A year and a half after Jeffrey Tambor was accused of sexual misconduct on and off set of Amazon’s Transparent, show creator Jill Soloway has announced that the series will come to an end without Tambor’s central character, Maura Pfefferman. Soloway shared with the Los Angeles Times that the series will end with a full-length film titled The Transparent Musicale Finale and will open with the death of Maura and follow the family’s grieving process.
Soloway spoke on the difficultly of coming to terms with the ending of the show and the way that the #MeToo movement urged creators to take action.
Soloway says:
We were all in mourning in many ways, and we all had to process together. It was important [for the show] to go through all those stages. The show has always been a reflection of who we were and we were mourning our own narrative.
People say when they’re making musicals that there are moments when the characters have to sing because they can’t put something into words. I think it’s the same thing with what our show went through, we felt like we needed a different way of looking at the family. And we did it through song.
Tambor, who denied accusations of sexual misconduct against co-star Trace Lysette and his previous assistant Van Barnes, left the series amidst the media chaos. He shared in a statement:
Playing Maura Pfefferman on Transparent has been one of the greatest privileges and creative experiences of my life. What has become clear over the past weeks, however, is that this is no longer the job I signed up for four years ago.
I’ve already made clear my deep regret if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone as being aggressive, but the idea that I would deliberately harass anyone is simply and utterly untrue. Given the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set, I don’t see how I can return to Transparent.
The Transparent finale aims to book end the compelling story of a transgender parent who came out to her children later in life and created a ripple effect that changed the family’s lives forever. Fans of the show wondered if the show could continue without Tambor’s presence since much of the storyline included looks into the lives of Maura’s children, played by Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Landecker, and Jay Duplass, and her ex-wife played by the incredible Judith Light.
Along with the central cast, the finale will include series regulars Melora Hardin, Tig Notaro, Kathryn Hahn, Rob Huebel, Trace Lysette, Cherry Jones, and Alexandra Billings.
Soloway describes the musical as a “Jewish Christ Superstar or anxious ‘Godspell’ or ‘Ordinary People’ on ice” or “genderqueer Jewish fantasia”. Soloway shared that the idea for a musical has always existed with regard to Transparent.
They said in a Television Critics Association press tour:
When my parent came out, my very first instinct I had before I wrote ‘Transparent’ was that my sister Faith and I were going to make a documentary musical.
Music for the finale has been in the works with transgender performer Shakina Nayfack (Hulu’s Difficult People).
No release date for The Transparent Musicale Finale has been announced, but it is expected to be released this Fall through Amazon Prime Video.
H/T: Los Angeles Times, Deadline, IndieWire
