Don’t Use Our Appearance to Excuse Your Racism

Mixed Asian Media - Month XX, 2025

By Erin Quill

If you have not heard — the TONY Award Winning Broadway musical, MAYBE HAPPY ENDING hired a non-Asian to replace an Asian performer. 

We are sure you have heard by now.

Yes, apparently Seoul, Korea is a “construct,” not an actual place. HelperBots, the humanoid robots that are being portrayed on the stage are no longer Asian based robots. Now, according to an amended statement that contradicts what the creatives have stated prior in interviews — released at 1am on Thursday July 31, 2025 by the writers of the show, now the robots can be anyone.

This was news to the Broadway AANHPI community, who felt betrayed. 

After all, the creators and stars ran around the press junkets campaigning for the TONYS telling us all how committed they were to diversity, and how proud they were to represent for AANHPIs, so much so that once they won, they went right out and hired an non-Asian actor for the role of Oliver.

Truly, it is not the actor’s fault, nor the creators — the fault lies directly at the feet of the Lead Producer, aka He Who Shall Not Be Named.

This article is for MAM, and because it was Mixed Asian artists who took home the TONY awards in the Lead Performers in Musicals categories, we do have to discuss what has also contributed to this debate — which is the appearance of Darren Criss, a proud Mixed Filipino who some people cannot tell is Asian.

Mr. Criss won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance of Oliver, the humanoid robot in Maybe Happy Ending.

In the show, he and Helen J. Shen, portray HelperBots. Specifically, retired HelperBots whose parts are not being replaced — they are outdated models. Both HelperBots have been retired for different reasons, and the musical is one of the most delightful and innovative shows to come to the Broadway in quite a while.

Mr. Criss pulls off a remarkable character in Oliver, and with this win, he helped bring the number of AANHPI performers who have won Tony Awards to six — prior to this year’s Tonys it had been three.

Did we mention this year was the 78th year of the Tony Awards?

Ahem.

Previous winners in performance are: B.D. Wong for M. Butterfly, Lea Salonga for Miss Saigon and Ruthie Ann Miles for The King & I.

This year’s awards went to Francis Jue as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the David Henry Hwang play, Yellow Face, Nicole Scherzinger as Best Lead Actress in a Musical for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, and finally, to Mr. Criss.

After which, it was quickly announced that Mr. Criss would be replaced on September 2nd by (real-life partner of his co-star, Helen J. Shen) the actor, Andrew Barth Feldman.

When the awards happened, Nicole Scherzinger said that winning the Tony made this “little Ukranian, Hawaiian, Filipina girl” feel like she finally fit in — and this writer felt that deep in her soul. “We” had won in a visible way. It is the highest honor you can win in theater — and it was won by two Mixed Asian people! The joy was palpable.

When you are Mixed Race — particularly as an Actor or Performer the reasons given for not being cast in a show is the classic — “too Asian” for most people, “not Asian enough” for the Asian people. They do not know where to put us.

Listen, even Eddie Van Halen was bullied in school for being Mixed Indonesian, which made him and his brother Alex practice more, and then, boom — rock stars! The inner fire that helps us succeed, burns us up on the journey.

Which brings us to Darren Criss.

To be clear — Mr. Criss is of Filipino heritage and he does not have to “prove” that — he just IS. If you cannot accept that, you probably failed biology and do not know what a Punnett Square is.

Mr. Criss has spoken in the past of his “privilege” in terms of his appearance. He favors his father, the senior Mr. Criss. Criss is not an Asian surname. His early success could be attributed to him not being easily defined as Asian. A quick internet search reveals there were less than 4% of AANHPI actors in lead roles in 2009 when GLEE appeared on our small screens.

What that meant for him was his agent could send him in for almost any role, whereas someone who was more identifiable as Asian might not have the same opportunity.

Later on, he would play the real life Mixed Asian killer Andrew Cunanan, a role for which Mr. Criss won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. As part of that journey, he would insist on the casting of legendary Filipino musical theatre star Jon Jon Briones to play Cunanan’s father. (Jon Jon’s daughter, Isa Briones currently stars on HBO’s The Pitt. Isa is of Mixed Asian heritage.) Not only has he “acknowledged his privilege” in the past, he has also brought people along on the journey with him — which is badass.

None of this is relevant in any way except that this has also fueled this debate about his replacement. Mr. Criss is Asian, that is a fact, but many do not see him as such, and therefore they do not understand why Mr. Feldman replacing him is a “big deal.” Many people on the internet claimed they never even heard that Mr. Criss was Asian until this controversy came up, and, if he is the prototype, why is anyone fighting to keep that part under the AANHPI Diaspora banner?

This is something that strikes to the heart of the matter for Mixed Asian people — “we” can tell. No one else can. No one sees us, only “we” see us. 

I could tell that Mr. Criss was of Mixed Asian heritage when I saw him dance across the television on GLEE, because I know what Mixed Asian people look like. In fact, most Mixed Asians — of various heritages — can tell what “we” look like because we have seen siblings, and cousins, and aunties and uncles who look “like us.” The old adage of “game recognizes game” rears its head at the oddest times as we watch sporting events, films, or television. “We” know what “we” look like, and since the rising demographic of AANHPI birthright owes much to people of Mixed heritage, America should be “getting it” a lot quicker.

Which is why having non-AANHPI friends tell you — a Mixed Asian person — that the casting debacle at MAYBE HAPPY ENDING doesn’t matter as they could not tell that Mr. Criss was Asian anyway — is alarming. Mr. Criss’s physical appearance does not make him any less Asian — do not attempt to exclude us based on your perception of what we should look like!

The show is set in South Korea, with Korean names of places and items, and though it is odd that the HelperBots are named Oliver and Claire in this version, presumably it was to make it easier for American audiences to understand. The HelperBots serve a purpose because “future” South Korea has a population issue.

In fact, this is not a plot invention — South Korea is facing a population issue due to low birth rate. That, combined with the 4B movement — women are choosing to remain single and childless — means that as the population ages, there are limited options to care for them, as traditionally, family members have been involved in elder care. The TFR, aka Total Fertility Rate, in South Korea is currently the lowest in the world, and by 2075 it is predicted that the population will decrease by 30%. With increased life expectancy but less young people, South Korea’s imbalance in population is a slow-moving crisis.

Enter the HelperBots — humanoid robots that look like family members, who help care for their humans.

In Oliver’s case, his “owner” is James — a man who is estranged from his son, and who loves to listen to jazz. In Claire’s case, her owner is Jiyeon, a professional woman who needs help around the house and for Claire to behave somewhat like a companion or “BFF.”

Now, as someone that has had ex-in-laws who were South Korean, one thing I know is that they would be highly unlikely to pick a non-AANHPI appearing robot to be a surrogate family member. South Koreans tend to be very concerned with maintaining their culture. If your parents or grandparents immigrated from South Korea, when you walk into their homes — where are you?

You are in South Korea.

The food, the decorations, the bedding, the language being spoken, the television shows watched — all South Korean.

HelperBots — which yes, would be able to be ordered and made in South Korea, would likely have an “Asian base.” South Korea has the largest plastic surgery industry in the world, so that would explain variations in the looks of the HelperBots, but… the base of the bot is an Asian base.

Anyone age and voice appropriate of the AANHPI diaspora can play a HelperBot — anyone of the diaspora. We do not DNA test our actors, nor do we require any sort of passing of a visual test as to how they appear to an audience.

If you have AANHPI heritage, this should be the show for you.

Except the Lead Producer has decided it will not be, and that is the actual problem.

This decision is about licensing. If the main roles that have been the “home” of AANHPI bodies are taken away — as being designated to be played by AANHPI actors then licensing to regional theatres, high schools, and colleges becomes much simpler.

The fact that people are using Mr. Criss’s appearance to “justify” this decision is egregious. It plays into tropes Mixed Asians have been fighting against for years on both sides — that our arrival signals the departure of our various Asian cultures. You will not use our diversity as a wedge to erase roles for AANHPI people.

That Mr. Criss “doesn’t look Asian” to Joe Internet, is not actually the point. The point is — he IS Asian. It doesn’t matter what he looks like. He doesn’t have to run around eating lumpia and adobo, he doesn’t have to wear a barong 24/7 — he is Asian.

Ultimately the erasure of who Mr. Criss is hits harder for us, because we have all gone through this. Not only have these happenings occurred to us personally — they are rife throughout the entertainment industry, where a character that is canonically Mixed Asian descent gets played by someone who is of Full Asian heritage, as in Shang Chi.

The kick in the pants there is that Simu Liu (who did an amazing job) was cast by Mixed Asian Director Destin Daniel Creton, so who could really argue? The story was rewritten to give Shang Chi a “purer” storyline, but in doing so, it erased an entire group of people who struggle with representation. We are a minority within a minority in the United States.

Would I like to see the role of Oliver specifically designated as an actor of Mixed Asian descent? I would not go that far — to me, we are all part of the extended cousin-ness of it all.

What I would like to see moving forward is an acknowledgment of the pain this casting decision caused, and a promise that the casting of these characters will be protected as AANHPI in the licensing agreements, so that no AANHPI teen has to walk into their high school and watch non-AANHPI teens take a road trip to Jeju Island — which they will likely mispronounce.

Listen, we have had enough of non-Asian Kings in The King & I. We have had enough Yellowface from The Mikado to last literal lifetimes. We have had enough non-Asian Marcy Parks, and Christmas Eves and non-Asian Pacific Overtures to choke us with our own obis!

What this redesignation of the character of Oliver has done is cement the fact that all members of the AANHPI musical theatre exist on a stage because of white approval — which can be taken away at any time.

Even after a TONY Award win.

To quote Tony Winner Francis Jue via his Instagram:

“Until Asians have the same access to non-race specific roles that others do, the least we can do is cast Asians in stories set in Asia. Also, you wanna know how to make a story set in Asia a ‘universal human story’? You cast Asians.”