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Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you're listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I'm a professional theatre critic and content creator here on social media and today we have a musical theater lawsuit to discuss how exciting for all of us and how minimally exciting for the parties involved. Apologies to them, but this has been making the rounds in news coverage over the past few days. Partially because it's August and it's a very quiet theatrical news month, but also because it's something of an interesting story. Now this is of course not the first legal drama that we have seen in the musical theater realm, but interestingly, this is not about a Broadway show. This is a pre Broadway show because the actress Kiara Renee, who starred in the pre Broadway Paper Mill Playhouse production of of the impending Broadway musical Wanted, which was then titled Gun and Powder, is suing the production for apparently recasting her in the already announced and upcoming Broadway transfer of the show, which she alleges constitutes a breach of contract. I'm going to talk a little bit through the details of the case, but also the implications that this has for the notion of recasting performers from developmental productions of shows when they come to transfer to Broadway or to the West End. Because there is some interesting history here with other shows, with other high profile instances of this happening, and it would be very intriguing if this became something of a landmark lawsuit that encouraged producers to go about this kind of casting a little differently in the future. In any case, lots for us to talk about and I'm sure plenty of opinions that you would love to share in the comments section. Let us all know what you think in the comment section down below. And if you enjoy listening to my thoughts and want more Broadway breaking news and drama recaps, make sure to subscribe right here on YouTube or go follow me on podcast platforms. In the meantime, let's talk about it Kiara Renee versus the upcoming Broadway musical Wanted who is she? What is that and what is going on now? If you're not meeting me for the first time today, you know that I love a little bit of history and context. Let's talk first of all about this show about this actress before we discuss the impending lawsuit betwixt the two. So Kiara Renee, an actress of stage and screen who made her Broadway debut in the musical Big Fish just over a decade ago. Some of her most known roles are replacing Patina Miller as the leading player in the Broadway revival of Pippin, as well as playing the role of Esmeralda in the Papermill playhouse production of Disney's the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Around 10 years later she would return to Papermill Playhouse with the show in question that we are discussing today then titled Gun and Powder. But in the intervening years she was seen in many other shows, Broadway and Off Broadway. Interestingly, she was in a pre Broadway workshop production of Hamilton that is going to be relevant later. She was also a replacement Jenna in Waitress. And she had some really dreadful luck replacing as Elsa in Disney's Frozen on Broadway, becoming the first actress of color to play that role, on a major stage, sadly joining the show in I think February of 2020, obviously one month before the theatrical shutdown as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic with frozen being one of a handful of shows sadly to never reopen on Broadway. And she never had the opportunity to reprise her performance as Elsa, which was not only a huge deal when it came to casting for that show, but presumably would have been a huge professional opportunity for her as well, although not the first time she'd played a leading role on Broadway. Now let's discuss the musical Gun and Powder, now titled Wanted and heading to Broadway. Though official dates and the theater have not yet been confirmed, it is now called Wanted. A new musical, the Leg Sisters Clark. Here is what it says on their website. Sisters, outlaws, Legends, and a little New York Times critics pick accreditation there as well. Texas 1893. A time gone but not forgotten. Twin sisters determined to save their family, take fate into their own hands. Hiding who they are and taking what they're owed. They straddle the line between two Americas. A new Broadway musical that brings a defiant legacy to life. Wanted is the mostly true story. The mostly true story we love those of Mary and Martha Clark, two extraordinary women who went from farm girls to outlaws to legends. This is entirely beside the point, but I don't understand when people, and, you know, the Kardashians notwithstanding, name twins with the same beginning initial because it's just gonna be very hard for them to not only define their own identities, but also signatures. Like to come up with a distinct. I say this as someone who was given a name with the same first initial as my father, who obviously has the same surname. I've held onto this clearly for years. Those children are going to have enough in common their entire life. The least you could do is give them, you know, unique initials. Anyway, two extraordinary women who went from farm girls to outlaws to legends. Worth pointing out that it would seem that they had bigger problems than those that I'm suggesting. Wanted previously. Gunpowder Features book and lyrics by Angelica Cherie, a real life descendant of the Sisters Clarke. How cool is that? First of all, it's often said by audiences that, you know, we don't want jukebox musicals. We don't want films turned into stage musicals. We want original musicals. We want unique stories. We want stories from underrepresented cultures. Here you have a story about historic, real life women of color who took ownership of their own lives and destinies being told in part by one of their descendants. I mean, that is surely everything that audiences have been asking for. That is the most authentic version of this story that you could possibly get. Music by Ross Baum and direction by Obie Award winner and Tony nominee Stevie Walker Webb. This New York Times critics pick is a open quotation marks. The thrillingly original new musical with open more quotation marks. A powerhouse score. And I've listened to a little bit of it already because they have shared some tracks as part of a studio ep which conspicuously does not feature Papermill Playhouse star Kiara Renee. Now she was part of the Papermill Playhouse production alongside Lisi Lafontaine, who has been seen in shows like Dreamgirls and Moulin Rouge in the West End, but has also worked in New York. And though casting has not yet been confirmed for the Broadway production, Lisi can be heard on the EP alongside Soleil Pfeiffer, who was in a version of the show prior to the Papermon Playhouse. One Worth pointing out at this point that before these shows arrive in the West End or on Broadway, they go through not only years of developmental readings and rewrites and workshops, but also in many instances, a lot of regional or pre Broadway productions. And the show formerly known as Gun and Powder seems to have had at least two workshops and at least two pre Broadway productions, one of those starring Kiara Renee as Mary Clarke, the other which happened earlier, starring Solea Pfeiffer in the same role. And it wouldn't hurt to briefly take a look at a little review roundup here and find out what critics thought of the Papermill Playhouse production. Marina Kennedy for Broadway World in April of last year called it a fast paced western adventure that includes thievery, romance, deception and remarkable courage. Juan A. Ramirez for Theatrely said Renee and Lafontaine have a fast and easy chemistry. It's a good thing because once the plot kicks in, the production becomes a breakneck sequence of songs and old school tableaux. Renee gets the bulk of the solos and her voice smoothly fills out every genre, tempo and mood thrown at her. It's an unsurprisingly excellent performance that nevertheless feels like a revelation for the undervalued performer. And Undervalued now hits very differently in light of what has emerged since. Which brings us to the actual lawsuit. Let's talk about what's going on there. Let's begin with Logan Colwell Block's coverage of this news in Playbill with the headline Kiara Renee Files Suit against Producers of Wanted over Broadway Transfer. The Waitress and Frozen star co led the musical's Papermill Playhouse production last year, but her role was recast for Broadway. Casting for the Broadway production of Wanted has not been announced, though the show is expected to bow on Broadway next year, that is to say, early 2026. According to Renee's suit, she will not be starring on Broadway in June of this year, 2025, a workshop of the musical was held with Lisi Lafontaine and Solea Pfeiffer as the leads. Pfeiffer played the role of Mary in the show's world premiere at Virginia's Signature Theatre. Gosh, it was all happening in 2020, this being presumably another musical that would have come to the stage much faster if it wasn't for the shutdown in that period of closure. Pfeiffer and LaFontaine, as I mentioned before, also sang on the musical's newly released ep, which incidentally, go and take a listen. There's some cracking songs now, the suit alleges. Here we go. Here's the details that Chiara o' Neill's contract for the Paper Mill Playhouse run guaranteed her the right to continue in the role in a production of the play mounted by the producers in New York or London upon completion of good faith negotiations. That's very interest. Let's pause there. So this is what is often referred to within the industry as the right of first refusal, which means that at the conclusion of the period of time for which the performer is contracted an initial version of the show, they are guaranteed the opportunity to either accept or turn down the role in a subsequent production, meaning that the actor is not bound to accept that role in a new production if they want to pursue an alternative or more lucrative opportunity. But crucially, it is theirs to refuse. And obviously the opportunity to create a new leading role in a brand new Broadway musical is a not significant one. And as this has been bubbling up on social media, this is the thing that people have been talking about. Did she have first right of refusal? Because people have been saying if she did, well then that's that, and if she didn't, well then that's that in the other direction. And before we go on to discuss whether it actually is that simple, there's an interesting detail here about future productions of the show. And according to the allegations made in the lawsuit, the right of refusal was offered for future productions in New York or London. And it doesn't whatsoever mean that we can assume that the London production of this show is imminent. It's absolutely something that only exist in the contracts just to cover the possibility that it might happen. But it's interesting to know that that is being considered as a possibility. If you don't know, they later go on to acknowledge that one of the implicated producing parties here is P3 Productions, who were also producers on this summer's production of Call Me Izzy on Broadway, the upcoming New York production of Mexico, and the Broadway musical How to Dance in Ohio, which it was said a little while ago was going to be making its way to the uk, although everything on that front has gone relatively quiet, almost to suggest that it's no longer happening. But as a production company, they have also had something of a footing in the UK with involvement in productions like Next to Normal here. So interesting to know that they are aware of the possible frontier of London when it comes to producing these new musicals. Anyway, carrying on the filing shares that Kiara Renee completed the Paper Mill Run and was later hired to record some of the musical's songs to perform for potential investors at a 2024 Martha's Vineyard event to participate in an October 2024 developmental reading and attend the 20 for Vivian Robinson Audelco Recognition Awards for Excellence in Black Theatre as a representative of the musical. That's four different things. But the suit also alleges that in late November of last year, Samuel Lopez of P3 Productions aforementioned and Alicia Parker of National Artists Management Company and executive producer of the musical, told Renee in a phone call that she would not be continuing with the show to Broadway. Their reasoning, Renee said, was that she had materially failed to collaborate during the Paper Mill run and that she was unwilling to accept feedback from the creative team. In other in other words, Kiara Renee, having played the role in the Paper Mill Playhouse production and been reviewed well, was anticipating that she would be guaranteed the opportunity to play the role on Broadway if the show was going to transfer, but was told just under a year ago by producers that she would not be playing the role on Broadway for reasons that sort of seem to fall under the familiar brackets of creative differences and someone being difficult to work with, which is a topic I want to return to. But before I do, there is more to this because Kiara Renee says that those claims are are false. In the filing, she says that she was never previously told of any breach of agreement, and says the events that she was hired for after the Paper Mill performances indicate that Lopez and Parker had not considered her in breach of their agreement either. Which falls on slightly shaky ground because basically she's saying, if you didn't like my performance in the show, why on earth would you have had me do all of those other events subsequently? And the reality of the thing is that every subsequent event that she was invited to do and you know, the recording and attending events and things for the investors are of course not the same thing as returning into a professional collaboration fully and reprising her entire performance. Not to mention that from the perspective of the producers, having just completed the most high profile production that the show had had so far. And having got a New York Times critics pick, you are obviously going to use the cast members from that production in order to promote the show's future life. And that seems like something that from either perspective could be looked at a different way. Kiara Renee was viewing all of these events as very much pre Broadway and the beginning of the chapter, whereas you could also see them as something of an epilogue to the paper mill run. Now let's talk money. Kiara Renee is asking for a jury trial and $486,000 or nine months of the 13 and a half thousand dollar weekly salary she anticipated earning while in the show. Along with punitive damages, pre and post judgment interest, consequential damages, attorney's fees, costs and other relief. A lot of money. Basically the most interesting detail of which is the thirteen and a half thousand dollar weekly salary. And it being a fairly ambiguous world, I have no idea where that falls within the world of Broadway performance salaries. I don't anticipate that being the biggest salary on Broadway doesn't sound like the smallest. Certainly I know it's considerably higher than what performers are being paid in the West End, but that's a discrepancy we already knew about. What I will say without wanting to rain on anybody's pre Broadway parade, is that any new musical that is not based on existing intellectual property and is opening on Broadway without celebrity star names would be lucky to run for nine months. And if there's a world in which an out of court settlement awards Kiara Renee anything close to those actual damages and the show doesn't end up running for nearly that long, then, you know, decent win for her. Now Richard Roth, the lawyer representing the multiple defendants here, has also issued a statement in response, part of which reads we vehemently deny Renee's allegations and will vigorously defend her falsehood. And while I am your friendly neighbourhood social media theatre critic, I am not a legal analyst, so I am not going to weigh in on who I think has the stronger case here or what I think is going to happen. I will offer a little bit of insight that has been shared with me by a considerably more credible legal mind which basically boils down to a legal he said, she said re the breach of contract here, in which it is Kiara Renee's responsibility to provide the burden of proof. And if a clause exists within the contract granting her first right of refusal, then that speaks for itself. However, it seems to be the allegation of producers here that she breached the contract prior to that and in doing so pierced that right for herself as a result of her conduct during the Papermill Playhouse production, which doesn't have to just be something that she describes in which they describe in response. Because the way that theatrical productions work is that everything gets written down. If you don't know there are many, many notes kept during rehearsal, but particularly during performances. Show notes are made at every single performance of a show. And if there were documented issues, then these will likely brought up during the discovery phase of the suit. I am also told, for what it's worth, that around 99% of civil cases such as these settle out of court. And obviously we can all infer that the timing of this is deliberate in order to apply a little bit of pressure onto the producers because the show is set to announce details of its Broadway run. They've released the ep, they've said it's officially going to Broadway, they are starting to begin their press and marketing campaign. And the worst possible thing is to have this lawsuit looming over them them, which means that all parties are going to want this fairly quickly resolved. And while this is an interesting and juicy little lawsuit, I am more concerned with the precedent that it might set and other previous examples of this that have sidestepped any kind of formal litigation. But before we talk about those, I do want to make one final comment about the case itself, because I personally have not met and do not know the actress Kiara Renee. I have met a minority of Broadway performers and so I'm not going to presume to comment on her character. I will leave that to the people in the comments section whose nephews, brothers, sister in laws, dentist, knew someone who worked with her one time and has plenty to say about the experience. But with every possibility of truth to the allegations that have been leveled by producers, I am also in this moment feeling particularly aware of the frequency with which women, and in particular women of colour, are branded difficult to work with within the industry or more readily referred to as opinionated and indifferent to feedback. And as it happens, just a couple of hours ago on this nice Sunday evening, I happened to be listening to some old anecdotes and stories about Ethel Merman and her time spent on Broadway. And it's so interesting that the behavior that is fondly recalled and even celebrated from the Ethel and the likes of her is now the justification of the firing of a leading lady in 2025. We could also speculate, you know, Solea Fiver had played the role first. Is it that the producers really wanted her to do it the entire time? Was she unavailable during The Paper Mill Playhouse production Soleil has been fairly booked and busy on Broadway back to back in Moulin Rouge until very recently in Hadestown. That I'm also reminded, as I'm sure many of you are as well, of the Patti LuPone of it all and the Sunset Boulevard 1990s legal dispute between her and Sir Lloyd Andrew Lloyd Webber, when she had the first right of refusal to do the Broadway production but was recast and there was a lawsuit and she was victorious and she now has a swimming pool named in his honor. It will be very interesting to hear about any potential water features or home improvements that Kiara Renee is able to make as a result of this legal action. Obviously, P3 Productions isn't quite as regal as the Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial swimming Pool, and it does sort of sound like it ought to describe a toilet. But time will tell on all fronts. What I'm much more interested in talking about is what this means for other actors hired to do early versions of shows who later get recast. So as I mentioned earlier before, a show makes its way to Broadway, there are years and years of development. There are readings and there are workshops and there are out of town tryouts and there are pre Broadway productions. Even beyond a show shows Broadway life, it can continue to be changed and revised and metamorphosize into something different. It gets revived decades later in a reworked capacity. There's a version in the West End that gets changed when it's brought to Broadway. There's a version on Broadway that gets changed for a US national tour and then gets changed further when it goes to London. We have seen every single example of this. And in almost all of those instances when the material is being reworked, particularly after it's already been on its feet beyond the workshop phase, and during the workshop phase it is being revised with actors in the space. And so that company of performers, the ones involved in developmental versions of the show, are helping to hone and refine and shape the material and maybe even in small ways contribute to it and edit it. And certainly as a result of their characterizations, as a result of their vocal choices, perhaps help to establish the characters that are being created and inspire additions to the piece or affect permanent changes to the score. I mean, how many of the details in Wicked exist? Because that's the way that Idina Menzel sang them in the original Broadway cast recording. Not just the exact way that that Alphabet battle cry at the end of Defying Gravity sounds, but also things like feeling things I've never felt, like the specificity of the way that that particular section is sung. I've always thought there are several things that Adina does in the score in terms of her musical phrasing that have endured in almost every single subsequent Elphaba performance. But interestingly enough, Idina was not the first ever Elphaba, because there was a worksh version of the show prior to Broadway in which the role was played by, do you know the answer? Stephanie J. Block, an actress who would go on to play the role of Elphaba years later, and in fact one of the most iconic to do so, and an actress who is now hugely celebrated in her own right, a Tony Award winner for the Cher show. But that Tony Award took a really long time to get to her. When you consider that she just missed out on playing Elphaba in 2003 on Broadway, for which a Dean won a Tony as the actress who was green before she was, that has to be a difficult pill to swallow. And Stephanie's talent was such that she was always going to become a star. And other shows came along like the Pirate Queen and nine to Five, and then a string of revivals that really catapulted her to Broadway star status. She replaced Sutton Foster in Anything Goes and was then seen in the Mystery of Edwin Drood and Falsettos. Now she's a celebrated actress, firmly out of the shadow of being the workshop Elphaba. But who's to say that there aren't parts of the Wicked score that are even now shaped by choices that she made made during that workshop process? And when it comes to the score and explicitly, the original Broadway cast recording Idina Menzel as a vocalist on that will receive royalties. But if there are details within the script and jokes etc, and line readings that changed because of choices that she made, she doesn't, to my knowledge, receive royalties from the stage production. Original Broadway cast members in general don't. Unless we're talking about Hamilton. And I'm not just talking about the show's writer and original star, Lin Manuel Miranda. I'm talking about other members of the original Broadway company who, in what I believe at the time was something of a first, negotiated small percentage royalties of the show itself as a result of contributions that they had made during the developmental process. And this is why I thought it was really interesting that Kiara Renee had been linked to a workshop of Hamilton at one point. This was reported back in 2016, when the producers of Hamilton were said to have bowed to pressure from more than two dozen actors and dancers who had engaged a lawyer because they felt their participating in the show's development helped to bring it to where it was today. And of course, that's very true. And it was noted even then, this was 10 years ago, that their victory raised questions about how performers ought to be compensated in other shows during the development period. I don't know to what extent this has affected permanent change in the years since, though there was speculation in this article that it might. And of course, for a show like Hamilton, this is going to minimally impact them at the box office, where they are doing fantastic business. Interestingly enough, original Broadway cast member Leslie Odom Jr. Is set to return to the show this month, I believe, for a limited period. And tickets in response have once again skyrocketed with dynamic pricing, and the show is going to do even better business than it's been doing for the 10 years of its run thus far. But if you're Interested, among the 22 cast members who signed the original letter to Jeffrey Cellar asking for permanent royalties were Daveed Diggs, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Leslie Odom Jr. So evidently there is no lasting bad blood. As the story goes, they had been offered lump sum checks ranging from 29,000 to 36,000 dol a piece. But on the advice of the Actors Equity union and their attorneys, the group decided not to accept these until a percentage deal was reached, which obviously was the considerably smarter decision. And from what I remember, there were details within their arguments about people like Philippa sue, you know, singing songs like Helpless in a way that would go on to be how they would forever be sung. My point in all of this being there are a great many performers who won't be guaranteed the first right of refusal when a show moves from a development production to a more high profile production production to a Broadway production. Perhaps, though, the show may benefit creatively from their input. So how is their enduring work protected? If this was something like an academic field, then their work would be cited and referenced and credited. But there's very little capacity within the context of a live theatrical performance for somebody to stop and say, by the way, that riff was first developed by this person in La Jolla. And they can be credited in the playbill, and they can be thanked in the playbill. And there can be an extraordinary amount of goodwill Will. And they can be acknowledged. But a lot of these working actors can't eat acknowledgement for dinner. They can't pay their rent with playbill. Thanks. So how then does the industry appropriately recognize the creative and artistic contributions of those performers? I think it's A conversation worth having.