Barrett Doss, Oak Onaodowan cast in ShondaLand Drama — Page 4

HogansHero WOW that is some impressive spinning. I applaud you.

So Sumayya's word cannot be trusted? Why do you assume that it is she who is misled and not you? She is a member of the cast. Nick belton is a cast member. Joey Cassata is a drummer in the show. Are you involved w the show/know what really happened ?

Updated On: 10/7/17 at 03:20 PM

Has anyone met Hogan? Can anyone actually confirm that he isn't affiliated with Oak? Just because he's been posting here for a while doesn't mean that he doesn't work within the industry and is deeply biased in this situation.

Either that or he's just a troll, which would explain why he's like talking to a brick wall.

I love Barrett though, good for her. She wholeheartedly deserves this

I guess I work for Oak too since I made some of the same points as HH in another thread. Mariel, Erik, bear? See you at the next staff meeting!

Hogan, your arguments are bizarre. You're defending him for being an a**hole, basically because..... why? Because he has the right to be an a**hole? Ok sure. I have the right to hate him for it and Broadway producers have the right to not put him in their productions. So he can go ahead and be a sexist, selfish a hole all he wants and I'll continue to hate him for it.

@George, yes you get to love and hate whosoever you choose, just like everyone else. My arguments may be bizarre to you, but I dare say not to a lot of people, including a lot of those producers you are so sure are never going to hire him. P.S. If you start boycotting every asshole in this business, you'll have a lot of free nights.

@Concierge, I don't recall responding to anything you have said, though I see someone did. I'm not interested enough to look back to see what you said because it doesn't matter to me. You are what you are and aren't what you aren't.

Quick question: yall keep talking about what Oak "did." What... did he do? The only statements I've seen from him were that he enjoyed doing the show but wouldn't return after his run, that he felt he had been misled about the size of the role, and that he had no control over what people say online about their own feelings regarding this (he doesn't, and as HH said he really didn't owe the show anything after he got fired anyway), and explaining that the fans felt diversity hadn't been "cultivated" for fear of failure (which, cutting out a black man's leading run run in favor of a white man literally out of a fear of three bad weeks is like, exactly that)? Never saw him say the show was racist or not diverse, but lots of the discussion here seems to imply he's been publicly scorning the show for firing him and paid Mandy to drop out and told the reported "big tv star" he'd hire a hit on him if he stayed on the show. So, like, what did he DO?

Behind the scenes stuff nonwithstanding because those weren't the cited reasons he was let go (he was let go for a bigger name to boost sales) and since Mandy apparently has done the same in the past you guys clearly don't care about that in an actor since it was discussed in this thread and the discussion still continues.

I am genuinely asking someone to explain to me what all this fuss is about.

Oak was required to take music lessons to learn the accordion and piano parts for the show. He didn't show up for them. Then in the rehearsal room he started making requests for changes to be made to the score. He then took an attitude with the director and acted like a diva in rehearsals. Apparently the entire run of the show he complained backstage about the show and made it clear that he didn't like it. So he was problematic backstage to be with now.

Now we get to the controversy. Ingrid Michaelson was leaving on August 13th and had been selling extremely well. They noticed that after the 13th, the sales were weak and they needed to make it into the fall where they had a star lined up to step into the show. They poked around and discovered that Mandy was available for a few weeks to help bridge the gap. They sat down with Oak and explained the situation and promised him a place in the show whenever he wished to returned. They had previously done this with Brittain Ashford and it had shown to be successful. Oak acted professional and understood and gave them his blessing. However, when it was announced publicly he went to his friend Rafael Casal and talked trash about the production. Casal took to Twitter and tried to make a racial situation out of it. The twitter happy Hamilton fans immediately started a controversy without any sort of information whatsoever. They started calling for the closing of the show and destroying it's reputation. It was literally trending on twitter. Oak locked himself in his dressing room, refusing to speak to the producers, cast, or creatives. The cast begged him to openly give Patinkin his blessing, but he refused. He continued with passive aggressive silence. Patinkin had been in rehearsals for a couple of weeks at this point I believe and after receiving hate mail and death threats, he backed away from the situation. The show was left without a star and a ton of bad press. The closing announcement wasn't shocking.

The show closed last month and it was peacefully laid to rest. Little did we know that Oak would revive the controversy in a recent interview where he would claim that the show "didn't cultivate diversity" and continue to push aside his Black leading lady who was Tony nominated for her performance as if she didn't matter. He's made it clear that to him and his friends, WoC don't matter. The interview was nasty and in poor taste and was a slap in the face to his fellow unemployed actors.

He hurt the show and disrespected his castmates. It's rude unprofessional behavior.

Mandy didn't show up for a day of shooting during Criminal Minds and he had a bit of a breakdown during The Wild Party. He may have a spotty history, but at least he never did anything as horrible as Oak.

Also, Oak is a totally mediocre talent who was a minor supporting part in Hamilton, while Patinkin was a Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award winning actor when he had his little controversy. One was a nobody and probably will continue to be remembered as such even if he does end up on a Shondaland show.

And this thread is NOT ABOUT GREAT COMET. Go back to that message board if you have more to say on it. This about a television show that a lot of great people got cast in thousands of miles away from Broadway. Read the thread title. Thanks!

Margo319 said: "There is a massive thread with tons of pages to read about the entire drama regarding him and The Great Comet. It was in the top 5 threads for weeks."

I wasn't looking for a run down, those threads I noticed pretty quickly were filled with the same wild baseless yelling that this thread here became, I was hoping for a quick concise "here's a link to Oak dragging the show/saying he hopes it fails/etc etc."

The fact that that can't be provided and that George just gave a huge post ignoring everything I said in my post and restating the same vague stuff as the rest of this thread will have to speak for itself lol.

Youre right, though, this thread shouldn't be about this, it's unfortunate even the original post starting the thread is bringing it up! I will definitely be tuning into this show, I didn't get to catch Barrett in GHD but I did see Oak in Comet (where I thought he was great), and have heard great things about her so I am excited to see how they will be on TV (has Barrett done TV before, I don't know much about her besides her work in GHD)?

GeorgeandDot said: "Michaelhale, if I had the time, I would attach every article, tweet, andinterview that has covered this controversy, but you will have to do the research yourself. Try looking at some of the other threads on this topic.

I know a couple of cast members and friends of cast members who I have reached out to and this is what they have told me. The cast really doesn't like Oak in fact many of them have even suggested it on social media. I mean the show's drummer literally referred to him as "poison Oak.""

Maybe if you gave me anything other than things I already mentioned in my post (which I'm still confused as to why you re-laid out lol, oh unless you can tell me where he was misogynistic and I will try and check that out), and "well I talked to so and so They Said." Emotions are high surrounding this a lot of people lost their jobs and a lot of people felt they were being accused of things they hadn't done, everything everyone's saying seems panicked and upset, which is understandable but I don't understand why us bystanders have to get so involved and form all these opinions to the point where a thread just about some bway actors getting cast in a show starts with the original poster of the thread dragging one of them.

This thread was doomed from the start. Congrats to Oak and Barrett and everyone cast in this, ShondaLand shows are always fun to watch and I can't wait to see it. Can't say I would be sad if this thread was deleted tho lol

GeorgeandDot said: "Oak has kind of a sexist attitude in his recent interview where he just kind of brushes of Denee Benton as if her casting didn't matter. Also, the whole controversy was sexist because of how little people seemed to care about the WoC in the ensemble.

Also, I'm involved in all this because I know people who were part of the cast and crew and they're still distraught over it and how the media has victimized Oak so much and made out the producers and creatives as such horrible, racist monsters. The cast and the crew loved their show and they feel terrible about how the show closed and if you ask any of them they will tell you that Oak was largely responsible for the show closing so early."

So, nothing, got it. Why are you getting into it with a bunch of random commenters on here then. Isn't that what you guys slammed Oak's friends for, like sounds like there's about as much evidence of Oak's sexism as there was for the production's racism (which was none). Periods because these are actually rhetorical questions and I am done messing this thread up further than it already has.