Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
#1Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/14/21 at 9:05pm
You can’t pick and choose which parts to celebrate and which to sweep under the rug.
Interesting but true!
https://slate.com/culture/2021/09/schmigadoon-musicals-broadway-color-blind-casting.html
"Anything you do, let it it come from you--then it will be new."
Sunday in the Park with George
edmundog2
Understudy Joined: 5/15/10
#2Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/15/21 at 6:45pm
An interesting read, and not unjustified, but it was an odd choice to base it around Schmigadoon, since they make a bunch of basic errors about the show, which makes their premise seem more unfounded than it is.
BWAY Baby2
Broadway Star Joined: 11/10/14
#3Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/15/21 at 6:59pm
All seven new plays debuting on Broadway this fall were written by Black playwrights. -----and still complaining?
Alex Kulak2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/16
#4Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/15/21 at 7:42pm
BWAY Baby2 said: "All seven new plays debuting on Broadway this fall were written by Black playwrights. -----and still complaining?"
I think what the article is going for is that straight plays on Broadway are willing to do the work to make sure marginalized voices are heard, and that it's time for musical theatre to catch up.
#5Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/18/21 at 11:52pm
Alex Kulak2 said: "BWAY Baby2 said: "All seven new plays debuting on Broadway this fall were written by Black playwrights. -----and still complaining?"
I think what the article is going for is that straight plays on Broadway are willing to do the work to make sure marginalized voices are heard, and that it's time for musical theatre to catch up."
No, it's not.
It's saying that works of theater from the American past need to be engaged wiith honestly including what contemporary audiences might see as their racism and sexism rather than airbrushing them to make them comfortable and profitable for contempoary audiences.
#6Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/19/21 at 12:05am
or we can just stop doing the (not all that comfortable or profitable) classic musicals altogether and start enjoying the bountiful harvest of new musicals that will be only too happy to fill the void.
Owen22
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/24/11
#7Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/19/21 at 7:05am
HogansHero said: "or we can just stop doing the (not all that comfortable or profitable) classic musicals altogether and start enjoying the bountiful harvest of new musicals that will be only too happy to fill the void."
Oh, if there only WERE a bountiful harvest of new musicals...
#8Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/19/21 at 9:16am
Owen22 said: "Oh, if there only WERE a bountiful harvest of new musicals..."
Oh, there is. If only nostalgia wouldn't keep rearing its ugly head. 
#9Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/19/21 at 9:26am
I just found the article claim that "Schmigadoon! makes a halfhearted attempt to go the way of the Oklahoma! revival" to be a very bizarre comparison...they couldn't have had more different intentions.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#10Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical
Posted: 9/20/21 at 11:01pm
No one is going to walk away from "Ol' Man River," or "Some Enchanted Evening" or the Bench Scene. These have attained the status of great and timeless art. Would that Grand Opera could leave Carmen on the shelf a bit more, although it does contain some nice tunes.
The recent disappointing runs of Carousel and My Fair Lady may point to fewer revivals of the classics. When they are revived, bury the angst and just present them as a product of the times in which they were written. Anyone offended has my permission to stay home.
And we can go forward with so many new shows with such diversity in those playing the cast and being the creatives. (Although I do sometimes wonder at all those Jewish composers deposited on a few square miles about Manhattan within a period of about 30 years. Perhaps they were meant to be special.)