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‘Great Comet,’ Broadway hit shuttered by political correctness, delivers final performance
The Washington Times ^ | Monday, September 4, 2017 | Bradford Richardson

Posted on 09/04/2017 8:14:16 PM PDT by TBP

When skygazers looked up at the Great Comet at the turn of the 19th century, some saw it as a dire omen of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and other events of catastrophic proportion.

Today, the Great Comet presages a different sort of threat — the one posed to art by political correctness.

“Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” the Broadway hit based on a 70-page excerpt of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” delivered an emotional final performance Sunday to a packed crowd at the Imperial Theatre.

The decline became evident when Josh Groban, the singer-songwriter who played Count Pierre Bezukhov, announced he would depart the show in July. He was succeeded in the titular role by “Hamilton” veteran Okieriete Onaodowan, a Nigerian-American actor known by his nickname “Oak.”

Writer and creator Dave Malloy, who played the role of Pierre off-Broadway, said on Twitter the show was in “desperate shape” and “would have closed” without an immediate reversal in sales.

So producers enlisted Mandy Patinkin, the Tony Award-winning actor who stars in Showtime’s “Homeland” and is beloved for his portrayal of Inigo Montoya in “The Princess Bride,” to take over as Pierre three weeks before Mr. Onaodowan’s run was scheduled to come to an end.

The decision to replace a black actor with a more famous white one — even though the role initially had been played by two white men — immediately drew the ire of progressives in the theater community and on social media.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: broadway; greatcomet; politicalcorrectness
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The destructive stupidity of political correctness.
1 posted on 09/04/2017 8:14:16 PM PDT by TBP
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To: TBP

Anti-white racism. White men need not apply for a theater role if it was already claimed by a minority.

Identity politics to a T.


2 posted on 09/04/2017 8:16:59 PM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: TBP

A “Black Russian”?


3 posted on 09/04/2017 8:18:04 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: reg45

Alexander Pushkin, the great Russian poet, had African ancestry. :)


4 posted on 09/04/2017 8:19:15 PM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: goldstategop

It’s like Islam. Anywhere a Muslim has prayed is forever a mosque.


5 posted on 09/04/2017 8:21:02 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: TBP
Not just "political correctness" ... it's the Left that destroys everything -- everything -- it touches.

Take two minutes to come up with at least a couple dozen fine things -- human things -- societal creations for good -- that the Left has destroyed over the past two decades.

Now the Left is out to destroy -- not weaken, destroy -- our Great American Republic.

6 posted on 09/04/2017 8:23:17 PM PDT by glennaro
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To: goldstategop

I see this happening a bunch. Libs complained that Scarlet Johansson was cast in “Ghost in the Shell” and that Iron Fist is not asian in the Defenders series on netflix. Ridiculous.


7 posted on 09/04/2017 8:24:06 PM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: TBP

8 posted on 09/04/2017 8:25:03 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie
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To: reg45

To truly appreciate theater you have to have read Shakespeare in the original Klingon...


9 posted on 09/04/2017 8:31:41 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Did Barack Obama denounce Communism and dictatorships when he visited Cuba as a puppet of the State?)
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To: TBP

So much for “star power.”


10 posted on 09/04/2017 8:41:50 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: TBP

This was politically correct stupidity that closed a show that probably could have been saved, harming the producers, theatre, actors, musicians, and all related personnel. It’s also what socialism does - if some people can’t have something, then no one can have it. Soon, no one has anything and no one is left to help the people who couldn’t get it on their own in the first place.


11 posted on 09/04/2017 8:57:32 PM PDT by Cara C
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To: TBP

But it’s ok with these Broadway liberals to have minorities in the play “Hamilton”, which is historically inaccurate. That’s ok, because your are pushing minority empowerment or some such hogwash.

Political correctness is eroding away western civilization. This one incident may be trivial by itself. But we’re dying death by a thousand cuts.


12 posted on 09/04/2017 9:13:48 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: TBP
The uproar continued, however, and Mr. Patinkin withdrew from the role of Pierre. He told The New York Times that he was unaware of Mr. Onaodowan’s unreceptiveness to the change and “would never accept a role knowing it would harm another actor.”

My name is Inigo Montoya and I have no cojones.

13 posted on 09/04/2017 9:17:30 PM PDT by Robwin
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To: Dilbert San Diego

To the point that when Hamilton put out a casting call, they said that no whites need apply.


14 posted on 09/04/2017 9:17:32 PM PDT by TBP (0bama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: TBP

because all history is black, even Russian?


15 posted on 09/04/2017 9:35:37 PM PDT by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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To: reg45

If you’re a male and can call yourself a woman and vice versa, why not a black Russian?

Welcome to the “Brave New World”.


16 posted on 09/04/2017 11:00:22 PM PDT by aquila48
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To: TBP

Exactly why I won’t bother with seeing “Hamilton” during its road appearance in my town that’s already being promoted to get season ticket sales. I ended my season tickets a couple of years back due to the series of trash productions the promoter brought to town. Sure, there were the occasional good ones I enjoyed but some of those Sunday afternoon matinees were torture.


17 posted on 09/05/2017 1:32:37 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: KC_Conspirator

The Iron Fist thing is dire ignorance. I don’t remember the details, but Danny Rand was a white kid who somehow got stranded in a mystical Tibetan city and learned their ways. But, let’s make anyone who has been to any part of Asia Asian. Heinrich Harrer better damn well be played by as Asian next time!


18 posted on 09/05/2017 1:40:21 AM PDT by Rastus
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To: KC_Conspirator

Conservatives also complained that Scarlet was cast as Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost In The Shell.

1. Because it was as usual screwed up by Hollywood lefties who couldn’t be faithful to the original material.
2. Because the casting decision was made by lefties secretly afraid that the viewing public wouldn’t accept an Asian lead on a big budget movie (remember, liberals are often the worst kind of racists.)
3. Because Ms. Johanssen was absolutely not able to carry off the role convincingly, race aside.

Conservatives are also complaining about the Iron Fist lead for the above reasons. Also because they just got an actor who’s no good in the role.


19 posted on 09/05/2017 2:16:20 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Rastus

Well, there’s a couple characters in Iron Fist that are not the lead that are supposed to be Asian but aren’t in the TV show.

The biggest problem with Iron Fist is that it’s quite bad, dire, awful even without questions of racial casting. It’s terrible and the writers need to be beaten with nail-studded clubs.


20 posted on 09/05/2017 2:18:01 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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