A Broadway show asks a white actor to replace an Asian one. The backlash was swift

The Broadway rom-com “Maybe Happy Ending” isn’t in a very happy place these days. A casting controversy threatens to dampen the show’s post-Tony Award-winning glow.

The strife began when producers of the South Korea-based musical chose to cast Andrew Barth Feldman as the male lead when original star Darren Criss steps away, in effect replacing an Asian actor with a white one.

That prompted denunciations by the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists and prominent Asian American artists such as Conrad Ricamora...