Kelli O'Hara out tonight?
Jun 15 2015, 01:13:00 AM
I saw the show in May and noticed in the playbill that while Betsy's the standby, Ann Sanders (who is Asian-American) is the understudy.
Although I am a big supporter of colorblind casting, I thought it was a little odd to cast an Asian-American person in a role where race is important to the story (unlike in, say, Next to Normal). Then I read an interview with Kelli in The Interval (http://the-interval.com/ints/ko/) where she states:
"I also read Bombay Anna [by Susan Morgan], which is a newer book about who the real Anna was; she was an absolute tour de force, badass. She was a woman who reinvented herself. She was not British. She was of mixed race, and she was a widow with no options. She grew up outside of India. Her mother was Indian and her father was a solider."
With this knowledge, casting an Asian-American woman such as Ann Sanders (not sure if she is mixed-race) seems to make a little more sense. I'd love to hear if Sanders ever gets to go on; I'm a big fan of hers.
PS: On a similar note, when I saw the show Sam Poon was on for Prince Chulalongkorn. According to the Playbill, Poon also covers Louis Leonowens - I wonder if he goes on with Sanders? Seems unlikely that they would go to that trouble to put on a cover if Jake Lucas was available, but it would definitely be interesting to see an Asian Anna/Louis interacting with the King/Prince.
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