When Broadway turned the lights off on their marquees over a year ago, there was no telling how long they would be closed. With hopes of shows reopening later this year, it came as a shock to the theatre community when Moulin Rouge! lead Karen Olivo announced her exit from the show earlier this week.
Olivo, who’s currently Tony-nominated for playing Satine in the musical based off Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film where Nicole Kidman played the role, passionately took to her Instagram on Wednesday to announce her reasoning.
“The silence about Scott Rudin? Unacceptable,” she says. “That’s the easy one y’all.”
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Bombshell allegations were released against Rudin this past week with stories about his abuse of power and harassment of employees being a known fact in the entertainment industry. One such story comes back from 2012 when Rudin allegedly smashed an Apple computer monitor on one of his assistants’ hands after the assistant failed to get him tickets to a sold-out fight.
Rudin’s abusive behavior has been documented for nearly four decades and, in 2005, a Wall Street Journal article entitled “Boss-Zilla!” named him as “the most feared boss in Hollywood.”
“Everybody’s scared and nobody is really doing a lot of the stuff that needs to be done,” Olivo states. “People aren’t speaking out… Shouldn’t you be more afraid of not saying something and more people getting hurt?”
While Rudin has no involvement in the production of Moulin Rouge!, his name is not a stranger to the stage. He’s won 17 Tony Awards for producing shows since 1994 and is currently up for another for the two-part epic play, The Inheritance.
He was also producing the upcoming revival of The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, which was set for a 2020 opening before pandemic hit. However, Rudin released a statement to the Washington Post on Saturday saying that he would be stepping away from future Broadway productions.
“After a period of reflection, I’ve made the decision to step back from active participation on our Broadway productions, effective immediately,” Rudin said. “I do not want any controversy associated with me to interrupt Broadway’s well deserved return, or specifically, the return of the 1500 people working on these shows.”
Olivo is also focused on the future of the industry.
“Social justice is actually more important than being the sparkling diamond,” Olivo refers to her character before focusing on the young performers she teaches at her private studio in Wisconsin. “Building a better industry for my students is more important than me putting money in my pockets.”
This is hitting Broadway hard at a time when the theatre industry is already having to self-reflect. After the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 and the current Stop Asian Hate effort, the lack of diversity both on-stage and behind the scenes has come to light.
According to a New York Times report, nearly two-thirds of roles and around 94 percent of directors were dominated by white-identifying people.
This is not to say the theatre industry isn’t getting better. Seeing diverse casts take on historically white figures in Hamilton and the still-yet-to-open Six has changed the way people view history. The original West End cast of Six featured three of King Henry VIII’s six wives as women of color, while Broadway upped that to five out of six.
Historically white roles have also started to see some diversity in casting with Joshua Henry in 2018’s Carousel, Ramin Karimloo in 2014’s Les Misérables and Keke Palmer replacing Laura Osnes and Carly Rae Jepsen in 2014’s Cinderella, amongst others.
Though, like the film industry’s issues with diversity, theatre still has a long way to go.
Olivo is looking to make a change for the theatre community and already has fellow thespians backing her up on Instagram, including Moulin Rouge! co-star Kyle Brown, Hadestown lead Eva Noblezada and Once on This Island’s Hailey Kilgore.
“I could easily go back to a show and make a lot of money. But I still wouldn’t be able to really control what I was putting out into the world,” Olivo continues. “I want a theatre industry that matches my integrity.”
The Tony Awards, with both Olivo and Rudin’s nominations pending, still do not have an official air date, but are planned to come right before Broadway’s reopening. While we will have to wait to see what the future holds for Broadway, one thing is for certain: the show must go on.
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