It's Time We Talked About "That New York Times Article"
It’s no secret that the professional theatre industry has been largely spared from the wave of sexual misconduct allegations that ignited the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.
Some have been exposed and suffered the consequences of their alleged actions such as Long Wharf Theatre AD Gordon Edelstein, who was fired from his position and playwright Israel Horowitz, who the Gloucester Stage cut ties with.
Some have been exposed and even welcomed back with open arms into the industry such as Ben Vereen, who is about to receive a lifetime achievement award from theatre organization, Inside Broadway.
But many haven’t been exposed at all. There are many reasons for this: victim’s fears of retaliation, Non-disclosure agreements, and exposés that have been killed by various publications, to name a few.
Thankfully, due to the outrage over the casting of Amar Ramasar in Broadway’s West Side Story, there has been a new wave of awareness and calls for accountability when it comes to sexual misconduct within the theatre industry.
Which is why it’s time to talk about “that New York Times article”.
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In December of 2017, there was discussion among the New York theatre community that the Times would be publishing a sweeping exposé into sexual misconduct within the industry that would include allegations against several high profile names. This article was going to rock the industry and maybe, force the change that was so desperately needed. Discussions on social media were expecting the bomb to drop and reverberate beyond 42nd St.
Then nothing happened.
Days, weeks, months went by and the story was never published.
Initially, I thought they would simply divide the column into a series, which makes business sense. But after time went by and nothing was being published, I started to have doubts about that plan.
Many started asking questions, wondering if the story had been killed. Just over two years later, they’re still asking about it and this article has reached mythic proportions.
So it’s time we talked about it.
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Throughout the Fall of 2017, I had been working on a story regarding allegations against Ben Vereen. Multiple women had accused Mr. Vereen of sexual misconduct and harassment during a production of Hair he directed in 2015.
After collecting statements from the victims and other information, I quickly realized that this needed the scope and resources of a larger publication. Given their work on the Harvey Weinstein exposé, the Times was my first choice. I sent reporters my notes, along with all the statements and information I had collected. Within days, I heard back from them that they were interested in the story.
After a phone conversation and multiple emails back and forth, it seemed to me that they were going to run it. But in early December, things hit a snag. I was told that something had come up that they needed to give attention to first. This was right around the time that the rumblings of the “article” started to come up, so I figured that must be it. I wondered if Mr. Vereen was going to be included in the piece. But then, nothing.
On December 3rd and 4th, the Times published their articles on sexual misconduct against James Levine, the conductor at the Met Opera and Peter Martins, the ballet Master-in-Chief at New York City Ballet. As I mentioned earlier, I thought this was the beginning of the series they were going to publish on the New York theatre industry.
So I contacted my sources at the Times, told them about the buzz in the community and asked if they needed anything from me to help. I got the same answer from all of them - there was no imminent story coming.
I was surprised by this but one of my sources said something a little different than the others,
“There is no story coming. Not anymore.”
To this date, that is all the info I’ve gotten from my contacts that the Times. But it was the “Not anymore” that piqued my interest.
So I started to ask around to try to find out what happened.
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According to sources, multiple allegations were being reported. I’m told that over a dozen people spoke to journalists regarding seven high profile theatre professionals. They were:
a Director
a Composer
an Actor
the Head of a theatrical producing organization
a Costume Designer
Two Casting professionals
I don’t have all the specifics of the allegations but I know some included sexual harassment and offers of favors for sexual acts. The victims included women, men, and transgender people. Some of them were decades younger than their perpetrators.
Since the speculation of this article, we have seen allegations brought forward against individuals that fit these descriptions. It was right around this time that we saw allegations brought forward against actor James Franco. That week, Telsey + Co fired of their casting agents, Justin Huff, over accusations of misconduct. Months later, allegations against costume designer William Ivey Long were brought forward. Just last month, allegations were brought forward against Hadestown costume designer, Michael Krass. I can’t confirm that these allegations were going to be included in the piece.
So why hasn’t this exposé seen the light of day?
I’ve heard a lot of things. The popular belief is that legal representatives stepped in to make sure the story was killed. I’ve heard that one of the individuals named was attached to a major production set to open soon and the company behind the production didn’t want the negative publicity. Also, given the fact that one of them was apparently the head of a theatrical producing organization, it’s not unrealistic to think that they would have their lawyer squash the story as well.
While we might think that publications like the Times are impervious to threats of lawyers, it’s important to know that the Times is a business and they have business before the Broadway industry. Depending on the individual, the Times could lose access and advertising which would deal a crushing blow. In 2017, the state of print media was in peril, so it might not be surprising for the Times not to take that kind of risk with a story like this.
Also, it’s not unrealistic to think that important relationships had a part to play in this. It’s been well documented that NBC News tried to kill the Harvey Weinstein story due to relationships at the network. Is it hard to believe the same could be said for the Times?
But let me be honest, I can understand where the Times is coming from. There have been stories that we have tried to publish and couldn’t due to legal threats. Some we’ve even had to take down because of legal issues. OnStage Blog isn’t a multi-million dollar publication, so we have to be careful when publishing stories of this nature. When we can publish them, we always do.
Either way, with the reignited effort to expose and end sexual misconduct in the professional theatre industry, I hope this kickstarts new investigations by publications like the New York Times. While some may disagree, I do not believe that anyone who uses this industry to abuse others, should be allowed to continue working in this industry. The professional theatre industry in New York City is smaller than you would think, but it’s more insular than you could ever imagine. The powers-that-be have continuously protected perpetrators and punished whistleblowers for speaking out. This needs to end.
Some have ignorantly mocked the West Side Story protests, but it’s impossible to deny the awareness that they are spreading: It’s time to stop awarding careers that have been built on abusing others. Doesn’t seem like that’s too much to ask.
Photo: Getty Images/Nina Westervelt