Production staff from the recent national tour of 1776 have been sued by one of the production's actors, according to a filing made in the United States District Court Southern District of New York last week, first reported by the LA Times.

The filing alleges that Zuri Washington, initially cast as Robert Livingston, was fired after she made public complaints about the production's COVID policies. Washington, via attorney Tanvir Rahman of Filippatos PLLC, says the firing was racially motivated, retaliatory, and unlawful.

Requests for response from the production teams of the 1776 tour, including NETWorks Presentations, were not returned as of the time of publication.

"Race discrimination has absolutely no business on Broadway," reads a statement from Washington's attorney Rahman.  "In the theatre industry where talented actors, especially actors of color, are expected to keep their heads down and voices low, our client, Zuri Washington, an incredibly talented, principled, and thoughtful Black actor, has courageously decided to tell her story and hold the producers of 1776 accountable for violating her right to work in an environment free of bias and retaliation. We are proud to represent Ms. Washington and look forward to vindicating her rights in front of a jury of her peers.”

The filing alleges that Washington's experience was hostile from the beginning, with producers waiting until the last possible moment to tell her how she was expected to style her hair for performances. Washington says that she, as well as other Black cast members repeatedly asked the production for wigs. But "at the virtual eleventh hour," the production told Washington she would have to perform with her natural hair.

Citing the unique hair challenges for performers of color, Washington says this left her "vulnerable and uncomfortable." The filing alleges that white actors were quickly given answers about their hair that included access to wigs, but Washington says the situation was very different for Black company members.

Difficulties continued, the filing says, at a meeting between cast members and production staff to discuss concerns with the production's COVID protocols, with cast members alleging the production had been "extremely opaque" about testing procedures and other plans for potential cases of COVID within the company. Washington acknowledges in the filing that she was "outspoken and impassioned" at the meeting, after which she learned her agent had been contacted with reports that she had been "unruly" and had slammed chairs. Washington denies both of those reports and feels that this communication being delivered to her agent, who is a white male, was a "racially motivated macroaggression."

Washington and the production team reportedly attempted to settle the matter with a series of meetings. The filing says it became clear that production representatives did not intend to address Washington's allegations of race discrimination, after which she expressed that she would file a formal complaint. She is quoted in the filing as having told the representatives, "I will take these f*ckers down. I have taken bigger f*ckers down."

The production responded by firing Washington in a matter of hours after that last meeting for allegedly threatening the tour's producers. Washington says these comments were "said in the context of [her] resolve to escalate her very serious race discrimination complaints and were obviously not directed at any person or group specifically ... nor were her words an expression of any intent to cause physical harm or damage."

Washington is at least the second 1776 cast member to allege racial insensitivity both onstage and off in the progressively-cast revival (the production employed an all-female, transgender, and non-binary company to portray the all-male and white founding fathers of the United States).

Broadway cast member Sara Porkalob, who played pro-slavery South Carolina representative Edward Rutledge, gave an interview to Vulture that accused revival co-directors Diane Paulus and Jeffrey L. Page of not delving deep enough into an analysis of race, gender, and sexuality that Porkalob says was necessitated by the production's casting choices. "When we were all in the room together, there wasn’t any conversation about how we marry our queer identities with these characters, which is disappointing," Porkalob was quoted as saying. The interview made the revival a hot topic in social media's theatre circles.

Directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus, this 1776 embarked on a national tour after runs on Broadway (via Roundabout Theatre Company) and Massachusetts' American Repertory Theatre, running from February to August 2023. Gisela Adisa led the production as John Adams.

The production featured choreography by Page, set design by Scott Pask, costume design by Emilio Sosa, lighting design by Jen Schriever, sound design by Jonathan Deans, and projection design by David Bengali. Ryan Cantwell is leading the music team as music supervisor and music director, with original music supervision by David Chase, orchestrations by John Clancy, and vocal design by AnnMarie Milazzo.