MAYBE HAPPY ENDING Reviews- Page 50

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 8:21pm

Seb28 said: "Look at any cast list of any Broadway show:

https://sunsetblvdbroadway.com/cast-creative/

https://hamiltonmusical.com/new-york/cast/

https://aladdinthemusical.com/cast/

https://lionking.com/cast/

https://deathbecomesher.com/cast/

https://hadestown.com/broadway-cast

https://broadwaygatsby.com/cast

https://chicagothemusical.com/cast/

https://www.broadway.com/shows/hells-kitchen/cast/

https://wickedthemusical.com/cast-creative/

https://www.broadway.com/shows/little-shop-horrors/cast/

https://www.maybehappyending.com/cast-creative/

https://heathersthemusical.com/new-york/cast-and-creative-ny/

https://moulinrougemusical.com/new-york/cast/"

You have not included all Broadway shows on your little list. On the other hand, you have included some, but not all, off-Broadway shows. I suggest you google “Are white people a minority on Broadway?” To see your crappy little claim debunked. 

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 8:24pm

Seb28 said: "Look at any cast list of any Broadway show:

Oh! So you don't have any statistics and are just pulling things out of your ass? I am just shocked. 

Also! Since you linked Aladdin, (this is just a fun tidbit), they had Jafar being played by a White guy in Brownface for over a decade until literally 2022!? Something they stopped doing with even King and I decades ago! 

Updated On: 8/18/25 at 08:24 PM

[YankeeDani]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 8:27pm

YankeeDani said: "Seb and Boris are the type to defend the Japanese american internment camps ("they should be grateful they are even in this country! Look at pearl harbor!) and why segregated bathrooms are ok ("Why should anyone get special privileges over another? The whites are being discriminate against!!!"



Can literally copy paste all their arguments onto their long diatribes and you can only laugh.

"when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression""

 

A reminder than whenever you hear these lunatics ranting, just replace their argument with a similar historical issue above and you'll realize the type of person you are talking-to. 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 10:54pm

YankeeDani said: "YankeeDani said: "Seb and Boris are the type to defend the Japanese american internment camps ("they should be grateful they are even in this country! Look at pearl harbor!) and why segregated bathrooms are ok ("Why should anyone get special privileges over another? The whites are being discriminate against!!!"



Can literally copy paste all their arguments onto their long diatribes and you can only laugh.

"when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression""



A reminder than whenever you hear these lunatics ranting, just replace their argument with asimilar historical issue above and you'll realize the type of person you are talking-to."


Except one could say the exact same thing about you, dear. 

[YankeeDani]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 2:28am

JSquared2 said: "YankeeDani said: "YankeeDani said: "Seb and Boris are the type to defend the Japanese american internment camps ("they should be grateful they are even in this country! Look at pearl harbor!) and why segregated bathrooms are ok ("Why should anyone get special privileges over another? The whites are being discriminate against!!!"



Can literally copy paste all their arguments onto their long diatribes and you can only laugh.

"when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression""



A reminder than whenever you hear these lunatics ranting, just replace their argument with asimilar historical issue above and you'll realize the type of person you are talking-to."


Except one could say the exact same thing about you, dear."

 

I'm on the right side of history actually, "dear". 

[Seb28]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 4:33pm

YankeeDani said: "I'm on the right side of history actually, "dear"."

No. The right side of history is understanding that equality works both ways. When a role description is literally "Any ethnicity", you can't complain afterwards that it's not the ethnicity of your choice. You are on the wrong and dangerous side of history.

Updated On: 8/19/25 at 04:33 PM

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 4:43pm

It's important to be on the right side of history, even others are too short-sighted to see it at the time. In 1990, the casting controversy over Jonathan Pryce exploded over "Miss Saigon.'' To make matters worse, the Broadway show claimed to make a worldwide search for an Asian actor to play the Engineer, which it later admitted it never made.

Twenty-five years later, as ''Miss Saigon'' was revived in 2014 in London, starring Jon Jon Briones, an Asian-American who earned raves and an Olivier nomination as the Engineer. In an interview with the Telegraph, producer Cameron Mackintosh now confessed that he believes his biggest mistake in ''Miss Saigon'' was not foreseeing how much of an issue the casting of Pryce would prove in New York: "I said it was a storm in an Oriental tea-cup, thinking I was being clever. I was actually being stupid." He now accepts that those who argued that the character should be played by an actor of Asian descent had a valid point.

One day, I suspect, ''Maybe Happy Ending'' will  acknowledge they mishandled this and regret the circumstances, but the damage is done.

Updated On: 8/19/25 at 04:43 PM

[kdogg36]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 5:10pm

Seb28 said: "You are on the wrong and dangerous side of history."

Just to warn everyone: this poster has made it clear that they believe that voting for Donald Trump is on the right side of history.

Updated On: 8/19/25 at 05:10 PM

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 5:26pm

Seb28 said: "YankeeDani said: "I'm on the right side of history actually, "dear"."

No. The right side of history is understanding that equality works both ways. When a role description is literally "Any ethnicity", you can't complain afterwards that it's not the ethnicity of your choice. You are on the wrong and dangerous side of history."

You think the right side of history is grabbing immigrants of the street and throwing them into makeshift domestic and foreign prisons so forgive anyone for not taking you at what you view as "the right side of history" as good moral standing...

[Seb28]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 5:29pm

Wayman_Wong said: "It's important to be on the right side of history, even others are too short-sighted to see it at the time. In 1990, the casting controversy over Jonathan Pryce explodedover "Miss Saigon.'' 

One day, I suspect,''Maybe Happy Ending'' will acknowledge they mishandled thisand regretthe circumstances, but the damage is done."

This comparison is absolutely ridiculous.

You need to understand something here. There might be more details in my reply than you will like, but it will get to the Jonathan Pryce casting. On my way there I will tackle some racist prejudices too. And I will end with Maybe Happy Ending.

Every now and then there is a show about historical events. Which can be very confronting, hard or uncomfortable at times. Miss Saigon is a show like that. But often, the writing of a show or the characters can be portrayed as "out of balance", almost "manipulative", such as in Hamilton, which decides for the audience what is good or bad and takes a run with historical figures and situations.

But not Miss Saigon. This show sends audiences home with a deep motivation to explore their own thoughts about what happened to these people and why they did what they did. Far beyond good or bad. Hundreds of thousands of people have lived this story. From the women working in bars to the boat people to the romances with soldiers to children that were born out of it. I speak from first hand experience.

It is important to understand how complicated this war was. People who were involved in the North Vietnamese side at a certain time, will have different views on situations than people on the South side. I'm sure that depending on which year and which area soldiers were deployed, the experiences are going to be different. The sheer perfection of this show is that it takes no side. It rises above that. It is about the core of humanity. A very delicate balancing act of steel.

I am aware that there are people who do not wish to see facts or would rather see other stories too, but that is ok. Do not watch it then or go write other stories too.

I would like to address some of the "controversies", surrounding this show. Such as "The Vietnamese are portrayed as stereotypes and opportunists". Or "Miss Saigon is a White Savior story". Or "Because of Jonathan Pryce's casting the whole show is wrong".

For the uninformed who ask themselves that; Are you upset because the depictions are historically accurate, or because they’re unpleasant to watch? Let’s put some perspective into this: It’s upsetting that Kim is being sold into prostitution at 17. But in reality she more likely would have been 13, or even younger. It’s upsetting that the dancing bar girls in bikinis had to - or were more likely forced to- turn to prostitution for survival, but the opening number in Miss Saigon is by far a more sanitized version of their ordeal, than what actually took place.

Complaining that the Vietnamese characters are portrayed as “opportunists” is ludicrous— what other choice did they have in order to stay alive? As many times as I have watched “The Heat is on in Saigon”, I’ve never once found it to be pleasant, or believed any of the bar girls were having as joyful a time as they were letting on, If it feels lurid, degrading, and dehumanizing, it’s because that’s exactly what this experience was for these women. Watching the women getting manhandled and treated like property is supposed to make the audience cringe, because unlike the GI’s we are not de-sensitized to these abusive conditions.

Miss Saigon is by no means a “White savior” story. Anyone paying attention can recognize that it’s about America’s realization of its own failures to protect the South Vietnamese from their North Vietnamese adversaries, and the human toll this war took on both the soldiers and the Vietnamese. The Americans are not portrayed as heroes- in fact it’s difficult to find any story about the Vietnam War which strongly depicts US soldiers as heroic and proud. Upon returning to the states these men were often characterized as savages and “baby killers” by their own countrymen. Many of these soldiers could not adapt to life after wartime and lost their minds, became homeless, dropped out of society, suffered from severe drug problems and PTSD and/or took their own lives. Christopher Scott wants desperately to believe he has achieved some good fighting in Vietnam, and that bringing back Kim back home will be living proof he did. It’s a flawed justification, and it illustrates how deeply damaged and naive he is, because with or without Kim, the nightmares will still happen.

Some people also make up "There is male ownership, Chris decides". Which is not the case. Chris does not have power over Kim's life in the slightest. Kim decides. It is in the lyrics: "They think they'll decide your life. No. It will be me". There is only female ownership. The moment when Ellen tells her she's married to Chris, Kim steps over it and makes a plan for her child. Kim decides.

About the casting of the Engineer, I find a vital component to the character regrettably missing in all recent portrayals. I saw Pryce (without prosthetics) in the original Broadway show, and his performance was so phenomenal and spellbinding that it devastated me. The Engineer is "Bui-Doi”, half French-half Vietnamese, and the contrast of Pryce’s western facial features to those of his Asian cast members was heartbreakingly evident. All his life the secrets were written on his face.. and he could not escape or hide them. He could not blend in. This is why he was forever doomed to such a degrading fate in Saigon as a pimp and outsider, and why his “American Dream of moving to a country where he could more easily assimilate mattered so much to him. It’s why he developed the deep affection towards Tam, because he recognized himself in that child. I really dislike how they changed the Engineer to not care about Tam in newer productions. He just became such a bland character recently. 

In Pryce’s performance I felt the intensity of his torment and self-contempt lurking beneath all the smiles and ingratiating cordialities. Whereas in all the other productions, The Engineer seems to exist for the purpose of providing comic-relief and tension breaking levity, like an adorable teddy bear. One of the most important aspects of this role is that he is not accepted by the Vietnamese because he doesn’t look Asian. He is the Bui Doi that this show is about. 

The new versions with even more sanitized bar scenes and fully Asian engineers that do not stand out in Vietnam and just like to go to America is actually degrading to the real people that have lived through this. People like me and my family. I relate to this very much because nobody can tell I am partly Asian, while in fact it is part of my history. This is something different from complaining what kind of job characters do or good or bad. Even though wanting to hush the stories of these bargirls is also disrespectful.

The Engineer is not a jolly guy. He is ruthless, and we aren’t supposed to root for him. However, by the time he comes on stage to sing about The American Dream, we come to understand him better. He was a strange looking boy, his mom was an addict, and after the dad left them his job was to find French soldiers and persuade them to have sex with his mother for money. That tells us so much about why the Engineer was the way he was, being a pimp was all he ever knew how to be..It’s so tragic. 

In the more degrading, sanitized UK version of the show a few years back (which portrayed the girls as victims, the Americans as bullies, the production suddenly chose sides, lines and situations were changed to being so preventive that it actually made it more uncomfortable), The Engineer was changed to a female. I do not agree with that choice, because the power dynamic is not the same. Males have greater agency and authority in Vietnamese culture, so to be a male and sell your own mother is a far more shameful and devastating predicament to be in. Plus, if the Engineer were a girl, it’s more likely that the mother would’ve sold her daughter to the soldiers.

The original version had this perfect balance of reality and facts, without choosing sides, without writing in good or bad. The quality of writing in this show was majestic and you can see all the research and intense conversations with the real women and boat people paid off. It was a masterpiece. It forced the audiences to look at all sides. Newer versions  fail to understand that balance.

I encourage all of you to approach this show with an open, worldly mind, when you see a negative article about this show, or an unfounded complaint, to not let it drag you down into their unfounded hate but to think for yourself.

But to try and use this as an argument as to why the role of a robot in Maybe Happy Ending, which is literally presented as "All ethnicities" by the writers and production on the casting call can not be played by a white person is beyond vile. The only right side of history here is understanding and accepting that equality is never a one-way street. 

If someone is hurt by equality, we have a problem. And I have great respect for the Asian theatre universe (even though white people are not allowed there) and all the opportunities they get on Broadway, for traditionally white, black, asian, basically all roles. The point is that equality is a two-way street. You can't do what Hitler did, make it a one-way street and scream that you are offended when it stops being a one-way street.

This is about Maybe Happy Ending, where the role in question is a robot and not a POC role. Criticism on this casting is sidelining a race. When is the balance warped enough for you so that you will be ready to start accepting equality?

Updated On: 8/19/25 at 05:29 PM

[witchoftheeast2]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 5:43pm

I have an actual question. You see all these social media accounts fan casting shows. Why would they potentially include someone like ABF in that if it comes true, and then there are riots and petitions, etc?

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 6:28pm

People keep saying that Oliver isn't a POC role, but given the setting I would argue that it... very much is? Like, it's set in South Korea in the "Near Future". Basically a means to make it more believable technology-wise for there to be House Robots. South Korea is (as pointed out) very ethnically homogeneous,  like 99% Korean. Very traditional. Very... well... racist against non-koreans. And by casting the show as they did from the start with 5 out of 6 roles (and all the understudies) Asian, they maintained that that is the South Korea that this is. So why would one of the Robots designed and built to serve the people of the community not look like the community in this specific instance? And I know what Boris and Seb are going to run to "Asians arent one group BAHHHHHH!" and like... I agree with that. I think they probably misstepped in the casting from the jump. I don't think its hard to have found a group of like 10 Korean actors who could have taken these roles and not just cast BROADLY Asian. That's probably a conversation to be had that's seperate from this, because its not how this run was initially cast. So now we have the floor open that ANYBODY can be cast in these roles, does it make sense if they cast a Black person, as Boris posted above featuring a South Korean couple running away from a black man? Or with casting AFB with the allegations (that again Boris posted) that South Korean is insanely anti-semitic? 

You either take the setting into account (which they did where they set it and who they initially cast) or they don't which is now what they are trying to do. 

-------

I have an actual question. You see all these social media accounts fan casting shows. Why would they potentially include someone like ABF in that if it comes true, and then there are riots and petitions, etc?

Well for starters because theres not a Riot and the internet is not a monolith. The people fan casting him and those getting upset that he does get cast don't have to be the same people. People can change their mind when someone else talks to them. Like this is all predicated on the idea that people can't change their minds when brought new information. 

Updated On: 8/19/25 at 06:28 PM

[Seb28]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 6:35pm

TheatreFan4 said: "People keep saying that Oliver isn't a POC role, but given the setting I would argue that it... very much is? "

The production team, director, writers and casting directors say it isn't. And they are right, because it's a fictional character, not even human, in a fictional world. And we have made an agreement about that.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 6:41pm

Seb28 said: "TheatreFan4 said: "People keep saying that Oliver isn't a POC role, but given the setting I would argue that it... very much is? "

The production team, director, writers and casting directors say it isn't. And they are right, because it's a fictional character, not even human, in a fictional world. And we have made an agreement about that."

Fictional World called South Korea and a very convenient conclusion to come to AFTER you cast the white guy. Again, I'd take them at their word if they didn't set it in South Korea and didn't fill the cast with 90% Asian people! This isn't a line they did in the promotion before the show opened, it's an 180 degree turn to cover THEIR ass for THEIR decision.

[Seb28]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 6:43pm

TheatreFan4 said: "Fictional World"

A world where robots live as humans as they do in this show. It is fantasy. Fictional. We have made agreements about that.

 

Updated On: 8/19/25 at 06:43 PM