Uproar as White Male Cast as Retired Robot in Broadway Hit

Actor Andrew Barth Feldman’s imminent substitution for the Tony-winning and severely talented Darren Criss in “Maybe Happy Ending” has launched a brouhaha on Broadway. Feldman is white. This, according to actor B.D. Wong and some 2,400 signatories to his open letter of complaint, disqualifies Feldman from portraying that show’s lead character. Oliver is a retired robot, in Seoul, Korea. Whether a man-made, cyber-butler actually could be Korean remains unexamined in Wong’s communiqué.

“It’s a real, eternal outcry about race and representation, not an irrational rant about robots,” Wong wrote. His supporters concurred.

Wong and the creative community had no problem with Criss playing Oliver through Aug. 31 in this year’s endearing and highly original Best Musical. Criss arrived with fans still applauding his song-and-dance prowess in TV’s “Glee” and a well-deserved Emmy for inhabiting Andrew Cunanan, the brutal—albeit menacingly alluring—serial killer in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” a true story.

In real life, Criss is half-Filipino. This apparently satisfied Wong & Co., since a half-white/half-Filipino actor is sufficiently “Asian” to qualify as Oliver, the furloughed help-bot.

W-O-W! How racist!

Does Wong, of all people, believe that all Asians look alike? 

Earth to Wong: If you must slog through this theatrical Bataan Death March, Filipinos are not Koreans. These are distinct people, with different languages, alphabets, cuisines, histories, and even physical appearances. Arguing that Criss is Asian enough to portray a Korean is like saying that Ireland’s Colin Farrell is “European enough” to portray, say, the Mobbed-up mayor of Palermo, Sicily, in a future production of “Godfather IV.” 

Irish? Italian? Same thing!

Really?

If Wong & Co. are serious about this, they should demand that only Korean (and South Korean, at that!) actors play Oliver. And only Germans can play Germans. Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler? How dare he?

Only Britons may portray Britons. Meryl Streep in her Oscar-winning triumph as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady”? Does it get any more insensitive?

And what about American Madonna’s career-best interpretation of Argentine Eva Peron in Alan Parker’s 1996 masterpiece “Evita”?

Disgusting!

Wong and his ilk are amazingly quiet when stage choices cross other racial lines, often absurdly. Christopher Jackson was George Washington in the original cast of “Hamilton”. Washington was white. Jackson is black. Where is Wong’s missive calling for Washington to be played by a white actor? Oh, that’s right. He never wrote it.

God knows there are thousands of white, male thespians who slouch tragically from one Times Square audition to the next, waiting in vain to be discovered. Why not give one of these white guys a break?

Even more incredible: “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo this month played the title role in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl.

Um, Jesus was the son of God, not His daughter. While the historical Jesus might not have been as Anglo-Saxon as European artists have presented Him for millennia, He probably resembled an Israeli Sephardic Jew today: Olive skin, dark eyes, and smooth to curly brown or black hair.

Jesus categorically was not what Erivo is: A black female. 

Will Wong and his pen pals scribble about that? 

Not bloody likely.

There is nothing wrong, and plenty right, about increasing opportunities for minority actors. How? Highlight noteworthy Americans of color. From Booker T. Washington to Cesar Chavez, there are hundreds of such luminaries with lives worth dramatizing.

For now, here are the opposing tines of Wong’s fork in the road:

Actors should be cast as rigidly as possible to match a persona’s every demographic nuance. The star of “Tiger Woods! The Musical” damn-well better be a male actor of black, Thai, and American Indian ancestry, right down to the correct tribe(s). Anything less, and the theater burns to the ground.

Alternatively, impresarios should cast away and let performers of all ethnic backgrounds play characters of all ethnic backgrounds, as best they can.

In other words, let actors act.

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