Last week, when Andrew Barth Feldman was announced as the new lead of the Tony-winning musical Maybe Happy Ending, the show's creative team said that they were open to "infinite and exciting possibilities in casting" with the leads in the show. But who wasn't excited about that possibility? Theatre artists of Asian descent, who in the days since that announcement have expressed their disappointment at the casting decision on social media.

One of them is Oh, Mary! actor (and Tony nominee) Conrad Ricamora, who wrote on Instagram: "there’s a lot of pain right now. Pain from being told—subtly and explicitly—that we don’t belong. 
Pain from watching history repeat itself, even as we fight for representation.
 Pain that I know so many other Asian American men in this industry have felt before me."

In response, Ricamora announced July 27 that he is launching a scholarship fund for Asian American male actors. He calls it, "The Right to Be There" fund "for Asian American male actors pursuing a BFA or MFA in acting. This is for the ones coming up behind us. For the ones who wonder if there’s space for them. For the ones who need to know: you have a right to be there." 

Ricamora began the fund by donating $18,000. As of press time, the fund as received over $34k on GoFundMe.

Requests for response from production representatives for Maybe Happy Ending were not returned by time of publication.

Though Ricamora didn't mention Maybe Happy Ending by name, his comments echoed that of many Asian American artists working on Broadway. Six actor Kay Sibal explained in a video posted to Instagram.

"There is such scarcity of people who look like us on stage compared to other groups. We are an underrepresented group. When there was a role that was originated by somebody in our community, regardless of if that role is a robot, if that role doesn't actually talk about race...if that role has been originated by somebody who is an [Asian American Pacific Islander] actor, that's a big win for us, because of the scarcity that we live in." She then added that compared to female actors of Asian descent, Asian male actors have a particularly hard time finding opportunities to play leading roles on Broadway. "[The role of Oliver] was sacred when we had it, and so for that to be taken away makes us lose hope."

Maybe Happy Ending takes place in Korea and first premiered in Seoul (creators Hue Park and Will Aronson wrote the Korean-language version and the English-language versions simultaneously). The show made history in June at the 2025 Tony Awards when lead actor Darren Criss became the first actor of Asian descent to win Lead Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Oliver.

In the show, the characters of Oliver and Claire (played by Helen J. Shen) are robots. In the Broadway version and previous iterations of the show, those characters were played by actors of Asian descent, as well as the character of James. The show's understudies are also Asian American.

Maybe Happy Ending's creative team said they cast Feldman in the role of Oliver because the character was a robot, saying that actors of any background could potentially play the role. "At its core, Maybe Happy Ending is a story about the longing for connection and the complexities of being human (and Helperbot, and Vegetable)—universal themes that transcend all backgrounds," they said in a statement last week. 

And in a previous article with the Los Angeles Times, Aronson said that, "At one point, we had Denée Benton playing Claire, Corey Cott as Oliver, and Jon Jon Briones as both [Oliver’s former owner] James and the jazz singer. Then, our thinking was: They’re robots, so they could technically be any background, but if the audience only has a few moments to define the setting, it helps that the protagonists are cast Asian." 

Criss also said, in the same article: "The AAPI community in the arts is a smaller, if not marginalized, group, so to be up there, I feel that excitement and encouragement from the community at large. It’s important, and I hope this show can continue to have that legacy and be an inspiring call to action in other artistic spheres."

Longtime Broadway actor Jose Llana is one of the artists who criticized the Maybe Happy Ending casting decision on social media. He elaborated in a follow-up conversation with Playbill, saying that even though this past season on Broadway has seen Asian men leading shows such as Yellow Face, Oh, Mary!, and Maybe Happy Ending—historically on Broadway, male actors of Asian descent have been "omitted from consideration" for lead roles. To him, Maybe Happy Ending was an opportunity to potentially change that paradigm (he's seen the show three times and had recommended it to friends).

"I’m too old for [the role of] Oliver, but I have so many friends, who I consider my younger brothers—I was so excited this could be something for them," says Llana. "I was fantasizing about all the future Olivers and Claires and James down the road, the potential for all these Asian actors to get their foot in the door...every regional theatre that does it, it gives those actors a chance to have something on their resume that is not King and I, Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song. God bless those shows, but we need more contemporary shows to be able to add to our resumes."

In the meantime, in addition to Ricamora's scholarship, Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre and playwright Lauren Yee are hosting an "AANHPI Theatre, Film, and Television Community Gathering" September 15 from 4:30 to 7 PM, where "attendees are encouraged to share news about their own upcoming projects—films, readings, productions, and more!"