Maria Nicki Minaj Mother Abbess Tina Turner Nuns: Various personnel from En Vogue, The Pointer Sisters, The Three Degrees, The Supremes, etc. Captain von Trapp Snoop Dogg Liesl Ariana Grande Rolf Bruno Mars Friedrich Hudson Yang Kurt Miles Brown Brigitta Chloe Bailey Marta Halley Bailey Gretl Quvenzhané Wallis Elsa Schraeder Ann Harada Max Detweiler George Takei Frau Schmidt Alma Cuervo Herr Zeller Danny Trejo
And then cast A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, and the entire oevres of A.R. Gurney, Noel Coward, and Somerset Maugham with only actors of color. Fun!
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
I am all for colorblind casting but this is a tad extreme. Colorblind casting shouldn’t bother anyone if if doesn’t necessarily interfere with the story, but in this case casting the Nazi’s as POC would be all kinds of wrong.
Wait can I just point out how ridiculous it is to say it’s wrong for people of color to play nazis when there are people of color playing slave owners in Hamilton.......
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
satisfiied said: "GeorgeandDot said: "How about us people of color write our own new musicals that share our stories, instead of trying to create some BS like this?"
I'm sorry. The Sound of Music is one of my favorite musicals of all time and it kills me to know I will likely never be able to be this show because of my skin color."
You don't need to be sorry....if one wrote their own musical here; we wouldn't be able to "cast" it as we wouldn't know the piece.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
Call_me_jorge said: "Wait can I just point out how ridiculous it is to say it’s wrong for people of color to play nazis when there are people of color playing slave owners in Hamilton......."
Hamilton is sort of turning something on its head through transgressive casting and storytelling. If you're a POC playing a Nazi in Sound of Music, you're just a POC playing a Nazi.
Call_me_jorge said: "Wait can I just point out how ridiculous it is to say it’s wrong for people of color to play nazis when there are people of color playing slave owners in Hamilton......."
It isn't ridiculous because the two shows are written in very different styles. SOM is highly representational; HAMILTON is deliberately not.
I'm not convinced Broadway actually has a diversity problem when it comes to supporting and ensemble roles. (African-Americans make up 10% of the national population. Is there a study that shows how many Equity roles go to black people? The situation seems quite different when it comes to stars, management and design personnel. There diversity remains very much an issue, I think. (Again, I've seen no formal data.)
But assuming we need more roles for African-Americans, the solution is to stop doing representational productions of shows such as SOM, maybe to stop doing SOM at all. There are plenty of shows that can be cast "color blind" without violating the style of the text. OKLAHOMA!, to take the example of another R&H show. The West was all-white only in Hollywood's imagination; black people made up a large percentage of people who went west after the Civil War. A color-blind OKLAHOMA! would make perfect, even realistic, sense. We seem to accept diversity in CAROUSEL as well.
What about age blind casting? If we can have color blind casting (which I'm all for), the next obvious step would be age blind casting. Ageism is the last great "ism" that will be fought, I imagine.
It has far more to do with how old one LOOKS than it does actual age.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.