The closing of innovative and diverse theater shows is an unfortunate reflection of current society. Broadway fans from all over were devastated this past weekend to hear the closing announcement for “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.” The innovative new musical written by Dave Malloy is a 70-page excerpt of "War and Peace" adapted into an electropop opera.
When we don’t support diverse arts, we lose the opportunity to dive into another culture’s perspective.The show is an immersive experience, including stage seating many interactions between the actors and the audience. It was nominated for 12 Tonys this season, the most nominations of any show in 2017.
It also featured the most racially diverse cast of any show for the season. While it was nominated for 12 Tonys, it only won two of them. It lost many of its awards to shows like “Dear Evan Hansen,” which follow the traditional structure of theater and feature largely white casts.
The show's closing is an extreme disappointment for its fans, cast and the state of Broadway as a whole. It is a negative reflection on the paying audience members and their willingness to consume diverse and nontraditional content. This is especially upsetting in the midst of the current political climate, which has been surrounded by issues of white nationalism and race.
The show started strong with its Broadway opening last November, but it encountered a series of circumstances which led to its untimely closing. Josh Groban played the starring role of Pierre, drawing in large crowds because of his fame as a musician and recording artist.
After Groban finished his run in early July, he was replaced by Okieriete Onaodowan, an actor previously featured in "Hamilton." Without an extremely well-known celebrity like Josh Groban in the role, the show began to suffer in profits.
Malloy revealed via Twitter that the musical was too weird to profit efficiently without a big name in the starring role, which led to another controversy. In order to try and draw large crowds back to the show, renowned Broadway actor Mandy Patinkin was hired to replace Onaodowan in the lead role of Pierre before Onaodowan’s run in the show had finished.
Many interpreted this an act of racism because a talented black actor’s time in the show was being cut short by a white man. The producers explained that it was a problem of profit and not race, while the rest of the class praised the show’s diversity.
Patinkin himself said he was unaware that he was replacing Onaodowan and backed out of the show. Audiences were put off by both the nontraditional theater experience and the controversy surrounding the show’s casting, causing the show to lose money until it was forced to announce a closing date for early September.
Another Broadway show, “Indecent,” which featured nontraditional structure and Jewish and LGBT themes, closed for similar reasons in early August. If we let diverse theater fall to the wayside, we deprive ourselves of important cultural immersion.
emmagetz@umail.iu.edu
@emmaagetz
