Up until last week, the big curiosity about “Tiananmen: A New Musical” is whether themes surrounding the 1989 crackdown of pro-democracy protesters in China would resonate with audiences in Phoenix, where it’s set to debut in October.
Now, the bigger question is whether the Chinese government orchestrated the drama of the lead actor pulling out of the project, while he’s on tour with other Broadway stars in China.
Zachary Noah Piser, a Chinese-American actor, posted a short, cryptic note on Instagram late last week.
“I have withdrawn from the musical Tiananmen,” Piser wrote.
The note is signed and dated, “2023.08.25,” a convention commonly used by citizens in Asian countries — but not Americans.
Piser is apparently OK, but what happened?
News accounts have been scarce and none quotes Piser, though by all accounts, he’s still performing with the tour. He’s not scheduled to leave China until Sept. 12.
His manager Dave Brenner told CNN “a creative difference” prompted the actor to back out of the musical, just weeks before the Phoenix Theatre Company stages its premier on Oct. 4 for a five-week run.
So far, the details are few and the only serious charge of China intimidating Piser and messing with “Tiananmen: A New Musical” comes from Wu’er Kaixi, who was a student leader in the deadly Tiananmen Square protests and who helped conceive the musical.
“I believe … the reason for his withdrawal is not ‘creative difference,’ rather, simply fear. He was given pressure by Chinese authorities,” Kaixi told CNN this week.
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“After 30 some years of censoring any information about Tiananmen, the Chinese government today is still extremely afraid of mentioning the atrocity they conducted.”
So is the reason personal conflict or political heavy-handedness?
The Chinese Communist government has long suppressed mention of the 1989 student-led uprising in which an unknown number of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed, including removal of content from the internet.
China has shut down Tiananmen events
It’s gone further in recent years to clamp down commemorations of the June 4 event in Hong Kong, which for the better part of three decades drew tens of thousands annually to Victoria Park.
The 2020 and 2021 commemorations were ordered shut down over the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, media reports said some 6,000 police officers surrounded the park and arrested artists and activists while pro-government groups staged a carnival to mark the 1997 handover of the city from the British to China.
Jason Rose, better known in the Valley as a public relations executive, optioned the musical three years ago and serves as lead producer. (He also produced last year’s “Americano!” about the real-life story of an Arizona teen who discovers he’s an undocumented immigrant while trying to enlist in the Marines and goes on to become a political activist for “Dreamers.”)
Rose demurred on commenting, but said in a prepared statement that the show will go on.
“This story needs to be told and will be told. Censorship and pressure will not carry the day.”
Early in “Tiananmen: A New Musical,” a pro-democracy sympathizer in Hong Kong laments to another about the Chinese government arresting organizers of vigils for the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the removal of a statue commemorating the event and the shutting down of the only remaining pro-democracy newspaper:
“Nothing about 1989 is in the past.”
The question about whether its lead actor Piser’s mysterious withdrawal is part of China’s continuing quest to make it so.
Reach Abe Kwok at akwok@azcentral.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @abekwok.
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