The kids of Les Mis AKA Broadway ignores biology- Page 2

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 4:52am

The OP is simply a racist as evidenced by his previous comments. He continues to assume that others are like minded and will find support here by posting his tripe.

Ugh.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 7:56am

The OP is a phony who doesn't believe any of what she types.

She just knows that if she starts this same thread against color-blind casting, she will get many outraged responses.

The OP is is not a racist,

She is a troll.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 9:24am

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 9:30am

oh yeah...that's right. Les Mis is coming back to Broadway...again. I think I'm busy and won't be going.

[RozeeRossi]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 9:32am

Don't get too ticked off at the OP. There are plenty of people like him.

My favorite one is the guy I heard during the Les Mis tour intermission who said, "I think it's some sort of artistic metaphor that she was white when her family had money, and when she grew up in poverty, she turned black!"

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 9:36am

She is a troll.

Who says you can't be both?

[Wynbish]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 10:08am

Don't get too ticked off at the OP. There are plenty of people like him.


... What? Should we not be mad at the Boston bomber because there have been more bombers?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 10:17am

How do we know the sex of the troll?

PalJoey says "she"

Someone else, "he"

So what is it?

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 11:14am

"My favorite one is the guy I heard during the Les Mis tour intermission who said, "I think it's some sort of artistic metaphor that she was white when her family had money, and when she grew up in poverty, she turned black!"

Gotta love those obnoxiously loud audience conversations, amirite?

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 10:11pm

Color-blind casting is sometimes perfectly okay, and other times it can confuse the audience or change the story in ways that the playwright never intended. Its major advantage is giving opportunities to minority actors who would be seriously underemployed otherwise because of a lack of good roles. Because that is the main benefit of color-blind casting, I don't support casting white actors in roles written for people of color -- especially not, God forbid, if the white actors have to wear blackface makeup to do it. Whiteface makeup for a dark-skinned actor just doesn't have the same negative connotation that blackface makeup has for a white actor.

Even when the story assumes that a character is a certain race or ethnicity, that can often be remedied by a line or two of dialogue. For example, if a black woman is cast as Christine Daae, the exchange about the name being unusual and her being the daughter of the Swedish violinist needs only be altered to add, "Swedish? She doesn't look Swedish." "Her mother was from Africa."

There is a way to make color blind casting work EVEN when the story makes clear that the character is white: Make it clear that the character is white even if the actor isn't. Often, once again, even one line of dialogue would make it clear.

There are times when color blind casting just won't work because the audience can't suspend its disbelief that far. In the miniseries North and South, there was a character who was seven-eighths white and worried that people would find out about her black great-grandparent. Having a black woman play her would have been too darned confusing.

In short, sometimes color blind casting works, and sometimes it doesn't. Opposing it isn't necessarily racist, any more than it's height-chauvinistic to object to Danny DeVito's playing Abe Lincoln.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 10:29pm

For example, if a black woman is cast as Christine Daae, the exchange about the name being unusual and her being the daughter of the Swedish violinist needs only be altered to add, "Swedish? She doesn't look Swedish." "Her mother was from Africa."

Lana English is mixed with African ancestry. She played Christine. They didn't change the line for her.

Sometimes you just go with it, ya know?


Some Lana photos

Updated On: 1/28/14 at 10:29 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/28/14 at 10:32pm

For example, if a black woman is cast as Christine Daae, the exchange about the name being unusual and her being the daughter of the Swedish violinist needs only be altered to add, "Swedish? She doesn't look Swedish." "Her mother was from Africa."

Totally. Or "Her mother was from the Bronx". That would work too.