Lin-Manuel Miranda – the creator and lead actor of "Hamilton" – called on Congress to provide failing theater companies with a massive taxpayer-funded bailout.
Miranda and "The Cosby Show" star Phylicia Rashad pleaded with lawmakers to furnish the theater industry with $500 million in annual federal funding for the next five years – a total of $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds.
"The person who [will have written] your favorite musical is working on it right now in a small theater somewhere in this country," Miranda said during a Senate briefing on Thursday at the Russell Senate Office Building. "And those small theaters are closing, and those small theaters are in crisis."
Rashad told lawmakers that theater is principally "communication from the heart."
"When we communicate from the heart, other hearts are touched," Rashad asserted. "This is why theater creates community."
The briefing was hosted by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) as a way to introduce the Supporting Theater and Generating Economic Activity Act. The STAGE Act is a "federal funding initiative that has the potential to stimulate the theater industry as it continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges." The legislation was unveiled by the Professional Non-Profit Theater Coalition, an organization representing 140 theaters from across the country.
Oskar Eustis, artistic director of New York’s Public Theater, told the Los Angeles Times, "To the federal government, it’s a pretty small amount of money, but it would make an unbelievable difference to theaters across the country. Every theater would survive, and could serve our communities in ways that, right now, we’re struggling to do."
Theater attendance has dropped by as much as 30% since the pandemic shutdowns of March 2020, according to the Washington Post. There are reportedly two to three theater companies shuttering each month.
Many theaters have already received funding from the federal government from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program in 2020 – which supplied $15 billion for "ailing entertainment spaces and promoters in the largest public rescue of the arts in U.S. history."
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Bill Maher blasted Democrats on his show Friday after "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda apologized to woke critics who complained that his new movie excluded Afro-Latino actors.
The movie, "In The Heights," is based on a book and Miranda-created Broadway play by the same name. The story follows characters based in Manhattan's famed Washington Heights neighborhood, which has a significant Hispanic and Dominican population.
The movie was criticized this week for not having casted enough Afro-Latino actors. "[T]he problem with 'in the heights' is 1. ppl who havent been to the heights and dunno its majority black latino will think its accurate and 2. latinos will defend it even if they know a real in the heights would be black as hell coz they antiblack and selfhating af," a prominent critic said.
In response, Miranda released a groveling apology in which he acknowledged the accusations of "colorism" and said he is "truly sorry."
I started writing In The Heights because I didn't feel seen. And over the past 20 years all I wanted was for us — ALL of us — to feel seen. I'm seeing the discussion around Afro-Latino representation in our film this weekend, and it is clear that many in our dark-skinned Afro-Latino community don't feel sufficiently represented within it, particularly among the leading roles. I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, of feeling unseen in the feedback. I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy. In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short. I'm truly sorry.
I'm learning from the feedback, I thank you for raising it, and I'm listening. I'm trying to hold space for both the incredible pride in the movie we made and be accountable for our shortcomings. Thank you for your honest feedback. I promise to do better in my future projects, and I'm dedicated to the learning and evolving we all have to do to make sure we are honoring our diverse and vibrant community. Siempre, LMM.
Speaking on HBO's "Real Time," Maher said woke outrage and Miranda's apology are symptomatic of bigger problems among progressives — and it demonstrates why "people hate Democrats."
"Stop the apologizing!" Maher exclaimed. "You're the guy who made the Founding Fathers Black and Hispanic! I don't think you have to apologize to Twitter! For f**k's sake! This is why people hate Democrats— it's cringy!"
Maher added that he doesn't believe Miranda actually wanted to apologize, but said it's time for people to start standing up to woke social media "bullies."
"Do I think he really thinks he needs to apologize? I don't. He just wants to avoid the news cycle. I don't blame him, you know," Maher said. "I understand this, but at some point, people are going to have to stand up to these bullies because that's what it is! It's bullying. It's 'I could make you crawl like a dog and I enjoy it.'"
"I mean, he's a Latino making a Latino movie with a Latino cast— not good enough!" Maher continued. "Nothing is ever good enough for these people! They're like children. We don't raise our children right and it's reflected in the media. No one ever tells their children, 'Shut the f**k up, sit down, listen to your elders, stop b**ching."
Real Time with Bill Maher 6/18/21 | Real Time HBO June 18, 2021 FULL Episode 720 HD youtu.be
Entertainment icon Rita Moreno caved to cancel culture on Thursday after initially defending "Hamilton" star Lin-Manuel Miranda from woke mob attacks.
Miranda was criticized by many on the left for having light-skinned minorities instead of dark-skinned minorities at the forefront of his highly anticipated movie, "In The Heights."
Moreno initially defended Miranda in a statement decrying cancel culture on the "Late Show" with Stephen Colbert.
"You can never do right, it seems. This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn't do it. I would love to say I did, but I couldn't. Lin-Manuel has done that really singlehandedly!" said Moreno to great applause from the audience.
"I'm simply saying, can't you just wait a while and leave it alone? There's a lot of people who are puertorriqueño, who are also from Guatemala, who are dark, and who are also fair. We are all colors in Puerto Rico. This is how it is and it would be so nice if they hadn't come up with that and left it alone, for now. They're really attacking the wrong person," she explained.
On Thursday, she reversed course.
"I'm incredibly disappointed with myself. While making a statement in defense of Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Colbert Show last night, I was clearly dismissive of black lives that matter in our Latin community. It is so easy to forget how celebration for some is lament for others," she tweeted.
I’m incredibly disappointed with myself. While making a statement in defense of Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Colbert… https://t.co/JnjFPmrjgX
— Rita Moreno (@TheRitaMoreno) 1623890076.0
"In addition to applauding Lin for his wonderful movie version of In The Heights, let me add my appreciation for his sensitivity and resolve to be more inclusive of the Afro-Latino community going forward. See, you CAN teach this old dog new tricks," she added in a second tweet.
Miranda also rushed to apologize to the woke mob and promised to improve in future projects.
Moreno is best known for her Academy Award winning performance in the 1961 musical film "West Side Story."
Rita Moreno Defends Her Friend Lin Manuel Miranda Over "In The Heights" Controversywww.youtube.com
Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning Broadway producer, writer, and composer, has issued an apology for "colorism" after critics attacked his new musical, "In the Heights," for not featuring more diverse actors.
The production — which is now in U.S. theaters and is streaming on HBO Max — is based on a tight-knit, largely Latino New York City neighborhood, Washington Heights, where Miranda grew up.
In a lengthy Monday statement, the Broadway producer admitted that he "fell short" in "trying to paint a mosaic of this community."
The 41-year-old wrote, "I started writing In The Heights because I didn't feel seen. And over the past 20 years all I wanted was for us — ALL of us — to feel seen. I'm seeing the discussion around Afro-Latino representation in our film this weekend and it is clear that many in our dark-skinned Afro-Latino community don't feel sufficiently represented within it, particularly among the leading roles."
"I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, over feeling unseen in the feedback," he added. "I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy."
Miranda noted that he is "truly sorry" and is "learning from the feedback."
"I thank you for raising it, and I'm listening," his apology continued. "I'm trying to hold space for both the incredible pride in the movie we made and be accountable for our shortcomings. Thanks for your honest feedback. I promise to do better in my future projects, and I'ms dedicated to the learning and evolving we all have to do to make sure we are honoring our diverse and vibrant community."
-LMM https://t.co/CHfdLgFUz3
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) 1623709464.0
Ahead of the musical's premiere, director Jon M. Chu and two of its main characters — actresses Melissa Barrera and Leslie Grace — discussed colorism and a "lack of Afro-Latino actors in leading roles" during an interview with The Root's Felice Léon.
According to People, Léon asked Chu, Barrera, and Grace about the "lack of Black Latinx people represented in the film," considering the cast mainly appeared to be "light-skinned or white-passing Latinx people."
Chu responded, "Yeah, I mean I think that that was something we talked about and I needed to be educated about, of course. In the end, when we were looking at the cast, we were trying to get the people who were best for those roles and that specifically, and we saw a lot of people, people like [actresses] Daphne [Rubin-Vega], or Dascha [Polanco]."
He added, "But I hear you on trying to fill those cast members with darker-skinned [actors]. I think that's a really good conversation to have, something that we should all be talking about."
Barrera pointed out, "I think it's important to note, though, that in the audition process — which was a long audition process — there were a lot of Afro-Latinos there. A lot of darker skinned people, and I think they were looking for just the right people for the roles, for the person that embodied each character to the fullest extent. And I think we are all very much like our characters, so much so that a lot of times it didn't even feel like we were acting, they just kind of let us live in there. And because the cast ended up being us, Washington Heights is a melting pot of Black and Latinx people, Jon and Lin wanted the dancers and the big numbers to feel very truthful to what the community looks like."
Grace chimed in, "I didn't realize until making this movie that I didn't really get to see myself or people that look like my siblings that are darker than me on screen."
"I didn't realize how much that affected the limitations I put on myself, being someone who wanted to be an artist and be an actress and even be in the Latin music industry, being Afro-Latina," she added. "I feel so blessed that I get to express the diversity that is within the Latinx community in a way that we haven't been able to see onscreen because so many times we're put on screen in one particular way, and since we get so little opportunities, everyone wants to claim that one story because it's all we got."
Grace added, "I hope that this is cracking that glass ceiling. Because I do hope to see my brothers and sisters that are darker than me lead these movies."
Letting social justice upstage Shakespeare is clearly not a script for success.
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