Barrett Doss, Oak Onaodowan cast in ShondaLand Drama — Page 3

Boo Oak sux.  Bones sux.  Shonda sux.  Booooooooo.  Boooooooo.  A plague on both your houses.

MANDY REIGNS SUPREME ONCE AGAIN

The role must have called for someone who could play the accordion. 

HogansHero said: "BroadwayConcierge said: "The Great Cometclosed on September 3, 2017 fundamentally because of the Oak controversy. It is extremely fair to say that with Oakout of the picture, the show's closing date would not have been September 3.So to say it's"nonsensical" to cite him as a chief blame forComet's closing is overly defensive."

People can blame him for anything that strikes their fancy, just as others can blame others.

Here is what we know:

1. He was fired, and in a classless, tactless way.

2. People who are fired owe nothing to anyone:not their co-workers, not their employer and certainly notthose criticizing him most of whom come off as the typical self-entitled set that frequents this place.

3. Everyone is entitled to their own conscientiously held beliefs, whether they are popular or not, and whether there is fallout from those beliefs or not. Sometimes, there will be consequences. The sit-ins and boycotts of the civil rights movement had "victims."

4. White people telling black people how to act is not cool.

Let's suppose that Oak is solely responsible for the show closing on 9/3. That does not change any of the above. To those of you who can't let this go: take a step back, think about what you are exercised about, this about what you are saying, think about what wishing Oak ill means. Be ashamed of yourselves."

I certainly agree with all of the above!! I deeply regretted the show closing, seriously. I loved it when I saw it and thought it was a fine ensemble. But let's put ourselves in Oak's shoes for a second shall we. I saw him in Union Square following the time casting was announced and we talked about how excited he was to step in the role. He worked extremely hard to learn the instruments, to do well for this role....If I were in his shoes I don't think I would have been personally as nice and dignified as he was in his responses. 

The show would have closed any way. They were already low on advanced ticket sales right? so after Mandy dropped out due to finding out what happened and Oak wouldn't keep up his run (which I totally don't blame him for - who did he owe to continue when he was "replaced", who else was going to play the role besides Dave Malloy? Who else [that's a DRAW] was prepared to take on the role and the months of prep in such a short time? It was going to close regardless. So blaming Oak doesn't really stand in the context of all of that. And that's not being defensive, that's the facts of the situation.

HogansHero said: "
4. White people telling black people how to act is not cool.."

What does race have to do with it? Is it cool for white people to tell other white people how to act? What about a black person telling a white person how to act, is that cool?

"4. White people telling black people how to act is not cool.

Let's suppose that Oak is solely responsible for the show closing on 9/3. That does not change any of the above. To those of you who can't let this go: take a step back, think about what you are exercised about, this about what you are saying, think about what wishing Oak ill means. Be ashamed of yourselves. "

This! 

Altthough that reaction is no surprise coming from BroadwayConcierge.

And it's laughable to think his "hate" club is big is pretty laughable. Most people will have never even heard of the Great Comet controversy. And if this show is a hit I have no doubt he'll be back on broadway. Because then he would sell tickets.

Updated On: 10/7/17 at 08:42 AM

I take the point about anyone telling another person how to act. What I was referencing, of course, was that black people being told "their place" is a part of black history in America. There are a lot of people here who told Oak that he will be punished if he is uppity, that he should be grateful, where he is supposed to sit on the bus, etc. Wanna say he wasn't prepared? Say it. Wanna say he wasn't good? Say it. Wanna say he owes anyone anything? You're feeding an unhealthy dynamic. 

Evans2 said: "HogansHero said: "4. White people telling black people how to act is not cool."


Hogan, I'm a black person myself and I don't think anyone is telling a black person how to act.  They're telling a narcissistic egomaniac who selfishly tried to destroy the reputation of his place on employment how to act.

Anyways, if you still stand on Oak's side, you're standing against the cast of The Great Comet as well as the many facts that they have told us.  You're just coming at this from an uninformed point of view.  No he was not single handedly responsible for the show closing, but did he chase away the last chance that the show had and caused the show to close amidst a messy, brutal controversy? Yes.  Did he then pop up out of the wood work a month later to reopen the wound and compare himself to Kaepernick and his creative team to Donald Trump? Yes.  Did he proceed to paint himself as a martyr and take up a misogynistic point of view about his costar Denee Benton?  Yes.  Does all of this make him a terrible person who should never work again? Yes.

By the way, the big difference between him and Mandy is that Mandy is a great talent who clearly suffers from some sort of extreme anxiety disorder that causes him to make poor choices, while Oak is a mediocre talent with a huge narcissistic ego.  Big difference.

 

carnzee said: "I don't know why it's unhealthy or inappropriate to say that someone who had to have their start-date pushed back a week because they didn't learn their part is "unprepared." "

Considering that I did not say otherwise, I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. Maybe you misread.

Did you read what Sumayya Ali, a cast member of the show, had to say?  She suggests that there was trickery and blackmail involved and attempts to ruin the Kagans.  She paints Oak in a very negative, very truthful light.  Maybe you should educate yourself on this controversy a bit more.

Did you just compare me to Ben Carson?  Step the hell down.  Seriously.

Actually I'm as liberal as can be, which is why I took particular offense to the part of his interview where he compares himself to Kaepernick.  Let's see, one fought for his own fragile ego and one fought for the systematic oppression and murder of PoC.  Hmm.  I would hardly call that an acceptable comparison.

Also, not supporting Oak does not make you a racist or a conservative or a Nazi or whatever.  It means that you stand with the cast, crew, and creatives of this show who were hurt by Oak's reckless actions.  People of every side should be able, at this point, to see that what Oak did was wrong.  I have personally heard from members of the cast and crew that there was trickery and snakey, petty behavior from Oak after he was bought out of his contract and promised a place in the show in the winter.  He initially agreed and pretended that there wasn't a problem, but then there was a sudden twitter war and Oak locked himself away in the dressing room and wouldn't let the producers or creatives speak to him.  The cast begged for him to speak up and give Mandy his blessing on social media, but he refused.  This was all after he skipped his accordion classes for two months, causing them to have to postpone his opening (a problem that he deflected onto the producers and creative team).  His behavior was despicable and now he starts back in with his sexist bullsh*t about Denee Benton and WoC.

I hope Shonda kills his character off in the first season.

HogansHero said: "@George Your being black is irrelevant: so is Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson et al. I am not on anyone's side, 

Keep kidding yourself. 

GeorgeandDot said: "Did you just compare me to Ben Carson? Step the hell down. Seriously."

Haha. No I did not. I simply said that your own race doesn't correlate to bona fides to speak for that race. Which I assume you don't disagree with. Much of the rest of what you say is tainted with your evident hatred of Oak which, as I said, makes intelligent discussion impossible.


"Also, not supporting Oak does not make you a racist or a conservative or a Nazi or whatever."

No it does not and I would never say that it did ipso faco.  Which of course also doesn't mean that there are racist etc posts in the various threads. 

There needn't be sides in everything. Oak was not fired because he was not prepared, or because people did not like him. He was fired so that a man of my race could replace a man of yours. That does not have to be the reason he was fired but it is a fact, and folks get to make of it what they will, and that's what's transpired here. 

Analytically, as I said, he was fired and not for cause. At that point, he has no obligation to anyone and guess what he also has the right to change his mind if that is what happened here. I don't know what "secrets" you have been told, by whom or how that has shaped your agenda. Ditto for the elusive references to same in the tweet. I'm not sure I see how any of those things fit into the analysis, but I am here ready to listen (i.e. read). And if you are someone else can show me something nefarious, I'll be the first to call it what it is.