Amazon’s Transparent opened the door for the transgender community on one of the biggest streaming sites. The comedy/drama was credited as legacy, but sooner or later, all good things have to come to an end. Transparent was renewed for a fifth season, but instead of having episodes, it will be a feature-length finale titled Transparent Musicale Finale after the firing of its lead actor Jeffrey Tambor.
Tambor played the role of Mort, a father of three adult children, all living in Los Angeles. They eventually discover Mort’s secret that he is a trans woman named Maura Pfefferman. Tambor’s portrayal as Maura earned him an Emmy win.
Tambor was accused of sexual misconduct by his co-star on the show Trace Lysette, and his former assistant Van Barnes.
“When people talk about musicals and turn to song instead of conversation, it’s because there are certain things can’t be said,” said creator and executive producer Jill Soloway. “Everyone knew what we went through. If we were to come back, we had to find a new way to enter this story.”
As a result of Tambor’s firing, the series killed off Maura. Soloway wasn’t sure how to end the show after that. A musical idea was something that the cast knew Soloway constantly questioned herself about.
“There were many pauses,” they said. “We could have just said goodbye and backed away and waved and been grateful for the love and trans liberation. But as storytellers and artists, this was actually not just the finale but it was our chance to heal together. Everything we did every time we got together … we were just trying to find our way back to that belief that what we were doing mattered and was important. Making it into a musical, in some ways, just rescued it from being overly serious. We didn’t want to tell a story of Maura’s death that was complete mourning and a sad farewell. We had to come back to complete joy and the musical allowed us to do that.”
The Transparent Musicale Finale airs September 27 on Amazon.