Constance Wu has criticised Andrew Barth Feldman over his casting in the Broadway musical Maybe Happy Ending.
Constance Wu has criticised Andrew Barth Feldman over his casting in the Broadway musical Maybe Happy Ending
The actress, 43, says she is “so disappointed” after a series of conversations about Asian American representation, and shared her sentiments in a statement on Instagram revealing that she and Andrew had spoken on the phone about the controversy.
She wrote: “It was a peaceful call and we spoke at length, followed up by several emails/texts. It made me hopeful. But after a recent voice memo he sent me, all I can say is that I am so disappointed in him. And feeling pretty discouraged.”
Andrew joined the cast of the South Korea-set musical on 2 September for a nine-week run opposite his girlfriend Helen J Shen.
He replaced Darren Criss, who took a hiatus from the show on 31 August and is scheduled to return on 5 November.
Darren, who is Filipino American, previously led the production in the role of Oliver.
Constance added: “It’s hard to keep speaking up when it feels like no one is listening anymore in this new era. It’s exhausting and increasingly lonely. Once again, Asian Americans are left unheard, unacknowledged, invisible. Sadly, we’re used to this.
“A dozen or so folks bts at @maybehappyending have remained silent perhaps in the hopes that this will all fade away and you know what? It has. Your plan is working, guys – I heard your box office doing great.”
Writers Hue Park and Will Aronson responded earlier, saying in a joint statement: “We wrote a show about robots so we could engage more intimately with the most basic human questions of love and loss, creating the roles of Oliver and Claire to be avatars of these universal questions.
“They were meant to be products created by a global company, and so never bore Korean names, even in the Korean version of the show. At the same time, we understand that for many in the AAPI community, the makeup of our opening night cast became a meaningful and rare point of visibility.
“We’ve heard how strongly people connected to that representation, even if it wasn’t our original intent, and how this casting decision has re-opened old wounds.”
Constance also referenced a petition launched by B.D. Wong, who wrote on Instagram on 10 August that Andrew’s casting was “taken as a hard slap in the face of both the Asian actor community and the Asian audience.”
B.D. added more than 2,400 people had signed the petition, which he described as “a detailed articulation of our POV.”
Constance concluded: “I’m sorry to the thousands of people on @wongbd’s petition whose signatures he and the producers have yet to publicly acknowledge.
“And honestly, I’m sorry ABF that you’ve been (perhaps unfairly) saddled with this responsibility by your producers. But sometimes we don’t choose our responsibilities, they choose us. So the question that remains is: what are you choosing to do with it?”
Maybe Happy Ending, which follows two robots in Seoul who form an unlikely romance, was written by Aronson and Park and won six Tony awards, including best musical, in June.
Andrew’s exclusive run as Oliver continues until 1 November.
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