Recent Broadway Crises

Theater Articles: Recent Broadway Crises
Julia Jacobs’ article in the New York Times entitled “Dancer Tries to Quell ‘West Side Story’ Controversy: ‘I Am Not a Victim’” raises interesting questions in the #MeToo era, namely who can and should define what constitutes a victim of sexual assault. A controversy arose in the casting of the actor Amar Ramasar the Broadway revival of West Side Story, due to the fact that Ramasar had been found to have shared nude photos of his girlfriend, the ballet dancer Alexa Maxwell, in a punitive act after the couple had separated. Maxwell stated that she had forgiven her former boyfriend, and had even felt pressured to prosecute him after a prominent attorney in the #MeToo movement had contacted her about the toxic culture at City Ballet, where both Ramasar and Maxwell had danced. Maxwell opposed Ramasar’s firing from the play.
Given that many women minimize the harm done to them, and also the fact that many artists in the challenging and competitive field of the arts do not want to be associated with being difficult, the question arises if the victim solely gets to determine the terms of any condemnation of a sexual act. On the other hand, allowing society to do so would seem to disempower the victim, which is exactly what the movement does not want to do. The need to balance the needs of the individual, who may wish for privacy or to forget an incident involving a disturbing sexual assault, and the need for society to bring such concerns to light, is highlighted in this case.
Of course, the Jacobs article was penned long before the coronavirus threat darkened Broadway. The article “Broadway, Seeking to Stay Open, Suggests Stars Keep Their Distance,” was written when Broadway was still struggling to find a way to reconcile its tradition of stars meeting fans at the stage door with the new post-coronavirus reality. At the time, Broadway decided to first discontinue the practice, given the concern that its audience tends to skew older, and older people are thought to be at higher risk for complications from the virus. At the time, some actors and patrons were willing to take the risk, choosing to wash their hands and try to limit very risky behavior. But as New York has become the epicenter of the crisis, such an article seems quaint, in retrospect.
But perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the recent coronavirus crisis has been the radically different responses of theater communities around the world. After much deliberation, Broadway ultimately decided that the magnitude of the crisis was too great, particularly in light of the fact that New York had become the epicenter of the epidemic. However, as noted in Alex Marshall’s New York Times article “Broadway Is Closed, but London’s Theaters Carry On,” British theaters resisted the pressure to close, despite the fact that other European theaters had long shut their doors. The mentality of carrying on in a crisis, no matter what, that had sustained Great Britain in World War II was not as beneficial when facing a health-related threat. People proudly said they would happily sit through a long theater production, and merely move if the patrons next to them coughed or sneezed. Museums and other arts events were also open, although some did elect voluntarily to close.
Although in response to public pressure, Britain’s theaters have closed, the different cultural responses to crises is worth future study. Britain’s leadership initially suggested that the primary vehicle of transmission was through close contact at home, rather than in public, and initially, the British public seemed to be relatively unconcerned, although theaters reported a drop in attendance among tourists.
Works Cited
Jacobs, Julia. “Dancer Tries to Quell ‘West Side Story’ Controversy: ‘I Am Not a Victim.’” The New York Times. 31 January 2020.
Marshall, Alex. “Broadway Is Closed, but London’s Theaters Carry On.” The New York Times. 20 March 2020.
Paulson, Michael. “Broadway, Seeking to Stay Open, Suggests Stars Keep Their Distance.” The New York Times. 11 March 2020.