The Fairy Princess got up this morning to find that the Producers of Maybe Happy Ending, the TONY Award winning production of MAYBE HAPPY ENDING, which is set in Seoul, Korea – intends to replace Darren Criss, who is of Asian descent, with Andrew Barth Feldman – who is an Evan from Dear Evan Hansen, and in, in real life, the boyfriend of Helen J. Shen, who stars in this show.

(They made that part of the marketing, which is the only reason TFP mentions it)

Was Zach Piser (star of KPOP the musical, and a Broadway Evan Hansen, & recently closed on Bway, REDWOOD) not available?

It is giving – for those of you who know TFP is Australian, real throwback vibes of the Sydney Opera House production of The King & I, starring Lisa McCune and HER then boyfriend, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, as The King of Siam. Teddy was not Asian. Teddy is still not Asian. He teaches now in Adelaide.

Anyway, TFP wrote about it and then they replaced him with Lou Diamond Phillips, and then when LDP hurt his foot – he was replaced by Jason Scott Lee. Both Mr. Philips and Mr. Lee are of Asian descent.

It was whitewashing then, and it is whitewashing now.

Look, there are some kickass people in Maybe Happy Ending, and Helen J. Shen is one of them – so this is not to come down on ANY of the Actors in the show.

Actors go where they are hired, and right now, the Producers have made this decision to hire a non Asian-descended actor to replace an Asian descended actor – when there is LEGIT AANHPH TALENT ALL OVER BROADWAY!

Has folks feeling all…

However the tone deafness of this casting is particularly painful because:

  1. The show has been touted for it’s casting
  2. This upcoming Broadway season does not, as of yet – seem to have ANY AANHPI leads other than Keanu Reeves, and that is only if you can afford the $150-$950 tickets now available for WAITING FOR GODOT – so frankly, Maybe Happy Ending is ‘it’ for representation right now
  3. AANHPIs just had a remarkable winning TONY season, and now, poof – it goes away just like that
  4. Maybe Happy Ending does not need ‘stars’ – it doesn’t. Whoever plays Oliver becomes, de facto, a Broadway star.

Again, was Zach Piser busy? Cuz…

Ahem.

(No, Zach Piser has no idea TFP is throwing his hat into the ring for this show, it is without his consent, and one should acknowledge that – he is a suggestion based on Mr. Criss and who could replace him, and fulfill all the requirements – particularly having lead a Broadway cast before and having a fan base.)

TFP thinks replacing Darren Criss, who is a mixed Asian descended Actor with someone like Zach Piser, ALSO a mixed Asian descended Actor who has been on Broadway and headlined shows – truth be told the VERY SAME show that Mr. Feldman headlined, would have been a…stronger choice.

TFP was not going to randomly throw out names, however…perhaps she should..now these names are not specifically Korean – because we do not segregate on Broadway and TFP is against any kind of ‘blood quantum’ aspect of an AANHPI Actor excluding themselves from a role based on where one’s grandparents come from.

However she will throw out names – all have been in Broadway shows, all have had great reviews and impact and are very talented – and this is a few, not ALL –

However – and you can look them up:

Michael K. Lee, Kelvin Moon Loh, Marc delaCruz, Raymond J. Lee, Telly Leung, Kevin Woo, Eddy Lee, Conrad Ricamora, Timothy H. Lee, Kennedy Kanagawa, Abraham Lim, Joshua Lee, James Kho, Jinwoo Jung, John Yi etc, etc, etc…

They all should have been considered, because the show really does not make sense with a non AANHPI Helper Bot.

It just does not make sense.

The show takes place in a semi-distant future in Seoul.

Seoul is in South Korea.

Do we really need to go to one of TFP‘s parlor tricks and pull out a map?

FFS

See, that’s Korea – and it is located in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea – right below it is Japan. In between Japan and South Korea, specifically Seoul is Jeju Island – which plays a major part in the storyline. The Helper Bots drive a car from Seoul to the ferry at Jeju to see the fireflies.

However as performed, this show has always had AANHPI people in the lead roles of Oliver and Claire.

Despite where it is set, there IS a ‘white guy”.

Yes there is one role, Gil Brently, played by Dez Duron who is an amalgam of a white jazz pop singers like Frank Sinatra, like Dean Martin, like Michael Bublè – that is where we see ‘white representation’. In a show set in South Korea. ENTIRELY set in South Korea.

Otherwise the cast is entirely AANHPI – and it has been that way since the show opened and won TONY Awards, including Best Musical, Best Direction, Best Book, Best Score – yadda yadda, Congratulations on all of that…

TFP is a HUGE FAN of all the cast of MAYBE HAPPY ENDING.

She will share a photo now to acknowledge the HUGE PERSONAL RISK she is taking in writing about this at all, because this is NOT an attack on any of the actors coming in to the show, or currently in the show.

It is not right to ignore it either – and kudos to the Producers for shooting TFP’s BP right into the stratosphere with this announcement.

TFP thinks what happened is an ‘accident’ of proximity – there is a Broadway actor, he is around all the time, there is a role the Producers need to fill for 9 weeks – 2 months and a week, and they figure, “Why not?” – after all vocally it is a match and this is the point that TFP thinks it hung on:

Helper Bots are not an ‘actual thing’, they are a made up thing, and Helper Bots are something people in this musical ‘order for purchase’, so yes, ostensibly these South Korean owners – these South Korean owners of the Helper Bots ‘could’ order a non-Korean appearing robot.

To serve all needs in a very Korean household.

Because there is nothing Koreans from Korea like more than diaspora in their homes….

Helper Bots are clearly a South Korean ‘thing’ because the owners that they show of these robots are of South Korean Descent. There has been a climate issue or climate crisis, and that is affecting how people are able to live without assistance, it could also be post the 4B movement in Korea which results population decline. The writers do not ‘spell it out’, but clearly, there is an issue there.

That is their background, and here are who plays the ‘owners’ of these Helper Bots – Arden Cho, who is killing it now as the voice of Rumi in KPOP Demon Hunters on Netflix, is Helper Bot Claire’s owner.

Marcus Choi is Helper Bot Oliver’s owner.

So while TFP can almost ‘hear’ what the justification is for this casting, she thinks that it does not fulfill the the classic way in which actors/directors break down a piece – which is:

WHO – who is this character including physical description, likes, dislikes, cultural background

WHAT – what is the circumstance in which this character is appearing

WHEN – when in the time of the show, when in the time of the writer’s career, and when specifically in the character’s life is this happening

WHERE – physical location generally and then, specifically, and then nuances – in his apartment, in the kitchen, at noon…etc

WHY – why today? Why this moment? Why is whatever happening, why is it happening now?

HOW– How did they get to this point, in the show, in the moment

Now, there have been quotes from the creative team, so there is nothing to be done, except reiterate that this casting does not make sense to TFP, but she can only assume they wanted to use the real life element to propel ticket sales, which, hey – it’s not show friendship, it is show business.

Also, folks may be angry with one of the creators signing off on this- Hue Park, but TFP wants to remind everyone that Creatives who come from a mostly homogeneous country do not travel outside their country with the intent of ‘representing’ for, in this case, AANHPIs.

We have seen this again and again from Filmmakers and Writers of the Asian diaspora- so this should not be a surprise- just an oddly familiar disappointment.

‘We’ cannot honestly be that angry with Mr. Park because he is not going to ‘get ‘ it- and, one supposes we should not expect him to- although he did study at NYU and the show literally campaigned on diversity.

In which case, it was never about representation- it was always about a check.

She still thinks it is a mistake.

It ends Michael Arden’s record of being the one director who felt like a safe space to People of Color – and this may not even be his choice. However by pulling a quote from him and the composing team and putting it in the press release, it is giving them no choice but to go stand behind it. The check has to clear.

TFP does not think this is a choice by Casting Director Bernie Telsey or his team, they have long been a champion of diversity on Broadway and beyond. In some respects Broadway only started to change when Bernie Telsey came on the scene, and TFP does not say that lightly.

The casting of RENT changed things. It changed things for her personally and for her friends, she saw it – so no, she does not hold casting responsible. They were instructed to bring the actor in for a music run through and then send over a contract.

This is quite clearly a Producer choice.

However TFP will add- if the hook was AANHPI Casting, but the intention was not to keep it once the awards were awarded- DO NOT SET THE SHOW IN SOUTH KOREA, A REAL and ACTUAL PLACE!

If a non AANHPI Cast was going to come up- then do not have them travel from Seoul to Jejun Island, make up somewhere and have them travel from A to B. Do not name anything for Korean culture- because it MAKES NO SENSE!

Key producers for Maybe Happy Ending include Jeffrey Richards, Hunter Arnold, and Darren Criss. Other producers include Rebecca Gold, Spencer Ross, Adam Zotovich, Kayla Greenspan, M/B/P Productions, Fahs Productions, Ken Greiner, Ruth Hendel, Willette and Manny Klausner, Cody Lassen, Mix and Match Productions, The Nederlander Organization, and Jacob Stuckelman & John Albert Harris. 

Lotta names there, we’ll have to remember them….particularly Hunter Arnold…

TFP ventures a guess that for the next few months, the audience for this show will look different. It robs the soul from the production set in Seoul, and that is a shame.

None of the cast has anything to do with it, so please do not harass anyone. We only ‘vote’ on Broadway by purchasing a ticket, so that is all you can do – vote with your ticket choices.

TICKET CHOICES ONLY – do NOT enact hideous internet trolling on any of the Actors and the Creative Team of this show please – there HAS to be a standard here, there HAS to be. Theater MUST hold itself to a higher standard than The House and Congress and certainly, The White House.

You can be sad about it – TFP is sad about it – but making the lives of people who live to entertain you miserable, is NOT IT – get it?

IF you DO want to see a show, starring an AANHPI – you can join TFP this Sunday at The Cutting Room and see ALEC MAPA as he rolls out his next comedy special at 7PM

44 East 32nd Street, NYC, NY 10016 (2120 691-1900

All right then, another day, another time to be AANHPI and be…wistful.

Rather a slap coming right off a very exciting Awards season, but hey – hopefully they will feel the difference and make amends.

People can only learn at the rate they learn, and that is it.

TFP out.