Closing Notice
Comet-gate
In a turn of events that no one predicted (at least before 10 days ago)
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 posted their closing notice yesterday - they will play their last show on September 3.
Bandstand,
Groundhog Day,
Anastasia, and
A Bronx Tale are still running, but
The Great Comet is fizzling out.
UPDATE - Bandstand just announced a closing date - September 17.
But that's the simple part - it's the horror show that led up to the well-liked show closing that is stunning. The last two weeks have been a roller-coaster and will probably be taught as a case study in public relations disasters in business schools for years.
A Change of Cast
Last month, you may recall,
Josh Groban finished his run as Pierre. Obviously his massive fan base helped sell the show, so people wondered how the show would do without him. In the spring the producers announced that
Okieriete "Oak" Onaodowan from
Hamilton would take over for Groban and do three months in the role. (I know, not exactly a household name.)
Okieriete "Oak" Onaodowan as Pierre
Oak had a delay coming in to the show so he had only been in about two weeks before the producers made a blockbuster announcement:
Mandy Patinkin would take over the part in mid-August through October. They would cut Oak's run short, put in Mandy, and then still have to find another Pierre in October.
Day One - The Reaction
But the fan reaction wasn't the unreserved praise the producers were expecting. Most people were excited about Mandy but were somewhat upset that Oak had been so quickly kicked to the curb.
That was bad PR, but fixable.
The body blow came that afternoon (things happen so fast in social media) when Twitter erupted with complaints that the producers were firing a black actor and replacing him with a white one. This was tied to overall complaints that too many shows had no minority representation.
While that may be true of some shows, it was definitely not true of
The Great Comet where more than half the cast, including the leads, were people of color.
The producers said nothing, as the negative tweets multiplied, now picked up by a Black theater web site and black actors like
The Color Purple's Cynthia Erivo who were outraged by Oak's treatment. The tweets from stars sent the story out from the theater chat boards and into the public arena.
Day Three - The Collapse
Two days later composer Dave Malloy tried to calm things down saying that everything had been worked out with Oak and that he would be welcome back in the future. He also explained that the ticket sales were falling so they needed to book a star just to keep the show running.
Oak then made his only public statement during the entire affair to say simply that he would not be returning after his scheduled exit date.
Later that day Mandy Patinkin announced that had withdrawn from the show. He did not want to upset or displace a fellow actor.
We have come to the end of the facts. Things now get worse.
Producers Scramble / Fans Find a Scapegoat
Now the backlash to the backlash begins. Hordes of
Great Comet fans blame Oak for not speaking out to defend the show and for not extending his departure date to cover for Patinkin's absence. Rumors of poor behavior and lack of preparation on Oak's part leak allegedly from cast and crew at the Imperial theater. Theater boards light up with vows that Oak will "never eat lunch in this town again", or some such rancour.
Behind the scenes the producers are scrambling. First of all, they need a star. Mandy was perfect - though very short term because of his TV schedule. What they need is a Patinkin/Groban sized star to keep the show running. But no one wants to touch this toxic situation - they can't even get star's agents to return their calls.
Aside from a star, they at least need a warm body to put on stage to play Pierre. Fortunately, they have two on hand - composer
Dave Malloy played Pierre off-Broadway and substituted for Josh Groban when he was on vacation. And regular standby
Scott Stangland who is actually the original Pierre when the show premiered in Boston and also played the part for the two weeks between Groban leaving and Oak coming in.
Writer/Composer Dave Malloy as Pierre
A week went by - no word from the producers. Would the show close? When? Should anyone bother buying tickets? Who would be playing Pierre? And on what dates?
Do The Math
Ticket sales had to be in a death spiral. The producers started this episode with only a few options for success, and now they seemed to have none. The show had taken in well over $1 million a week with Josh Groban, and was still doing $800 - 900 thousand with Oak. That was respectable. But Broadway costs are steep. They were paying back their investors slowly because the costs of a large cast, star, and union production are high. (For comparison purposes,
Dear Evan Hansen didn't make much more per week than
Comet, but they have a cast of eight and a minimalist set. They recouped all their investment cost last month.)
Broadway shows run for different reasons, but they all close for the same one: when costs exceed revenue you have to pull the plug. Yesterday the inevitable happened; they posted their closing notice.
Poison Oak
Before we wrap this up, I think it is only fair to consider the person some people see as the central character in this drama:
Okieriete Onaodowan.
Oak was lauded for his role as James Madison/ Hercules Mulligan in
Hamilton. That was a dream cast and a dream show.
Comet on the other hand had to be a nightmare. Pierre is a plum role, but very different from Oak's work in
Hamilton. In that show the character was created around Oak's abilities and strengths. Pierre was first a role for composer Malloy, then adapted for Groban. But Oak was coming in as a replacement. He had to mold himself to the role, not the other way around.
So my first point about Oak is that I think he was miscast. Okieriete is not a conservatory-trained actor, he is a rapper and performer. He did not spend his early twenties trying out Shakespeare and Chekhov. He made a name for himself doing his own thing. I can only assume he thought he would be free to do that in
Comet.
Instead he was expected to execute the track set down by Groban. My guess is that is what accounted for the delay in getting him in the show. Typically, a replacement actor is rehearsed in a studio by the stage manager (and if it is a musical by the dance captain as well). Then, before they make their debut, there is one "put in" rehearsal in costume on stage with the whole company. That's it - then they are on. Oak, reportedly needed a lot more rehearsal than that. To be fair, Pierre has to play piano and accordion during the show - so there is more involved here than just learning lines.
So, Oak had a rocky start, and apparently if backstage gossip is to be believed, has not become the beloved figure Mr. Groban had been.
The story reported by Michael Reidel in the NY Post, and in an article in Forbes magazine, is that before announcing Patinkin, the producers negotiated Oak out of his contract, presumably by buying him out (i.e. agreeing to pay him for all of his weeks, even though he would no longer be in the show). In return, Oak agreed to make the publicity rounds with Mandy during the transition.
The problem is that once the race card was put in play (and note - not by him), Oak was painted in to a corner. If he came out and told the world that he was just fine being fired by his white producers, he would look like an Uncle Tom. An Uncle Tom is an expression that to black people means someone who goes along with white oppression in order to keep their job, or just keep from rocking the boat. Essentially it is a cultural traitor. That's what Oak would have been stepping in if he spoke up and tried to make things easy for the
Comet producers. (Who, by the way, had just fired him.)
Oak did pretty much what any PR person would tell their client to do in that situation: keep your head down and stay out of it.
And that is why just when the
Comet producers desperately needed Oak to speak out and defend them from both the unfair firing and racism charges, he was silent. He was the only person who could turn the story around - but ironically it was the story itself that forced him to be silent. Plus, maybe he wasn't feeling particularly generous to the
The Great Comet production at that time.
The Buck Stops Here
Which made the outcome inevitable. The bottom line was they needed a star, but the controversy closed any doors that might have been open. After that, it was just math.
So, we salute
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 - an invigorating and unique show that garnered many fans.
The producer's mentioned a tour - in 2019. It's possible that may never happen.
Comet is a tough show to tour with it's environmental staging. Plus that fact that it didn't pay back it's investors means that it would start a tour in debt, another strike against it.
We'll see. It could set up shop in Chicago, London or Los Angeles with a fresh start and star. Actually only London would really be a fresh start, because the debt and union contracts would follow any US legitimate production.
As the Comet fades the fans are still ranging. If I were Oak I would take a body guard with me every time I go out the stage door.
bered by character or storytelling, Fosse simply produced a number in the style he would use when dancing at parties or for friends. 
