A Broadway show asks a white actor to replace an Asian one. The backlash was swift

NEW YORK (AP) — The Broadway rom-com “Maybe Happy Ending” isn’t in a very happy place these days. A casting controversy threatens to dampen the show’s post-Tony Award-winning glow.

The strife began when producers of the South Korea-based musical chose to cast Andrew Barth Feldman as the male lead when original star Darren Criss steps away, in effect replacing an Asian actor with a white one.

That prompted denunciations by the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists and prominent Asian American artists such as Conrad Ricamora, Ruthie Ann Miles, Kay Sibal, Jose Llana, Kay Sibal and BD Wong, who became the first Asian actor to win a Tony in 1988 for “M. Butterfly.”

The Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists has called on producers to recast the lead with an actor of Asian descent, calling the casting of Feldman an “affront to our community” and a “slap in the face.”

“This was an Asian-driven show with an Asian American cast, and it was like a breath of fresh air to all of us,” says Lily Tung Crystal, artistic director of the East West Players and a consortium board member. “This was the show that would bring us into the next stage of the conversation. But instead, we feel like we’re going backwards.”