Is the WEST SIDE STORY Revival Bowing as a Group to Protect Amar Ramasar?
The cast of West Side Story (Julieta Cervantes)
While I will not go see the show, those who have told me that rather than doing individual curtain call bows, the cast of the revival of West Side Story is bowing as one big ensemble and coupled groups. Now, this could be for a number of reasons. But for me, the reason why they’re doing this is to protect Amar Ramasar.
You might recall that months before West Side Story started previews, I called for Amar Ramasar to be audibly booed during his individual curtain call bow. You might be asking, “Why would anyone do that?”
Rather than go through the atrocious details, read this article because it breaks it down pretty well.
I called for Ramasar to be booed for a couple of reasons:
While a boycott would hurt the financials of the revival, I felt that booing during a curtain call would be more instantly effective and disruptive.
It would be only directed at him and not the rest of his castmates who doesn’t deserve to be punished.
I published that article on September 2nd, 2019, more than two months before the first preview of West Side Story and it caught fire very quickly. It became the 5th most-read piece on the blog for 2019 logging in at over 50,000 views. So people were taking notice.
In the weeks following my call to boo Ramasar, I heard from over a dozen people who had bought tickets who pledged that they were going to boo Ramasar the moment he walked on stage for his bow at the end of the show.
But now, I’m hearing they’re bowing as a group, which removes the possibility for Ramasar to receive any jeers.
How sure am I that this was done to protect Ramasar and to try to quell the anger? 99.9%. Let’s just say my sources within the show at the Broadway Theatre have all but confirmed this for me. And I’ll admit it, it’s smart on the part of the producers and creative team if they planned it this way. No one wants to boo anyone else in the cast, so why not hide Amar among his castmates who did nothing wrong other than audition to be in their first Broadway show?
So if the producers and creative team want to try to hide Amar Ramasar from public scrutiny within the theatre, then it’s our job to make our voices heard outside of it. My suggestion is that when he comes out the stage door to sign autographs, boo him then or turn your back on him. Short of committing an actual crime, I would encourage you all to display your outrage in the way you feel best. This way it will be more visible, impactful and cause enough of a scene that others who don’t know the situation can quickly look it up.
Amar Ramasar should be reminded after every performance what people think of his casting. And the producers and creative teams should know too.
The message needs to be sent to theatrical powers-that-be that those who have engaged in sexual misconduct, harassment should not be welcome back with employment in the industry they used to abuse others, let alone less than a year after they were exposed. We also need unions like AEA and AGMA to know that by protecting sexual misconduct perpetrators, they’re not protecting other members of these unions.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s sickening that those who have reported sexual misconduct in professional theatre have been punished more than the people they’re reporting. And if the professional theatre powers won’t change the way they do business, then it’s on us to disrupt it.