Broadway's Witch Hunt Of Laura Osnes

The industry notorious for its self-proclaimed empathy and inclusion provides anything but.

In June of 1953, to-be Tony Award-winning play The Crucible opened on Broadway. Written by the highly acclaimed Arthur Miller, it is a dramatized telling of the 17th century Salem witch trials, but also an allegory for the persecution of suspected communists during the McCarthy era. At its core, it’s a tale about fear driving a wedge in communities to the point where people get charged with thoughtcrimes by an ignorant mob. That mob, however, is manipulated by a select greedy few.

Fast forward to 2021…

A sensationalized story about Broadway star Laura Osnes would rip through the New York theatre scene faster than a fake pathogen. Long Island’s Guild Hall decided it would be staging its concert version of Crazy For You indoors. Being an industry that thinks it is challenging authority when it writes orange-man-bad plays, it ignorantly bowed down to authority without question by requiring performers and audience members alike to be “fully vaccinated” (transfected) for a disease health professionals don’t even understand. Of course this culling—which has led to excess death of 1 in 800 injected individuals and a two-year drop in life expectancy—is for everyone’s safety. Ha.

At this performance, guests were also muzzled.

As I noticed at many theatres, face coverings were required…unless you spent even more of your money at concessions of course! You would think an industry that does make-believe would know when they are forcing themselves to suspend their own disbelief. No, not this mob. They were on a mission to save the world with their beliefs and let everyone know about it.

From recently deceased actor Matthew Perry’s online store.

To show you just how vicious these self-described empathetic and inclusive theatre types can be, I point you to the theatre tabloid OnStage Blog. Pot stirrer Chris Peterson predetermined Osnes’ new album was trash due to the thoughtcrimes he had already attributed to her. He proceeded to hate-listen to it so he could blog for clicks.

And it doesn’t stop there.

As you see, Peterson continues to go out of his way to drag this woman—who has done nothing to him—through the mud. It’s truly pathetic when the kids who were bullied or had low self-esteem in grade school become bullies as adults. Have a look at what his loving, open-minded, theatre-going following had to say to this post…

At least the fourth reply is accurate.

All this disdain for quietly and professionally backing out of a gig when the requirements suddenly changed. And, for the record, it wasn’t Osnes who made a big deal about it.

Here is Salem’s top landowner Thomas Putnam himself…

Correction: Thomas Putnam’s servant. Excuse me.

It’s clear he is only participating in this public shaming for social capital. Sad. But plenty of people see the witch hunt for exactly what it is…

Sweet ratio.

“I’m quite tolerant, unless you have a different opinion than I do on a topic I know absolutely nothing about. Tickets, please.”

These are the people who scream “MY BODY, MY CHOICE!” but they don’t actually support bodily autonomy. They point to “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion) but they don’t actually support free speech. They don’t use common sense. They don’t use logic. They don’t critically think. If they did, they would be having nuanced conversations and asking the big questions. They would be making groundbreaking theatre. They’re not, though.

The industry has massive blind spots because it consists of too many propaganda-consuming storytellers that lead with unmanaged emotional responses and self-righteousness. As former Broadway actor

Clifton Duncan

so aptly put it, theatre’s tragic flaw is hubris. Ironically, Duncan also quotes one of the blacklisted communists (Albert Maltz) who, way back in 1946, criticized the “shallow approach” of the literary left wing.
If you only knew how right you were, Al.

Will the theatre community fall for the “we did the best we could” propaganda or own up to their wildly illiberal behavior from these past years? Their relevance depends on making the right choice.