Tony-winning star Sutton Foster said she would not return to her role in the Broadway revival of The Music Man if producer Scott Rudin had any part in the forthcoming revival. The disgraced producer stepped back from his current projects following allegations of abusive workplace behavior in April.
“Obviously, we were dealing with a situation and navigating a very difficult situation, so there were a lot of conversations that were being had,” Foster told Variety. “All that I can say is that was definitely part of the conversation. I can say that it was definitely part of the conversation, but it was never a threat—it was always just part of discussions of what I felt comfortable with and what I wanted to be involved with.”
All Broadway shows have been on pause since New York City theaters closed in March 2020. Stages reopen in September, and The Music Man premieres once more in February 2022. Foster will star in the show alongside Hugh Jackman.
“I am very much excited to be a part of this production and be part of moving Broadway forward and creating a safe and equitable and inclusive environment for everyone involved—not just on our production, but beyond. That is what is important to me, so I needed to have those conversations,” Foster says.
Rudin’s toxic behavior in offices and on sets has been well-documented over the his four-decade long career. However, the producer’s day of reckoning did not arrive until an exposé in The Hollywood Reporter, where ex-staffers called him an “absolute monster,” citing actions not limited to throwing objects at staff, aggressive belittling, throwing tantrums at the slightest inconvenience, and smashing an Apple computer monitor on an assistant’s hand. Former interns and assistants then shared their experiences with Vulture, detailing the grueling, stressful days that left them fearful of any action working for a man that promised to ruin their careers.
Following the allegations, Rudin decided to remove himself from his Broadway projects, saying “Much has been written about my history of troubling interactions with colleagues, and I am profoundly sorry for the pain my behavior caused to individuals, directly and indirectly … After a period of reflection, I’ve made the decision to step back from active participation on our Broadway productions, effective immediately.” Rudin’s next film release is Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, in theaters October 22, 2021.
The news of Rudin’s abusive workplace environment sent out not a shockwave through Broadway, but more like a ripple. Expecting a #MeToo moment similar to what occurred in film following the arrest of Harvey Weinstein, Tony-nominated Karen Olivo announced in an Instagram video that she would not return to Moulin Rouge! The Musical cast, due to the lack of response by the greater theatre industry for years. While Rudin wasn’t involved in Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Olivo says “The silence about Scott Rudin: unacceptable. That should be a no-brainer.”
31 Comments
That would have been trouble.Trouble, right here in River City………..
Mono—D’oh!
With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for physical and psychological workplace harassment
Look, say what you like about Seth MacFarlane…but have the BBC put him together with the John Wilson Orchestra…
I haven’t watched The Orville in forever. I wonder if he’s managed to work in a musical number.And this was probably one of my favorite Family Guy bits for no other reason than it’s a great song:
With a capital T n that rhymes with “pee” which is what I gotta do right now. Excuse me.
With a capital “T” that rhymes with “pee” that you do in the pool.
Or Caddyshack it!
Yeah, I was sorely disappointed click the headline and then find a total lack of “Trouble” themed jokes in the article.
Aw man, he’s involved with The French Dispatch? Oh well, still watching it. I look at it as Wes Anderson’s good vibes offsetting Rudin’s bad ones to some degree.
SEEMS LIKE IT’D BE THE FRENCH MISTAKE
Tra la!
She is a goddess.
Yeah, I pretty much fell in love with her the first time I saw her in Flight of the Conchords.
I guess Beetlejuice got the last laugh after all.
Amazing that she didn’t know Rudin was an asshole before now. Everybody else in New York knew at least fifteen years ago.
And yet he was apparently still working until recently. Why should miss Foster have to pick up the slack for “everyone else in New York?”
I don’t remember saying she should. But since the article is…you know… about her taking a brave stand that no one in the entertainment industry, including her, was willing to take until the shit hit the fan with a big article about Rudin’s widely-known abusive bent, it seemed to be worth mentioning. I realize people really like Sutton Foster. But she didn’t do this, and nobody else did this, until they absolutely had to. Print another article about another performer suddenly taking the same stance on Rudin and I’ll say it about them, too. Because it’ll be true, regardless of whether or not you enjoy their singing and dancing and they’re really cute. Please.
Why did Foster (or Karen Olivo) have to do this? They’re performers, not producers. It’s the people running Broadway that should have “had to do” anything. Maybe Foster should have done something like this before, but she did it now, and that’s still more than almost anyone else I’ve heard.
“Everybody else in New York” (and Hollywood and the West End) is still perfectly happy to do business with him – and the dirty little secret is Rudin needs A-list talent a lot more than they need him. Which is why there’s ample receipts that his violent and abusive b.s. could stop like someone flipped a switch the instant a celebrity stepped off the elevator. So yeah, if people started refusing to take his calls a long time ago there’d be a lot less human wreckage around today. But I don’t see what the point of your casting shade on Foster is.
Tony-nominated Karen Olivo announced in an Instagram video that she would not return to Moulin Rouge! The Musical cast, due to the lack of response by the greater theatre industry for years. While Rudin wasn’t involved in Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Olivo says “The silence about Scott Rudin: unacceptable. That should be a no-brainer.”What?
Wait until you learn that this is the third time she’s quit the industry, and the second for similar reasons.Throw in that she apparently had told the producers she wasn’t coming back well before her announcement and its easy to see why people responded to her with a pretty collective shrug and eyeroll.
This Scott Rudin situation makes me furious.His behavior has been open for literally decades. Not even an “open secret”, as that would imply that it was at least a little bit under-the-radar, or something that was merely whispered about.But it has been open and widely known by basically everyone for at least 25 years.The big Hollywood Reporter “expose”…? Ha! Similar articles were also written before. This is not even remotely “new” or “shocking” or something that was recently “uncovered.”“Swimming With Sharks” was friggin’ based on him and that movie came out in, what, 1994!!The hypocrisy makes me gag on this one.
It’s worthwhile to acknowledge though that most of the people you think are being hypocritical had never seen this behavior, and that stories don’t always equate to fact.
Being an asshole isn’t a crime, and most people I know who had worked on his productions knew him to be a demanding asshole, but had never heard specific stories like these.
If there is one thing reliable about the entertainment industry, it’s that money-makers are free from requirements to adhere to even the most basic standards of decency. We are talking about an industry where it is customary to forbid staff from looking certain people in the eye. (I give not one fuck for any justification for that dismissive bullshit.) An industry where an insufficiently warm cup of coffee can doom a young person’s career, where there is literally no line between professional and personal errands for people of position. There are, sadly, too many fields where poor treatment of staff is tolerated. But, the entertainment and fashion industries not only tolerate bad behavior, but practically proselytize the value of working in abusive environments. It has always been appalling – anyone who holds out hope that this moment in time will create real change is deluded. This is a field where being an asshole is not a disqualifier, but a perk.
“We’ve been letting (X) get away with murder for so long they made a movie about him! Why are we making him face consequences now? Disgusting hypocrites!” Every time I read a response like LaurenceQ’s, this is what it sounds like. Yes, it’s a problem that it took so long for something like this to happen, but how is that an excuse to keep letting him walk?
My point is these consequences are 25 years late. Yes, they should be happening, but the “shocked, shocked” reactions of many is gross and hypocritical and dishonest.If *I* knew about Rudin, a nobody with no connection to the business, then certainly basically everyone actually IN Hollywood must have known, too. It was also written widely about in the press, too. It isn’t even an “open secret” that was suddenly blown open into the mainstream.
Please forgive me if I fail to see any point in getting upset over this “apparent hypocrisy and dishonesty.” I’m just glad Rudin’s getting some sort of comeuppance (even if it’s not legal, which it sounds like it should be).My point is at least something’s happening now. I could easily see them turning their eyes away again, and nobody else being in a position to do much about it. We should be glad the reckoning has come instead of bitching “what took you so long?”
It’s possible to have two reactions to something.
Sutton Foster is going to be replaced by an older actress masquerading as a 20-something.
Nobody plays the trombone anymore