn't a good fit for the show and was fired.  It wasn't about the color of his skin.

As for Margo, I really wish they would just ban you already.  You rarely contribute anything and you usually are just calling people names and telling them to die.  You really need to pull yourself together.

[schubox]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 5:00pm

If he was really doing no prep work and skipping lessons the show was paying for, how would the show not know? I assumed he told them he was doing the work and progressing and they took his word for it.

if they set it up and he literally did nothing, wouldn't the people supposed to teach him call and say, "uh this dude isn't showing up." And if they either weren't checking on his progress, or taking his word for it, they have to assume some responsibility for that 

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 5:01pm

This is pretty much the basic story I heard. As immature it may be to say, there are many people in the cast who have their "feelings" hurt and believe that the breakdown and ending of the show did NOT have to be what we saw.

 

[Rainah]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 5:07pm

I don't know if I believe that of Rachel. Complete opposite from what I've heard from the stagedoor manager (Who was free and strong with his praise of her levelheadness and lack of ego) and from a friend of a friend who is her assistant director on Hadestown 

Posted: 8/10/17 at 5:14pm

troynow said:

Oak went solent

 

Solent green is actors!

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 5:19pm

@Rainah: Subject the most polite person you know to these circumstances and see if they would break. It happens as easily to saints as to sinners. I could be the most polite person on earth (I'm not, asking FindingNamo if he ever comes back), but if I had an actor who I brought in that didn't do their job, and I gave them the olive branch of accommodations hoping this was a fluke, and then discovered when they finally came to the table that they were terrible, I'm pretty sure I'd lose my decorum in a hot second.

And it would look something like this:

Updated On: 8/10/17 at 05:19 PM

[Timothy Davis]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 6:05pm

Can anyone explain how this was the same for Sara and Betsy? I understand Britain and Ingrid. Sara was just a buffer between Jessie and Betsy, no one was replaced or cut short. 

[Phillytheatreguy10]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 6:08pm

If any of that story is true, they made a hell of a lot of concessions for an, as you put it "hard working" actor- which is instantly negated by your acknowledgement of his unpreparedness.  The production spent money it didn't need to spend on Ingrid then, not only salary, but also promotion.  How any Director put up with that from- get ready for it- a virtually unrecognizable name outside of Hamilton, seems inconceivable.  You're also overlooking the fact Oak himself tweeted that "they weren't ready" in regard to his start date being pushed back- which seems wholly untrue based on several reports, that though conflicting, have always had unpreparedness as a factor.  In all honesty, as soon as he hit that rehearsal room unprepared on Day 1 he should've been let go and cited as being in violation of his contract- hindsight is 20/20, but think about where the show might be had this whole fiasco have been avoided from the first sign of trouble.  Then, IMO, to almost literally brag about not being prepared in a tweet is really ballsy and another red flag.  I don't wish ill will on anyone, but I think when this resume comes across any casting director's desk, there will be great pause...poison Oak- PERIOD

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 7:37pm

From the OP, my new favorite oxymoron:

"Oak is good working actor who showed up unprepared."

[hmph]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 9:08pm

Well this sounds like a ****show. All this happened, and Oak's buddy Rafael Casal still took up for his cause, straight away cheapening the complex discussion that should be had about race? And Cynthia Erivo, for all her talent, really had no idea what was going on--so her "sticking up for both actors and the rest of the cast" or whatever was nonsense. That one in particular annoys me because I liked her so much after seeing The Color Purple and in a few interviews, but she was so so so wrong about everything and you'll never hear otherwise from her.

[JayElle]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 10:09pm

I'd love to see an investigative journalist do a Sunday Mag NY Times feature story of several pages documenting all that went down over 6 months.  To me, it's a great mystery story.

Unless you're on drugs or booze, why would an up&coming actor behave so incompetently?  That's what I don't get.  I could understand a personality clash b/w Oak and Rachael if she was a determined director giving directions and he was a "let me mold it to suit me" kind of person.

And why did Oak limit his show tenure to July to Sept?  Was this a bridge for income while he shopped contracts like his Ham brothers who went onto  starring in TV shows or movies.  Or did they just want him for a few months? And did producers make any plans for other Pierre leads?

All of this is like an incredible jigsaw puzzle that needs to be put together, if only for the hell of it.  OR, as a "don't do this" manual for folks in the trade.   I feel so bad for those cast members who did a hell of a job every night and who wanted to continue but for the selfish nonsense of a few.

 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 10:27pm

I get that maybe he wanted to mold the part to suit him better, but he's coming in as a replacement. There are certain marks you have to hit, etc, to make the show work. It's not going to be an organic process. It's going to be cross here cross there because the lights are programmed to hit you there. That's what a replacement is, and then you work within those boundaries. But maybe he didn't get that? Who knows.

[JayElle]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 10:44pm

Ohhhh, I didn't realize the timing of body movements to the lights.  Kinda like walking in a room and the light sensor comes on.  But even if he had to be on spot X at minute Y, I would've thought he'd have freedom to  work within that.  

For example, when Josh sang the line in Dust/Ashes while standing at the stage's end,  "bury me in burgundy, I don't care," he bent over low pushing his hand to the ground as if he was covering up a grave.  Oak just stood there singing with little body movement until he walked to the upper rail when he belted out the song to a standing ovation.

They all do it differently.  I guess I don't understand why being a replacement is different than first run, unless first run establishes the roadmap.

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 10:57pm

What I don;t get is why a show that ran off-Broadway for years and had numerous tryouts, was consistently in the millionaire club for many months with Josh and even after Josh left was making over 800k a week found themselves so short of funds that they couldn't even weather a few weeks. Oak or no Oak this screams major financial mismanagement. 

Seriously, where did the money go?

[JayElle]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 11:19pm

Where did the $ go?  Read this:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/leeseymour/2017/08/04/what-broadway-can-learn-from-the-great-comet-debacle/#344a8d5c8e63

[JayElle]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 11:20pm

Here's another:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2017/08/08/great-comet-controversy-could-continue-after-closing/#177e848a2c31

[RippedMan]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 11:30pm

There's def. freedom to work within the frame work, but it's like seeing Wicked. Every Elphaba is essentially going to have the same blocking/movement, but are free to make choices within that construct. I saw the show in the tent and saw Oak, and I thought Oak just didn't suit the part. It felt like he was trying to hard to fit into it and it just wasn't working. I'm excited to go back and see Scott or Dave. 

[JayElle]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 11:36pm

I'm glad RippedMan agrees.  I thought I was alone.  I didn't think Oak would fit when they first announced him. I saw Oak in Ham and loved him.  But the finesse of Josh vs the rough Oak just couldn't reconcile in my head.  Now I've seen Oak a couple of times.  He's gotten better since his first appearance.  And he got ovations each time.  He just needed time or at least a month.

He added humor to the role that Josh didn't and the audience loved his facial expressions. In fact, the cast was cutting up a lot on Wednesday, 8/9 that brought roars.

I keep hoping a miracle will keep it open, but not likely.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 11:39pm

I honestly feel that there's a good chance that Casal "stood up" for Oak when it wasn't his thing to do. In other words it came across to me that he was stand up for Oak without talking to him first. Granted, I don't know if that's the actual story, just the thought I had when I read about it initially. 

Also, I think that the racial story that's part of all this is a bit silly. Let's be real here, they never had a good idea as to what to do in terms of casting after Groban left the show. They thought that, if they advertised the hell out of the fact that Oak was in Hamilton, that the Hamilton connection would work and sell tickets. Clearly that wasn't the case. And, even if Mandy did do the show, the bump in box office sales might have been enough to cover the wound but not stop the bleeding altogether. To me, this feels like a situation of the powers that be there simply dropping the ball and not planning very well long term. 

[JayElle]

Posted: 8/10/17 at 11:51pm

Poor planning?  Yup, no doubt.  Hedge fund folks are generally sophisticated gamblers.  Looks like Hagan didn't gamble right. They should've had a replacement lined up for Groban and Oak in early Spring.

I thought the show needed some serious editing to tighten up the story.  Sometimes being too busy isn't good.  Theater goers seem to like simplicity like DEH and ComeFrom Away. Simple story, easily told.