Broadway Radio Host's Dismissal of Political Donation Issue Indicative of How White Broadway Views This Issue
Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder
In the past week, new interest and outrage over the political donations made by Broadway power players to Donald Trump, GOP politicians, and Republican entities have been circulating on social media.
I wrote about how folks like James L. Nederlander and his father James M. both donated to Donald Trump in 2016. I then wrote about how not only did James L. Nederlander donated to GOP Sen. Roy Blunt in 2018 but so several other high ranking officials of Broadway organizations such as Robert E. Wankel(President, Co-CEO, The Shubert Organization) and Charlotte St. Martin(President, The Broadway League). Sen. Blunt has among the worst records towards civil rights in Congress.
The response to this news has been fast and sharp with many calling for public apologies and donations to causes such as Black Lives Matter and others that support BIPOC’s, women’s rights, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
James L. Nederlander did send out an email response pledging $50,000 to Black Lives Matter but did not divulge as to why he donated to Donald Trump in 2016. The others named in my reports have not responded publicly as of publishing this article.
When I wrote these pieces, I expected a number of reactions. I expected anger and sadness from within the theatre community. I also expected some to either ignore the issue entirely or dismiss its importance. Turns out I was right with my expectations.
On his Broadway Radio show “Today on Broadway”, co-host James Marino completely dismissed the issue because he felt that every Broadway power player does this and then proceeded to attack this very site. He calls Onstage Blog, and presumably me, a “piece of shit”, says we’re “sensational”, “misleading” and that “no one should read it”. The audio is below and the clip starts at the 19:18 mark.
The next day his co-host, Matt Tamanini brings up Nederlander’s donation pledge and the report of the donations to Sen. Blunt, and once again, Mr. Marino decides to pass on talking about because it would involve talking about this site, which he clearly doesn’t want to do. That audio of that show is below and the clip starts at the 13:07 mark.
So I don’t want to talk too much about why Mr. Marino has a dislike for me and this site. But if you really want to know, it involves the fact that I raked him over the coals last year over a critic on one of his shows who decided to body-shame actors in a musical in NY. Clearly that makes me a “piece of shit”. But that’s not important.
What is important is that Mr. Marino decides to gloss over the issue entirely. Either because of his disdain of me or that he feels it just isn’t a big deal.
But what Mr. Marino fails to understand, just like many other white leaders of Broadway entities don’t understand, is that to BIPOC’s, women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, it’s a fucking very big deal.
It’s a very big deal that in 2016 and 2018, while many of them were performing and earning profit for these individuals, they were using that money to pay politicians who promised to infringe on their rights or had successfully been doing so for the past two decades. To those people Mr. Marino, it deserves a bit more time to talk about than mocking the source of the story and using “Incredible Hulk” catchphrases.
Mr. Marino states that political donations from Broadway power players happen all the time. But what he fails to understand is that the issue is with these donations made to these Republican politicians and entities, the dates they occurred and that many of these folks haven’t donated a cent to that side of the aisle before or since.
But this is the problem that these marginalized people have when conveying their struggle to white leaders within this industry. Either they’re dismissed or disqualified. Mr. Marino did both over his two shows.
Thankfully, others have taken on the topic and have spoken at great lengths about it. On the latest episode of The Ensemblist podcast, they dedicated the entire show to the topic with guest Marla Louissaint talking about the Change.org petition she started calling out the Nederlander Organization.
That’s how you address the issue.
To be fair, do I expect two white men to have an in-depth conversation about race, gender, and sexual orientation issues within the Broadway industry? No. But could Mr. Marino simply have shown respect to these marginalized populations by saying he wasn’t knowledgeable enough to have such a conversation without them on the show? Yes and I would’ve respected him for saying so.
But instead, the issue was dismissed and disqualified. By doing so, he disrespected actresses such as Karen Olivo and Eden Espinosa who believe that this is very much a problem.
Whether or not Broadway Radio is a major platform, it’s a platform nonetheless that could have been used for positive discussion.
I’m not going to call for a boycott of Broadway Radio. That would be silly since you’re probably not listening to it anyway.
But what I am going to do is ask all of you to watch very carefully who is reporting on these stories and who isn’t.
Nothing about these donations is some sort of opinion on my part. It’s a fact that they were made and it’s a fact of where they came from. What we don’t know yet is why they were made, which concerns me.
What also concerns me is that if Broadway news entities, which I guess include Broadway Radio, do not talk about issues like this, then the powers-that-be will be relieved to know that what they did isn’t a big deal and they can keep doing whatever they want, even it damages the communities they lord over.
You, the empathetic human being you are, cannot let that happen. And to James Marino, whatever you feel about me or this site, do not let that distract you from taking about serious issues impacting the Broadway community, otherwise I question why any of them would want to be a guest on your programming.