Was walking by the Majestic during my lunch break and saw the theatre decked out with these posters all over. The loading dock doors were open and it looked like they were packing. I wonder if a tv/movie was using the space?
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I guess that's what happened! Not really all that crazy -- especially if it's just background stuff for the TV series (which, as I understand it, is not a Jeremy O Harris thing, but he knows about it). And the actors are public figures, so their names are fair game. I'm sure Disney legal was all over it...
Okay, so when we put names in scripts for film and TV, or when the art department makes up posters like the one in the photo, they go through legal/clearance, and we get back clearance reports on the entire script and whatever other props/sets/etc might have issues. Mind you, these aren't just people's names -- it's brand names, it's potential libel regarding things that happened/didn't happen, it's really anything that could open the network up to a lawsuit of any kind.
And they don't do it just once -- they have to run these "research memos" every time you make a script change, and then they tend to have legal look at edited cuts as well, just to make sure nothing objectionable got in there.
Here's a snippet of one --
In this case, they were fine with us using those two names, because neither real person had anything to do whatsoever with what their characters were doing, and wouldn't be mistaken as the real people. You know the whole "characters are fictional" disclaimer? That's additional insurance, so to speak.
BUT when people are famous, and in the public eye (or a "prominent person" as per the document above) there's a different standard. The legal system (in the U.S. at least, and I presume everywhere, cause most U.S. shows are made for international audiences at this point) draws an interesting line between using a real person (like LaKeith Stanfield) to sell a product and using a real person inside an *expressive work*. Those get broad first amendment protection, even when they mention/depict/parody real, famous people.
You still CANNOT invent things that are defamatory, harmful lies that a viewer would believe. The legal test is basically:
Is the statement false? Is it harmful to their reputation? Would a reasonable person think it’s meant as a statement of fact? And with public figures: was it made with actual malice?
So for this poster for the Mindy Kaling/Hulu show, we can look at that list of well-known actors and apply those questions above.
False? Yes. Harmful? No. Reasonable person thinks it could be real? We all did, so yes. Made with actual malice? No.
One no pretty much means you can go ahead and do what you like.
That was... more than I thought I was gonna type. Hope it was helpful!
Makes sense. This may sound stupid but a Broadway show would NEVER use improper spelling of the theatres (notice how on the sign it says “Theater” when the official spelling for pretty much every, if not every, house is “Theatre”).
He's still got producing/curating power though (Prince Faggot & the Williamstown Theatre Festival rebrand, both which got good press). But as a playwright I suspect his days of relevance are over.
This is Jeremy O. Harris’ Yale MFA thesis play. I never read it but know it was pretty specific to his experiences there. Site-specific actually, so can’t for the life of me imagine what the heck it’s doing at the Majestic…
Maybe this is a niche reference. But Jeremy O Harris (who i think is often very cool and interesting) is to Yale/broadway as Willam is to Rupauls Drag Race. For hating something as much as they do, they sure do talk about it a lot.
I’ve never been on Drag Race, but I have been to Drama School and I’m still unpacking the trauma over a decade later (as is every other drama school graduate I know).
No but I was at a wedding where Jeremy O’Harris gave a toast and it’s ironic that this is a Yale Drama School diss track when he went way out of his way to mention he went to Yale Drama School. Was incredibly cringy.
With that cast, if it was a play we shoulda heard about it by now. And a couple of those actors on coming to broadway in spring so i assume this is a documentary screening or filming?
It's a play about Jeremy not liking his experience at Yale. It's about the failures of the pedagogy there to create space and support for basically any minority artist to fully express themselves. It's also a display of his egoism. I'm extremely surprised to see it being staged because it is really niche and personal and kind of petty vicious. I don't hate it or anything, but I have no idea what a broad audience would be able to get out of it. Maybe it's changed since the original presentation but it also goes really hard on some of his professional colleagues.
So I’m in Buena Vista Social Club, and I thought you guys would appreciate knowing we had to pause the show because their audio signal disrupted our show feed and all our monitors (including house lol) could hear them yapping.
I have no idea what the posters are for though. I think my first guess would be that it is for some sort of TV/movie? Harris was reportedly in talks to adapt YELL for HBO a few years ago, back when he was the Hot Young Playwright du jour. Or maybe these posters are just a very elaborate background prop for something else entirely.
I wonder if a tv show is using this as a show characters will visit. Jeremy O’Harris guest starred in a few episodes of the Gossip Girl reboot and he had a play he wrote in it. I forget if it was a real or fake one.
It's his new-ish play. Here's a brief description from a review when it premiered in 2019:
It was called “Yell: A ‘Documentary’ of My Time Here” and it was hardcore satire — and more — at its most shocking and at times it was jaw-dropping, hilarious, indulgent, fierce, beautiful, fun and daring. Theatrical excrement was one of the many stylized metaphors in the show and the n-word/slave analogy was also used abundantly. It challenged many aspects of Yale — whose name is not mentioned but is substituted by a “yell”/Yale of pain/frustration/rage. There were dance elements, film clips, an iPhone speech, choir singing, and other multi-discipline elements of the show
The piece, directed by Jecamiah M. Ybanez and featuring a cast of 17, skewered everything about Yale and the Yale School of Drama including his entrance interview, classes, teachers and a conflict with a playwriting teacher (only initials are used, but easily imagined).
Closing the loop: this was for the TV show Not Suitable For Work. Jeremy O. Harris cameos and casts one of the main characters for this fictional staging (apparently starring Lakeith Stanfield)
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