Deceptive Tactics Being Used to Stop WEST SIDE STORY Protests
Chris Peterson, Editor-in-Chief
With the opening night of Broadway’s West Side Story coming this Thursday, the planned protest against the casting of Amar Ramasar is likely going to be the largest and loudest yet. It’s understandable that the production management team don’t want screaming protesters within an earshot of the red carpet nor have them in the background of any photo.
So, over the past week, we’ve seen them use various tactics to try to quiet the protest. They’ve tried to move the protest to the opposite side of the corner and put out statements of support for Mr. Ramasar (which backfired greatly).
But now, we’re seeing folks on the side of Mr. Ramasar use sneaky tactics to try to break ranks within the protesters, going as far as posing as them to send misleading information.
Last night and this morning, I received multiple emails that stated they had damaging information to Alexandra Waterbury’s case. Here’s a screenshot:
Attached to the emails were short audio clips of Ms. Waterbury talking over the phone about the potential of a monetary reward if they win the lawsuit. I found this email interesting for a couple of reasons: The first is that these quotes had already been made public, and Ms. Waterbury confirmed the reasons why she said them. I laid all of that out here. Secondly, the email had apparently come from Megan Rabin, the woman who had started the Change.org petition calling for Mr. Ramasar’s removal from the show.
Knowing I had other ways to communicate with Ms. Rabin, I sent her an email over Instagram to confirm she had indeed sent me these emails. I didn’t receive a response. Then this morning, I received another email.
Once again, I asked her who sent her the audio clips and to respond to me over Instagram. She didn’t. However, moments later I did receive a third email.
At this point, I started having some doubts as to who was emailing me. So I was able to obtain Ms. Rabin’s cell and texted her, asking if she had sent me these emails. She confirmed she hadn’t and sent me her actual email address.
This confirms that someone is posing as an organizer of the protests against Amar Ramarar and sending misleading information to media outlets to try to discredit Ms. Waterbury, silence the protest, and hoping that media outlets are dumb enough publish without confirming sources.
There is a long list of people who could have sent me these emails, but I remembered something.
In my conversation with Alexa Maxwell, Mr. Ramasar’s girlfriend, she did mention that she had audio clips of her conversations with Ms. Waterbury. Also interesting, the audio clips contained the same quotes that Ms. Maxwell told me that Ms. Waterbury had said. So it’s reasonable to assume the audio clips were from the conversation between Ms. Maxwell and Ms. Waterbury.
I’m not going to accuse Ms. Maxwell of sending these emails, but I do wonder how the audio clips and supposed 90 mins of audio were obtained by this person. And if it was Ms. Maxwell, why didn’t she email me directly since she had already told me she had audio clips. I also have to wonder who else this person has tried to contact. I’ve reached out to other media contacts, and no one has responded yet on whether they received the same emails.
But what if these emails came from someone connected with the production itself? Given Scott Rudin’s past behavior, I wouldn’t put anything past him when it comes to trying to kill a story.
Either way, this proves that either the West Side Story production management team or someone in Mr. Ramasar’s camp is actively trying to silence the protest through deceptive tactics.
It also could lead to some legal issues as well. If this person is from New York, the state does have laws regarding Criminal Impersonation which is described as to impersonate another person with the intent to obtain a benefit or defraud someone else. This is a class A misdemeanor with penalties of up to one year in jail. I’ve already been told by one lawyer that this could fall under that law. And if this person thinks they’re anonymous, just know then everything can be traced, including IP addresses. So they may have put themselves in an even worse situation.
We’ll keep updating this story as more information becomes available.
Photo: The marquee of the Broadway Theatre. (Photo by Johannes EISELE / AFP) (Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)