Homophobia row ends with actress having to pay Curve’s costs

THEATRE SAYS THERE WAS NO CASE TO ANSWER FROM START

AN ACTOR must pay Curve’s legal costs after she sued the theatre when she was sacked from The Color Purple musical.

Seyi Omooba, had been given the starring role of Celie, a lesbian, but lost the job after a homophobic Facebook post from her past emerged.

The 26-year-old had written on the social media site four years earlier: “I do not believe you can be born gay and I do not believe homosexuality is right. Though the law of this land has made it legal it doesn’t make it right.”

The post was highlighted by Hamilton actor Aaron Lee Lambert, who called Ms Omooba a hypocrite for acting in The Color Purple.

The musical, based on the 1983 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, by American author Alice Walker, would have seen Ms Omooba playing a lesbian character.

It emerged during the tribunal in February that Ms Omooba did not tell show producers about her “red line” that she would not play a gay character, but she had informed her agent about that stance.

Ms Omooba has also told the proceedings she had not read the full script for the production despite being cast as the lead character, adding she was never explicitly informed it would be a lesbian role and that was not her understanding of the part.

The Color Purple tells the story of Celie, an impoverished and abused African-American woman in the US deep south in the 1930s.

As the story progresses, she develops

We always felt the case lacked any merit, but Seyi Omooba... chose to take our theatre to court irrespective of the facts

an intimate relationship with a female blues singer called Shug Avery.

The sexuality of Celie, who is often read as having a lesbian relationship, is ambiguous and open to interpretation, said representatives for Ms Omooba.

She was offered her full pay £4,309 by Leicester Theatre Trust. But, with the support of her father’s organisation, Christian Concern, she went to an employment tribunal asking for that sum plus a of further £25,000 for the damage to her reputation suffered by the sacking. Last month she lost her case, and this week the theatre announced she would also be liable for its legal costs.

In a joint statement, the theatre’s chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said: “We are pleased the employment tribunal has ordered Seyi Omooba to repay the costs (subject to detailed assessment) incurred for defending the claims brought against Curve.

“We have always felt the case lacked any merit from the outset, but Seyi Omooba and her legal team continued to disregard our pleadings and chose to take our theatre to court irrespective of the facts.”

Curve bosses accused Ms Omooba and her father of a “campaign” against the theatre.

The statement said: “Unfortunately, Curve, Global Artists and the tribunal process have been used as part of a wider campaign orchestrated by Christian Concern.

“In this respect, we are pleased that in support of the decision to award costs, the tribunal found that Seyi Omooba’s representatives were ‘wrong to promote and use a weak case, especially when, as in the publicity just before and after the hearing, overlooking or misstating the facts in the claimant’s own evidence.’”