Official Kickstarter to get Spring Awakening to perform on the Tonys — Page 18

"It's just too bad you all have been bullying Deaf West directly so much, because you have probably truly discouraged them from ever feeling they can be part of the Broadway community. That's what breaks my heart about all of this."



I think you completely missed the point. None of us are "bullying Deaf West directly." It's Ken we have a problem with. It's been stated ad nauseum in this thread. No one discouraged "them", whoever them is, from anything.

GreenSharpie said: "My guess is that the couple weeks' delay in starting this Kickstarter was caused by a back-and-forth with the producers that ended with this Kickstarter-funded compromise."

LOL. A couple weeks? Maybe if they had done this within the 5 MONTHS since the show closed, it wouldn't have looked like the complete scam that it is. And then it was announced they were performing on the Tonys before the kickstarter reached its goal. As if by magic.

If these are the shenanigans they are involved in, maybe they should feel truly discouraged from feeling like they can be a part of the broadway community. Sure, maybe it's not their fault, but they certainly didn't object to any of the shady dealings going on.

Again, that $35k donation spike within hours after the confirmation of the performance lineup- in the form of mostly large donations- is just another red flag in this whole endeavor.

No one is "bullying" anybody. People deserve to know what, exactly, they are giving money to. And no one involved with this has been transparent about that. No one could even offer an explanation for the 6/11 end date!

So yeah, they're performing.

They were always gonna perform, even without your $50.

Kad said: "So yeah, they're performing.

They were always gonna perform, even without your $50."

See, this is where I disagree. I know my specific $50 don't make much of a difference, but I think that this performance would not be happening without Kickstarter (this whole show literally wouldn't exist without it for that matter, but that's a much bigger topic).

I think the producers would not have backed the performance without the knowledge that there would be a crowdfunding campaign simultaneously to minimize their expenditure. I am almost sure they simply would have decided not to have a performance, same as happened with Deaf West Big River in 2003. And I know a lot of you think that would be fine and the way things should have been, but I disagree. If a Kickstarter was what was needed to convince Producers to part with some of their money with the gamble that there would be enough crowdfunding revenue to minimize their contribution, then so be it- it's worth it in my book. I know you all think differently, but again this comes down to how important you subjectively think a Tony performance is.

This is really disgusting. To think that the Tony Awards signify excellence in the theatre... this move from this revival is quite appalling.

GreenSharpie, you're basing your defense of this almost exclusively on the reasoning you've come up with in your head. There's no indication that any of what you're saying is true, because it's an assumption you've made. What IS true is that this whole operation has been shady from the get-go, and people in this thread and elsewhere have voiced their very valid concerns based on the facts that we know.

Liza's Headband said: "You begin with the assumption that it was never going to happen in the first place, regardless of reimbursement or Kickstarter. That's simply not true. As someone who is in the industry, I can assure you they would've needed to have both the money and logistics in place weeks, if not months, before the online campaign even started.


The nominations were announced May 3; the Kickstarter was announced May 24. For those asking me to clarify, I think those are the few weeks' delay in announcing the Kickstarter that was caused by Deaf West scrambling/negotiating how they can fund the performance and eventually landing on the Kickstarter compromise with their producers. Everyone thought it wasn't likely Spring Awakening would even be nominated for Best Revival because there were supposedly only 3 slots and the show had closed, so I don't think they could bank on being invited to perform before the nominations announcement.


perfectlymarvelous said: "GreenSharpie, you're basing your defense of this almost exclusively on the reasoning you've come up with in your head. There's no indication that any of what you're saying is true, because it's an assumption you've made. What IS true is that this whole operation has been shady from the get-go, and people in this thread and elsewhere have voiced their very valid concerns based on the facts that we know. "

Most of this thread is based on speculation and projection, so I don't see how my doing so is any different. I agree I don't have direct proof, but I think my theory is totally feasible and more realistic than Deaf West evilly scheming about how to exploit their devoted fans to the fullest.

I haven't read the whole 18 pages of this topic, only the last 3 or so, but what it comes down to for me is the lack of transparency of what exactly they were doing.

So assuming GreenSharpie is right and whoever front-ended the money for the performances (producers, investors...) wasn't willing to do so without some sort of guarantee that he/she/they would get their money back from crowd-funding, which I want to say is possible, the fact remains is that this is not what they said. They said that the performances depended on a successful kickstarter, and that there would be no performance if they asked sum wasn't raised. But that clearly wasn't the case. The kickstarter money is mostly likely used to pay back a loan.

Now I understand that it's hard to raise money by saying "We have a loan to do this but we really need to pay back the money, so please help us." But they still lied about it. And it could have backfired pretty easily since kickstarters get canceled if the asked sum isn't raised.

I think they would have been off on another platform, I think there are others that let you keep whatever you get, even if it's lower than your ask, or am I making that up? That way there wouldn't have needed to be this fake ultimatum. "Raise as much as you can, and we will try to pay the rest" or something like that. That would have still be a lie, but that ultimatum is really what bothers me, because it never existed.

I HOPE James addresses this on Sunday and makes a joke about it. That would totally be a highlight for me.

Oh wow. I didn't realize he'd deleted it. (!)

I fully expect Ken Davenport to be named head of the NEA if Donald Trump is elected

He IS the Donald Trump of theater. He is preposterously vainglorious, he runs scam education programs, he knows about forty words, he dodges all actual issues, and his entire great career is built almost entirely on spun failure.