JudyDenmark said: "leighmiserables said: "Apologies for the ignorance here – but I'm noticing a bit of disdain for Michael Arden on this thread, and I'm wondering what that's about? I thought Spring Awakening was brilliant, but that's just my personal opinion of course. I'm just curious as to what people's beef with him is."
I think a lot of the bitterness is from the Kickstarter he did at last year's Tonys. When Spring Awakening was nominated, he started a Kickstarter to get them to perform (since it costs a lot of money to perform), and people here started noticing that the end date of the campaign was like the day before the Tonys, well after the show would've been set and rehearsed. Really fishy and deceptive, because the details of the Kickstarter stated that the donations would determine whether or not they could perform. Essentially he was asking fans for money for something that he was clearly willing to pay for anyway. I think most people loved the show (myself included), it's the dishonesty around that money-making ploy that people have beef with. "
In fairness to Michael Arden, it was Ken Davenport who was believed to be behind the Kickstarter controversy, not Arden. I'm not sure if Arden himself is particularly disliked, apart from the usual variances in opinion of any actor/director's work.
In other thoughts, I usually don't care which theatre Broadway shows go into (not getting to see them there anyway), but it does sound kinda apt for an 'Island' show to be staged in the round. Cautiously optimistic for this one.
