Andy Mientus Tweets

Thoughts?

I see what he was trying to say but his wording is horrendous and borderline insulting in my opinion.

Updated On: 11/28/15 at 07:41 PM

I too understand what he means, but yes, it was a poor choice of words on his part.

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I unfollowed his Twitter after he was calling out people for making fun of Smash but had no qualms making fun of the live Sound of Music in which he had peers taking part. You can think what you want about the quality of either, but the hypocrisy was blatant.

suttonfoster said: "I don't understand what's so insulting about it. Can someone explain?"

He's basically dismissing musicals he isn't in whilst talking about how important the one he is in is. (It IS important but there are plenty of other important musicals, they're not a rarity).

And yes, Andy seems to enjoy a bit of hypocrisy. He used to post Michael Arden bootlegs and we all know where he stands on that now that he's the one in the bootlegs...

I do like him but he can be irritating.

Also from an artist perspective, I think it's important to at least respect the creation around you. You may not be a fan of traditional Chinese music or Impressionist paintings but that doesn't mean you can't respect the innovation, dedication, history, practice, and soul-pouring that went into the art form.

I can imagine someone who hasn't dabbled in the fine arts to easily dismiss showtunes and musicals, but it's something else coming from a broadway actor.

Well musicals are usually just for entertainment but sometimes they provide wider social significance, in this case, Mientus argues, actively benefitting the deaf community.

I think it is more harmless than others here do. I love musical theatre and spend a great deal of my time enjoying productions and supporting them in other ways, but it would be interesting to generate a list of shows that people consider to be "truly important."

Some certainly address issues or tell stories that cause audience members to go beyond merely being entertained, but a great many do not. That's what I took from the Tweet.

Example: I enjoyed and laughed at Something Rotten, but haven't given it a second thought after seeing the show. Whereas, I'm still thinking about seeing Spring Awakening last week, what it was like to be seated among deaf and hearing impaired audience members, and how much I struggled to effectively communicate with them because I only know the ASL alphabet. And I've thought about what it would take for more actors with differing levels of mobility to get cast.

Updated On: 11/28/15 at 08:36 PM

I think he was speaking hyperbolicly or metaphorically or whatever and attempting to turn this into anything is just unkind and silly.

So he replied online to further clarify his comments, and you didn't think that including any of that follow-up would help illuminate a discussion on his supposed "horrendous", "insulting" tweet that you did post?!

Sounds like understanding the point of an adverb isn't the only blindspot you have going on there.

Who cares what he thinks? He is a mediocre actor.

It doesn't upset me. Just looks like you only posted the part that would lead people to share your opinion in the original post. And this was all posted a week and a half ago, including the replies, so it's not like this is some sort of "breaking news" that you are reporting in real time or anything...

I wasn't claiming to report on "breaking news" and I realize the time stamp on the tweet is from the 20th. I only found the original tweet today and posted it here because I hadn't seen anything about it in the past week, despite it being a huge conversation piece on tumblr (though, I do realize, are very different crowds). I wouldn't say that my posting of a tweet and not even a reply is necessarily trying to be biased and had I seen the other replies at the same time I would have also posted them. Twitter doesn't put replies and convo threads in a user's feed for some reason, you have to dig to find it.

Personally, I really like Andy Mientus. I thought he brought a youth, humor and impulsivity to Marius that you don't often see, and, as a result, I really enjoyed Marius for once. I also think he has a great voice. I found his character on Smash to be charming and endearing (though I didn't think much of his songs on the show). It's hard for me to say whether he's a great actor, as his material has been fairly limited so far. I don't follow him or Michael on Twitter, so I can't say how problematic they generally are. But I'm with Kad: the vast majority of musical theatre is entertainment. I think that's all he's implying; not that no other musical in the history of theatre has been socially important in some way. #allmusicaltheatrematters

(In case it needs to be said, that's just parody from me and not social commentary.)