Ragtime production in black face!! so horrified!!!

[emilyfaye48]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JUC2Xc5bZQ&feature=related

I am speechless and horrified. WHY WHY WHY WHY

[eatlasagna]

wow! how the hell did they get away with this?!?!

[rjjn]

Nobody in the cast or crew took issue with this?

[ljay889]

Yikes!

This theater is in Ireland.

[eatlasagna]

i'm trying to recall... isn't it only in America in which blackface is considered offensive because of our culture and history? aren't other parts of world this is the norm? i remember this was the case with harry connick jr. when he walked out of a contest in Australia where they did blackface and it's normal out there to do it..

[LizzieCurry]

It's definitely not normal (and Australia is not entirely the same as Ireland) but it's not perceived the same way overseas it is here.

Also, the blackface performance you refer to was performed on Hey Hey It's Saturday, and was a reunion performance by some guys who had done the same thing ~20 years earlier.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/connick-jr-offended-by-hey-hey-its-saturday-blackface-skit-20091008-gng3.html

[WickedlyEdna1962]

Oy Vay!

[maxximumvolume]

This is just too hard to watch. For shame!

[BroadwayBound062]

my stomach is actually turning from watching that.

[RoslynReynolds]

I find it an improvement.

THE PEOPLE CALL IT RAGTIME!

[BDrischBDemented]

I remember I was looking at a facebook profile of a friend of a friend a couple years back, and I noticed he had a photo album of a production of "Ragtime". I curiously checked it out only to discover every black character was played by a white teenager in blackface, pretty much exactly the same as this video. And this was somewhere in Pennsylvania. Needless to say, I was pretty dumbfounded.

To this day I kick myself for not bookmarking it

[JP2]

Eddie Murphy does the opposite all the time!

[KirbyCat]

Absolutely di-f*cking-sgusting!

[alterego]

It does have much stronger connotations in the U.S.A than elsewhere because of your history.You couldn't do RAGTIME in Ireland (or Australia) because neither country has the black population to cast it from. (A few years ago when SHOWBOAT was done here in Australia they had to bring in black cast members and they are going to have to do the same thing for HAIRSPRAY shortly). I wouldn't find it offensive (and I doubt the Irish in that audience did ) I do however think it looks ridiculous...still if they want to do that show...

[CAX]

Obviously the history of the practice is one thing. It's sad. But in this video what I notice is how scary they all look. Absolutely horrifying. Some of the women look like zombies.

[JP2]

It looks ridiculous, yes. And I suppose I find it a little uncomfortable based on conditioning.

But, honestly, how is this different than dressing up to be white or Asian? Something that most comedians do in movies here in the USA. . .

[singtopher]

I was just going to say the same thing, JP2.

A good friend of mine who is a blonde and blue eyed was cast as Maria in WSS. She was sent to the tanning booth and had her hair dyed every couple of weeks by the theatre so she would look Puerto Rican. After all, she was "just playing a character."

[JP2]

[minicko88]

I don't see the major problem with this. If you want to perform this musical, there is a major need for all different types of characters. It is quite difficult to accomodate with every single detail of this major show. I can see how some would consider it to be wrong or unjust. However, they mean no disrespect by it. They are simply trying to put on a good production. LET IT BE.

[best12bars]

So are we (the United States) also past the point where white Shakespearian actors can play Othello or MacBeth? Because I don't see the difference.

This is not a Minstrel Show here, but it is white actors in black makeup. So is what I mentioned above.

The issue seems to be the tradition of it, not the act itself. But based on United States history, this is perceived as unacceptable.

Nothing these performers are doing on stage indicates a parody or derogatory mocking of the black characters in "Ragtime." They are performing it with serious intentions. Yet the act of putting on the black makeup in and of itself is what people are finding offensive.

[QuiteSo]

The problem is NOT that they're playing characters, the problem is the pervasive, horrifying history blackface has (namely with minstrel shows and the racism that went along with each). It's not much better to do white or yellowface (namely when it's done completely seriously, as when Mickey Rooney played Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's when there were more than enough Asian actors who could have played the part). Sure, some comedians do it to make a comment about society (Gene Wilder in Silver Streak comes to mind), but whiteface and yellowface do not have the problematic historical background that blackface does (at least not to the extent that blackface reached, anyway). Blackface promoted racial stereotypes that our society, to this day, has yet to eradicate. Each are blatantly and inherently racist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface

[best12bars]

I will add that it personally creeps me out to see this. But that is because of my own experiences growing up in America. I've seen our country's struggles firsthand, beginning in the 1960s. So this clip makes me uncomfortable.

But if I remove my emotional baggage from it, there's really nothing wrong with what they are doing. They are actors, putting on makeup to play characters and tell a story. It's no different than a 40-year-old actress being made up to be 80. Is that ageist? Should we ban middle-aged women from ever playing Peter Pan again? Or Hansel (in the opera Hansel and Gretel)? Is that sexist? No more "trouser" roles?

If their intentions were to be insulting or to parody the race, then there would be a serious problem with what they are doing.

As i see it now, I am the one with the problem. I don't like what I see. But that has to do with my history and feelings about the subject, not in how they are presenting it here on stage.

[best12bars]

QuiteSo---Mickey Rooney's performance in Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of the most racially offensive put on film in the last 50 years. It's embarrassing. It WAS played for laughs, and it was a parody. He's not trying to pass for Asian, as were the actors in "The Good Earth," etc. He is doing Yellow Face. And it's repulsive.

[Jordan Catalano]

It's called "Color Blind Casting", guys. GEEZ.

[best12bars]

Well, if it were "colorblind casting," they wouldn't have used the makeup.