A casting announcement which revealed the next actor to take over the reins of "The Phantom" in the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera was met with controversy this week due to the fact that the upcoming "Phantom," James Barbour, pled guilty in 2008 to endangering the welfare of a minor with sexual contact.
In 2001, the time of the incident, Barbour was performing in a musical adaptation of Jane Eyre. The student, who was from Barbour's home town, met with Barbour backstage towards the end of the show; the girl's drama teacher had arranged for the teen and her parents to have a special visit to the theater. During his hearing, Barbour admitted that he met with the girl alone in his dressing room and fondled her, while knowing that she was only 15 years old. He also admitted to engaging in oral sex with the 15-year old at his apartment the next month. Barbour was 35 years old at the time of the incident.
In 2006, Barbour's victim came forward to press charges. Initially, Barbour claimed in a signed statement to the police that he had only kissed the girl and touched her knees, while she wanted to go further with oral sex and sexual intercourse, which he refused to do because she was 16 and that he felt their relationship could get "dangerous". Barbour's lawyer then argued that their gag order prohibiting the victim's name from being published be lifted so that they could "put up a hot line with her (the victim's) name on it (and place it) in the newspapers. We believe that this alleged victim has made these false allegations before." Their request was denied due to the fact that there was no 'good faith' basis for the suggestion that the victim had a history of making false allegations.
In 2008, Barbour accepted a plea deal and pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Ronald Fischetti, Barbour's lawyer, claimed after his client's guilty plea that they accepted the deal because Barbour would have had to register as a sex offender if convicted of the felony sex charges--“which basically would have ended his career.” Although he was only convicted of a misdemeanor and sentenced to 60 days of jail with 3 years of probation, the judge imposed further conditions that are similar to those faced by people convicted as sex offenders, such as requiring Barbour to attend treatment for sex offenders and inform any directors/managers/producers of his conviction and that he had “engaged in oral sexual conduct and sexual contact with a 15-year-old child" for the duration of his probation.
After the casting announcement was made on various social media platforms, including the production's official Twitter and Facebook, many people began expressing disappointment and shock over the production's decision to cast Barbour.
The show's PR team put together an official statement on their Facebook, defending their decision due to Barbour's "talent" and "spotless reputation" since he was convicted of having sexual contact with a 15-year old.
"PHANTOM has the best fans in the world and we are deeply appreciative for all of you and listen to all comments posted here. We are of course aware of the reaction to the announcement of our newest Phantom for Broadway and want to respond to you. James gave a tremendous audition and we are confident he will be a thrilling Phantom. James fully accepted responsibility for what happened 14 years ago. Following his sentence in 2008, James resumed his career, starring in A TALE OF TWO CITIES on Broadway. In the seven years since then, he has appeared in countless productions in New York and around the country, receiving great acclaim, and maintaining a spotless reputation. Additionally, he has been an active member of the Broadway community, giving his time to numerous charitable causes. While we know some will disagree, we believe James has completely honored the second chance he was given beginning 7 years ago and we are happy to have him join the production next month."
[source: information from NYTimes, Playbill,Playbill 2, write-up is in my own words]