BROADWAY'S BIGGEST SCANDALS AND CONTROVERSIES!

that was all Harvey Weinstein's fault I mean that's kind of Savage hmm hi how are you I hope you're very very well today's video is a little bit different and I kind of feel like Shane Dawson when he did his conspiracy videos but also these aren't conspiracies these are real things that really happened but these aren't the biggest scandals or injustice ease all like drama bad things that happened in theater ever I'm sure bigger things happened that I don't know about but these are actually just some of the things that I have known about for a while I thought it would be interested interested I thought it would be interesting to talk about them cause the other day I was talking about one of these things with my mom and she was like I had no idea that that producer was even on that show and I never knew that that happened so I thought it would be interesting I'm gonna do my best to get all of the facts right obviously I was not involved in any of these dramas myself but this is all through research I tried to get as much information as physically possible so if there is anything wrong it's not my fault so yeah I feel like we should just go right into it some are kind of less dramatic and some are more dramatic and I I'm done doing disclaimers so the first one I wanted to talk about was Beetlejuice it's not really a huge scandal or whatever but basically Beetlejuice is a show that is on Broadway at the moment and it's great but it's doing really really well if broke box office records at Thanksgiving in 2019 and it's like making back all of its investment it's doing great selling sell it and then the other day we've got a closing notice so the show is gonna be closing in June of 2020 even though it's still making money it's really successful but the Shuba organization who kind of owned a chunk of the theaters on Broadway they want to put the music man with Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman into the Winter Garden Theatre where Beetlejuice currently is and they've not found another theatre for it so they're like what so we're just gonna close it and put it on tour instead and it's like no I think it's such a shame I mean it's always sad when a Broadway show closes or any show closes because I always think of all of the people who work on that production whether it be the cast their crew front of house you know there's always a big change around for all of those people and some people are gonna be losing their jobs some might get something else so might get to go on the tour but whatever it is it's sad and that's number one I think it's really sad that they've not tried to find it another theatre they've just kind of been like well The Music Man is coming in so you're gonna have to go aren't you Beale juice really right my second one is to do with Jonathan Pryce playing the engineer in Miss Saigon so he started the production play in the engineer who is half French half the enemies and Jonathan Pryce is a white man and so he was in the English production on the West End playing somebody who would normally be played by an Asian actor and has since on Broadway and in the Western revival and everything was played by an Asian actor now apparently nobody had an issue with it on the West End in the 90s I think it was I think it was early 90s but apparently nobody had an issue with that but when he went to Broadway people were protesting and breaking into the theatre and things because it should be played by an Asian actor I've read a lot about it and apparently at the time equity said well isn't it discriminatory to say that that character needs to be played by an Asian actor because the character is half French and half Vietnamese so he's saying that they have to have a certain look but and here is the big annoying thing when Jonathan Pryce played the engineer he was made to wear eye prosthetics and he was made to wear bronzer to give him a darker skin tone therefore you are saying that that you should have an Asian look but you're saying that an Asian character doesn't need to play that role that's contradictory and I disagree I mean he went along he still played on Broadway he won a Tony for it whatever I've never seen his performance I didn't see it on Broadway because I was literally a baby I don't know I seen him interviewed about it as well and he's like well the thing is I was the right actor at the time and you know they did audition Asian actors and there wasn't anybody right and I was the right actor for it and he also said it was the easiest role he's ever played as well I don't know it comes across a bit big-headed and a bit entitled for my liking I just think they've managed to find Asian actors since then so why couldn't they find one at the time they went over to the Philippines and found Lea Salonga why didn't they spend a little bit more time finding some need to play the engineer I mean what is quite interested as well he wouldn't probably been too young at the time but John John who played the engineer in the West End and the Broadway revival of a couple years ago he was actually in the original production of Miss Saigon so the person who then went on to play on Broadway was in that production and you're saying that they couldn't find anyone who was good enough to play that role hmm I just think that's kind of wrong okay so the reason I'm actually doing this video is because I talked about it in another video I did the other day where I was talking about finding Netherland and Finding Neverland had a really interesting story it was originally written and they did like a production in the UK and then apparently it just panned I didn't even know that this was a thing but I found it in my research and then apparently Gary Barlow rewrote the musical with James Graham doing the book Gary Barlow doing the music and Harvey Weinstein was kind of the main executive producer on it the year before it came to Broadway they had Jennifer Hudson perform a song from Finding Neverland on the Tonys and everyone was like hmm interested but sometimes they throw a little random one in there on the Tonys so not too crazy but a little bit like that's interesting that that was put in before it was even on Broadway so it's quite interesting but you know he's got loads and money clearly like managed to pay his way in or whatever then they were doing the show on Broadway with Matthew Morrison Laura Michelle Kelly Kelsey Grammer and I mean you've got those three big Broadway names in there and you think well they're gonna get some nominations for something at least even if it's not for Best Musical they're gonna get it for something and then Tony nominations came around and they went on it was so sad because Laura Michelle Kelly was vlogging for broadway.com at the time and she was talking about it in there and she was like that's a bit weird but we're all keeping our spirits open it was really sad actually because obviously when a show doesn't get Tony nominations it has the tendency to not then progress and to close quite early you know the Tonys are a big thing in American audiences and on Broadway people want to see the best new musical of the year they want to see the one with the most Tony Awards and apparently that was all Harvey Weinstein's fault because he obviously aside from his sexual misconduct and sexual harassment and everything as a producer he obviously used to do these big campaigns with the Academy voters for the Oscars and would really like Ram it down pupils throw and invite them to these lush parties so they would vote for his films and so that he would get the most Oscars he used to get Oscar after Oscar after Oscar on sometimes films that didn't maybe deserve them compared to others but I'm breaking off so apparently he had this same tactic with the Broadway community and the Tony Committee apparently were not so keen on that and they didn't like that he thought that he could just throw his money at things and his bolshie attitude but also in the process of the creation of the show Harvey Weinstein was apparently hiring and firing everybody and anybody he was getting people who are well-loved in the Broadway community and well-respected and he was replacing them and dropping them without care and not kind of appreciating people's place in the Broadway community and kind of going in all guns blazing and just thinking that he can just order his way through and apparently he was like trolland Gary Barlow around making him perform at events and stuff being like hey Tony's I've got Gary Barlow from take listen to him sing it the Broadway community didn't like that and then they they didn't get any Tony nominations and even worse than that they still had to perform at Tony's I don't know how kind of the the booking and everything works but Matthew Morrison and Kelsey Grammer still performed stronger at the Tony Awards even though they had no nominations not one single nomination which is like a little bit unheard of and it was weird and that's really sad and then obviously with no Tony nominations shows kind of close but isn't that interesting apparently they wanted it to come over to the UK as well this is what I heard through the brick ban and what Bollywood you mean even heard it heard yeah apparently they wanted to bring Finding Neverland over to the UK as well and that has just never happened I heard the reason of it was to do with Gary Barlow also at the music for the girls which is the calendar girls musical and that started in the UK apparently Harvey Weinstein was like but I wanted Finding Neverland to be Gary Barlow's first English musical oh no that's just what I heard through the grapevine okay worse next so I think that we have to talk about Mr Rama saw Emma Emma I think I'm saying that right but it could be saying it wrong but he was a dancer in the New York City Ballet and he was fired from the company for sending explicit pictures of one of his female company members to other members of the company without her permission and so that was bad enough I mean I don't know it really reminds me of like you know when you were at school and it'd be one girl who'd sent a picture to a boy and then it'd gone around the whole school it's like why a grown men doing this do you not know that there's enough consenting naked ladies on the Internet why do you have to do it to the people that you know without their permission just do things consensually lad really so he was fired for sexual misconduct but then apparently the Union decided that it was too harsh to fire him so he was brought back into the ballet and he's since been cast in in revival of West Side Story and I don't know the thing is that it's not apparently a crime punishable by law and where is the line as to where some I can apologize and come back and whatever do you do one bad thing in your life and just be struck off forever it's an interesting discussion but for me my discomfort with it is because he has just said no she sent the pictures to me consensually and you know it wasn't like that and he's kind of denied the whole thing and that's where I think the issues lie because if he came forward and apologized and agreed to go through counseling and stuff apparently he's been ordered to do counseling but he's still saying that it was consensual and he wasn't at fault so I don't know it's a very gray oh it is an interesting discussion but I think if the other women in the company feel uncomfortable around him then something needs to be done to support them I understand that a union are there to kind of mediate and go through both sides of the story I think if he'd apologized and been and shown some remorse for it then I would have less of a difficulty with it but it's just like it's all been forgotten and it's like look at him he's now a principal dancer again and he's in the West Side Story and it's so great and it's all forgotten and I think that's where the issue lies but it is interesting as to when where the line is should he never be able to to dance professionally again or should it be through rehabilitation oh I don't know I'd be interested to know people's thoughts on that so it would be interesting to hear what you think so possibly one of the most famous Broadway scandals in history is Sunset Boulevard you might know about this but you might not so basically Patti LuPone was in Evita on Broadway and she then went over to London and played Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard on the West End and apparently it was in her contract that after the West End she would then transfer it over to Broadway and all would be good with the world and she'd be smashing her best life on Broadway but when she was in the production apparently Andrew Lloyd Webber was like mmm not sure Patty's the one for us to take this to Broadway so he got Barbra Streisand to come in and record some of the songs Glenn Close was also in a production of it in California and Andrew Lloyd Webber was seeing which are the ladies he thought should play the role and then in the end he gave it to Glenn Close she took it to Broadway and Patti LuPone was very angry apparently she like ripped up her dressing room and was like broke a lamp and I don't know like I understand that you're frustrated I understand but maybe it's because I'm not a terribly aggressive person but I just can't imagine ever be in the angry that I would like break things and it seems a bit kind of petulant in the end she ended up suing him for breach of contract for a million dollars and put a pool in our house and called it the Andrew Lloyd Webber mobile real pond I mean that's kind of Savage it's kind of great isn't it I think it's such an interesting story it's just a little quick one because it's nice and simple and it's all tied up now apparently her and Glenn closer pals now and she sang don't cry for me Argentina up some big award show a couple years ago so she's clearly fine with Andrew Lloyd Webber now so it's all in the past and she got a pool out of it you know what's not to love so my next one would be about Jeremy Jordan and the greatest showman so this is one that there's not really anything about it online but when I went to see his concert back in October he was like I've never really talked about this but I feel like in London the people are really nice so I'm going to tell you my story about the greatest showman and I was like I'm so ready basically many years ago pasok and Paul who wrote Dara vannhansen and edges and also the greatest showman and they contacted Jeremy Jordan and they said listen when making this film Hugh Jackman is gonna play PT Barnum could you just come in and sing all the tracks for us you're a great singer we love you could you just come and do this for his Jeremy so he was like absolutely Lance so he came in sang all the songs and was like I'll never play PT Barnum because I know Hugh Jackman's got that role so that's fine but he was like there was a little sidekick role in the film and I thought hmm maybe I could play that I'm paraphrasing but you know what I mean and so he went off living his best life being in supergirl live in LA and they were like listen we're gonna do like a big pitch to film producers that are gonna give us the green light to see if we can get this film made and they were like could you come in and sing the songs of Philip Carlisle and so he was like yes absolutely this could be my big break I could be in a big blockbuster film with Hugh Jackman this is gonna be great so he was in LA at the time but but this pitch was in New York and they said to him listen we can't afford to fly you out to New York so he was like laughs don't worry about it so Jeremy Jordan books and pays for his own flight to go over to New York apparently like two days before something he gets like the worst cold of his life he's like lost his voice cannot sing and he's like oh my god I have to get over this what am I gonna do so Jeremy Jordan it got cortisone shots I think it like gives you a boost of adrenaline or I'm not really sure how it works I don't know I used to watch it in this gymnastics program where they all used to take it but it like helps you get better really quick I don't know so again he paid for these shots so that he could get his voice through the performance so that he could hopefully be seen by these producers and they might offer him the part so he gets on the plane to New York while he's on the plane he gets an email saying that Hugh Jackman has got a form of cancer and he's had to have an emergency operation on his nose which means that he won't be able to sing so Jeremy Jordan please can you sing all of the songs for the pitch and jazz is like okay my voice hurts but okay you'll have all seen the video I think it's got like 30 million views on YouTube there's videos from that pitch of Hugh Jackman standing there Jerry Jordan singing and Hugh Jackman is sunning their emotive the songs through his face which is so weird whatever I've never been in a movie pitch maybe that's normal he said that it's all going all right he's singing fine but then when he has to sing rewrite the stars he said that his voice would really hate it and he said to Cynthia rivo name drop right who was playing Zendaya's part he was like listen I might balls this off if you could just riff over the top that'd be great and apparently she just laughed and then they started the song and apparently he said that it went like this Fernanda right this guy's been a big hit so bad so like losing his upper range and he said that it just wasn't very good and he felt really kind of frustrated by the end of it and the last song was from now on and he was like right this is my time to pull it back I've just messed it up I need to have my redemption moment I need to make sure that I can still be in this film or have a shot at it and he said that he started singing and Hugh Jackman was like shaking his head and he was like why shaking your head but still singing Hugh Jackman like nodding his head and he was like singing why you're not in Hugh Jackman and then he started singing and so Jeremy was like oh this is Hugh Jackman's moment and he's gonna have the moment and I'm not gonna get to redeem myself and Hugh Jackman finished the song and apparently like ripped all of the stitches out of his nose from his singing and he is fine by the way he also found out that later that day after this it all happened Hugh Jackman had contacted Zac Efron and offered him the part of Philip Carlyle so Jeremy Jordan did all of that and didn't get anything from it when lost money and he was like right that's a closed chapter of my life and then when the film came out they released the videos of the pitch so 30 million people saw him being involved in this project and obviously people like Jeremy I didn't know that you were involved in the greatest showmen and he was actually like that's actually quite a sad and stressful and upsetting thing and when you watch it you can kind of see a glint in his eye but when you watch it you would think that Jeremy Jordan was living his best life because he's like literally standing he's clapping his belt in his face off he looks like he's having an amazing time and when he talked about it at his concert it was heartbreaking I literally was crying like I took news that's that I'm emotional all that he just is a really good storyteller I just think it's so sad and to have that then played out in front of millions of people online is just awful I've only got one to go we're running out a battery so the final one would be Natasha Pierre and a great comment of 1812 I think is probably the biggest controversy the last decade in theater certainly the biggest one that I've ever heard of so basically Natasha Pierre in the great comet of 1812 was a show that was actor Muzo in the rack it was a very like different show for Broadway it was based on war and peace and it's a bit of a random one I suppose if you look at it on paper you think that's strange but against the odds it made it to Broadway it had Josh Groban in the lead role and Josh Groban is a very big star you know everyone knows him he was on Glee who is Josh Groban kill yourself and it was doing quite well and then after Josh Groban had to leave the show because he owed his record company in the album he wanted to go back on tour and he'd been in the show for a while he was like this is my time for a change so they got oak another one to play Pierre so he's gonna take over it so it's oak trim Hamilton if you don't know the difference is that Josh Groban is a household name most people know who he is oak not many people know who he is Hamilton fans do but other than that he's not got a huge fanbase so it was quite risky to have so many in who wasn't an a super household name in a show that was starting to lose money apparently before he started as well there were some issues with his ability to learn the role so Pierre had to obviously sing in act but also had to play the piano on the accordion and so oak had to learn how to do those things and I mean this is all what I've read online so you know I don't know and everything that you read has a bias so I'm trying to be as non bias on on either side of this but apparently oak was having difficulty with learning the role they had to delay his start date for the show and he said that they were misleading in how much you would have to do in the show which I think I don't know like when you're in theater there's always things that you have to do he's not been specific about what it is but in my opinion it would be things like playing the piano when somebody else is singing or whatever or playing the accordion in the ensemble they're the kinds of things because if it's not those kinds of things you've already seen the role so why wouldn't you know what he has to do you've seen Josh Groban play it you've seen it stage why aren't you paying attention to anyway I always think about like in laymen's for example Carrie hope Fletcher at the moment is playing front end but when she dies she then goes into the ensemble and plays somebody on the barricade there are things that you have to do in theater when you're not your role you have to do other things towards the show so that's the only thing I can maybe understand but I just think why weren't you aware when you signed up to what you had to do but anyway so apparently there were those issues anyway but they weren't making enough money and so then they decided to put oak on hold and get Mandy Patinkin in so Mandy Patinkin is from homeland which I've never seen but apparently that makes him famous I don't know I've never seen it but he was in Evita Sunday in the park with George a really famous Broadway star as well as being a household name as well and he hadn't been on Broadway in something like eighteen years so it was gonna be a huge thing so they decided to put oak on hold and bring in Monty Patinkin which is a thing that does happen a lot in theatres previously in that same show they had Britten Ashford play in a role and they put her on hold and brought ingrid michaelson who again is a household name into the show for a short amount of time to boost ticket sales and then ingrid would go out and then Britain continued Harold and they were gonna do the same thing with oak boats oak is a black actor and Mandy Patinkin is a white actor and it suddenly turned into a race issue people were saying that it's wrong for a black man to be taken out of the show and a white man to be brought in it's not fair it's not supporting Bahm actors and Dave Malloy who wrote the show says this did not even cross my mind we did the same thing with Britain and Ingrid and at the time had the most diverse cast on Broadway so he said the idea that this would be anything other than just thinking about the well-being of the show at the time and needing to just bring in some money and bring in a household name so we can continue the show for so many more people who work on the product he said that he he never saw it that way my personal feeling is that it wouldn't have been done that way it was a diverse cast they've done it before with other actors in the same production I genuinely don't think that race came into it but I think that representation for ethnic minorities maybe it does become a roasting and oak said that he was told that he was being kicked out and never to be brought back and very much encouraged the rhetoric that it was a race issue obviously I don't know either side of it I don't know if he was told I don't know if he wasn't but I think at the end of the day it was a money issue when it comes from a team of white people telling a black man that he shouldn't be in a role anymore it can come off a certain way I don't believe in my heart that that was the intention but I think that you know people on Twitter and people were writing things in chalk outside the theater saying things about keeping Oken and you know they they have said that they intended on bringing him back and anyway I'm getting into lots of different they I'm supposed to be just given your facts so anyway then Mandy Patinkin was like I don't want any part of this I'm gonna leave so he then pulled out of the show oak also pulled out and so David Malloy who wrote the show went in to play Pierre for the last two weeks they got their closing notice and the show closed and I think the reason why it closed is for so many reasons I mean it was kind of all dragged through the mud all on social media and I feel terribly sorry for for everybody involved I feel sorry for oak for Mandy for David that everybody who was in the company because you know it's it's sad whenever a Broadway show closes as I've said so many dollars I think it was just a lot of people were very het up people were very emotional I think if it was handled with a little bit more patience rather than people just saying exactly what they think right away and kind of dragging it through all on social media maybe it wouldn't have had the same outcome it did I mean it wasn't it wasn't really a commercial show anyway that would sell very well to tourists so maybe maybe it was never gonna have that life but I feel very sad about it I hope I didn't get that wrong I feel like I included everything I hope it made sense so yeah they are my controversies in justices scandals of the Broderick community let me know what you think I hope you enjoyed this video I hope that you maybe learned something I would be really interested to know your thoughts on them what are your opinions on what happened to great comment what do you think about Finding Neverland do you think that Tony voters should have looked at the show rather than the producer I'd be really interested to know what you think anyway thank you so so much for watching I do hope that you enjoyed this video I hope that you have a great afternoon evening or whatever you do in I hope you having a good time feel free to subscribe to my channel if you like theater I really just talk about theater because I love it so yeah if you like that then stick around I'm so close to 50,000 subscribers so close so it would be cool to see more people around here anyway I'm babbling to heck so I will see you soon I love you lots bye

Channel: Amy Lovatt

Views: 124,008

Keywords: amy, lovatt, SCANDAL, broadway scandal, broadway controversy, controversy, musical theatre drama, Patti Lupone, sunset boulevard, Andrew lloyd webber, amar anasar, great comet, Josh Groban, glee, oak, oak hamilton, finding neverland, Tony awards, gary barlow, Harvey weinstein, Beetlejuice broadway, the greatest showman, Jeremy Jordan, Jeremy Jordan the greatest showman, David malloy, Jonathan pryce, Miss Saigon, Hugh jackman

Id: DiSGx5PScYE

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 04 2020