Black Glinda?- Page 10

[sipos]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 1:13am

(off topic)

Sort of. And yeah, I wanted to be a part of this thread. Everyone ELSE got to. Anyways, kissmycookie said hours ago when this topic boiled:

"Now, if Cameron Mackintosh would get his recent London revival up and running on the other side of the pond please...."

I thought for a second, but read it again and saw he wasn't talking about MARY POPPINS.
I should've started another thread.
(No no this thread turned into a sh*t orgy)
But I thought how fantastic it would be if Mary P. was African american. I would love that. It would be a media explosion, and it would be a huge hit (in my fantasy). Rethinking a standard, traditional, or a "popularized" vision of something is a big component of theatre to me. If it comes here(Broadway), and it succeeds, I wonder if any of the creatives will consider that possibility at all.


I would crap my pants.


[ducking just in case]

Updated On: 2/4/05 at 01:13 AM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 1:18am

That would be great, but I can see why the producers would hesitate.

[sipos]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 1:25am

me too.



Ok, just wanted to see one read my thought so I can leave feeling that sense of belonging and lovin that we all deserve.


What a world.

thanks
:)

[Thetruth]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 5:10pm

>>>Ummm... in NO way, shape, or form did I ever even IMPLY that casting a black woman as Glinda would make the type of portrayal that I mentioned imperative.

I didn't say you said it was imperative. The fact that the idea of a black Glinda triggered "extensions" and "ghetto-faboulness" in your head, struck a chord with me. I'll give you the floor to explain your reasoning process for coming up with that one.



>>said that it would be a FUNNY interpretation. Which it would be.

Well, I'm letting you know that I dont find it funny. I find it typical, uninteresting, stereotypical, and it certainly wasn't cute.

>>>I never loosely used the term "ghetto" to describe anything. I mentioned "ghetto-fabulous",


Ghetto fabulous comes from the word ghetto...Hence the shared root word.

>>.which is a tongue-in-cheek term that was popularized in the modern media that absolutely does NOT require one who uses it to be "in the know" about a particular culture or lifestyle.

It's a free country and you can use whatever word you want. I can also. I'm letting you know that you (along with many others) have no concept of where the idea/word came from you just regurgitate what you see on in the media. There are cultural, economical, and racial implications to the words in your post, which you wouldn't have used if you were more aware.

>>>Please- step DOWN from the soapbox because you're venting at the wrong person.

I'm off of it now. If you want to come for me again then I'll post again.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 5:28pm

I am still waiting for the all Korean version of "Raisin"

[Joshua488]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 5:34pm

munkustrap- You can say from here 'til the end of time that you aren't racist, but I won't believe you. EVERYBODY is a little bit racist... and I'm not even quoting the damn AVENUE Q song. It's true. That doesn't necessarily mean that you DISLIKE anyone, but it's impossible for ANYONE to be completely not racist. Whether you're aware of it or not, you probably see a person of a certain nationality and something goes off in your head, or you tell jokes that could be offensive to people's of a certain race.

Now if people actually DID admit that they are a little bit racist, maybe things could progress and we could all just understand everyone. Honestly, that freakin' AVENUE Q song really puts it well. Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx knew EXACTLY what they were talking about. They are 100% right.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 5:41pm

Well if there can be a black Glinda there should be able to be an asian Glinda, a spanish Glinda, an Indian Glinda, etc etc.

Just in my personal opinion. Glinda works best when played by a ditzy blonde (wig or not) white girl. It's the stereotype of the role, a lot of things would be lost without the usual Glinda.

Posted: 2/4/05 at 5:42pm

(off topic a bit)
Adrien Piper (from '99)...performance pieces she executed in social situations in the late 1980's. Their occurrence was spontaneous, their format simple: when she overheard casually dropped ethnic slurs at parties or dinners, she offered the offending speaker a business card printed with the words: "Dear Friend. I am black. I am sure you did not realize this when you made/laughed at/agreed with that racist remark."
Ms. Piper has placed a supply of these cards in the Baltimore show under the words: "Join the struggle. Take some for your own use." The implication is that any viewers, whatever their preferred racial self-identity, are eligible to pass them out. And that assumption gets to the radical core of what Ms. Piper's work is about.

[sweetiedarlinmia]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 6:13pm

And now I have a new thing to do. Off to Kinkos I go!

[Feline_of_Avenue_B]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 11:50pm

Yeah, I know I'm new...and I know I'm late (I really hate that too)...But I've been around this site for a while and this thread just screamed for my two-cents. First of all, yes Glinda can be played by whoever can do it! And no I'm not just saying this because I am black...the blonde wig shouldn't matter either, stuff like that happens all the time in my theatre world We had blacks and hispanics in leading roles in "Dangerous Liasons" in "Chicago" one of our Roxies was a Phillipino Jew, Momma was white and almost all the Cellblock girls were black, I was Val in "Chorus Line"(very ditzy), Sally Bowles in "Caberet" and I am currently starting a production of "Little Shop" in which I am Audrey (and I do have to wear the wig)Seymore is black and one of the Urchins is a little blonde white woman. So who says I can't be Glinda is I have the chops? Because quite apparently I can do as I please...By the way, there was no modern American sense of racism in Oz if you must compare the book, there are many mentions of happy brown people that no one cared about being brown.Point blank, it shouldn't matter, don't know why it does...I can (just as any other actress) be just as ditzy (blonde), soulful,prudish, or vampish as I wanna be...I'm not trying to start anything...its just...there's you example deal with it as you may.

I gotta sleep now

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 2/8/05 at 11:51pm

AH!

::Stabs thread dead!::

[cvapb]

Posted: 1/28/07 at 9:48pm

No.

[pants2]

Posted: 1/28/07 at 10:08pm

i think it really doesnt matter, if there has been a black belle, black christine (phantom), and a bunch of all-amaerican image roles played by black girls, why not glinda?

[bella cantato]

Posted: 1/28/07 at 10:25pm

the only "hold back" to Glinda being played by anyone that isn't "white" is the "blond" line in "What is this feeling?" I think it could be pulled off if her wig was more of a Beyonce-blond... because if it was a bright blond wig, let's be honest folks: it would look ridiculous and terribly fake. I think it's possible to fix the hair problem, it would just have to be carefully done.

[Pasty]

Posted: 1/28/07 at 10:30pm

what the ****? don't bring up 2 year old threads.

[WalkOn]

Posted: 1/28/07 at 10:33pm

I suppose a new thread could have been posted, but then someone such as yourself would have cried.. "Hey, use the search function next time!!!"

[lightguy06222]

Posted: 1/28/07 at 10:43pm

KILL THIS DAMN CRAP ALREADY!

[WalkOn]

Posted: 1/28/07 at 10:46pm

I'd support the casting of any race in the roles of WICKED.

[HumATune]

Posted: 1/28/07 at 10:53pm

Well since this got bumped back up, the thoughts I’ve had on this for months.

I think it could be interesting to see a black Glinda with blonde hair. The blonde hair could indicate Glinda is a bit of a sell-out. Some blacks have issues with other blacks getting blonde weaves, because of the whole “blond-haired, blue-eyed ideal”. I think it would add an interesting dimension to the Glinda character.

[iliketheater]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 2:34am

Sterotyping needs to end now. A black woman can be ditzy, therefore a balck woman can play Glinda. Any person of any race should be able to play any role as long as race/ethnicity is not specified in the show.

How many times are we going to debate this?

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 5:32am

>>I think it could be interesting to see a black Glinda with blonde hair. The blonde hair could indicate Glinda is a bit of a sell-out. Some blacks have issues with other blacks getting blonde weaves, because of the whole “blond-haired, blue-eyed ideal”. I think it would add an interesting dimension to the Glinda character. <<

Thats pretty fascinating Hum. Well, i've read through this whole thread and i feel compelled to share something. Being half-black and half-whit myself, i think i come from an interesting place of seeing from both sides. I'm completely in favor of color-blind casting and think its important, but I'm also equally in favor of keeping the integrity of the themes of a show if they are based in race (a white dreamgirls would NOT work, nor would blond Tevye work). Anyway, as far as Glinda i see no reason why a black girl can't be popular ditzy stereotype. The stereotype is of that popular ditzy high school girl who everyone worships but there's nothing really valid there to worship, just because she's black or asian, or indian or whatever and still managed to get popular wouldn't make her any more deserving of praise, or any more special. As far as her being blonde, i don't know why we're holding on for dear life to the two lines that implicate her as blonde, those can be easily changed and the character suffers no harm. But i do think that the earlier notion of her being black and blonde and the dimensions that adds to her character, that HumATune brought up, would really work too.

The only major barrier i see is the fact the the Glinda we all know from the movie was white. But i think we have to give audiences enough credit that they can go "Oh. she's black in this version. alright." and then move on. If that even occurs to them. Its clear that she's Glinda from the wizard from oz, she just happens to be black, i think most people would be able to get over that, especially once they got into the story and began to feel for the characters.

I think we forget how much the power of beautiful music, story, and characters makes us forget about the other stuff.

sorry this was long. =)

[pemberlee]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 5:47am

I agree with all the people saying Glinda could be black with a blond wig. In a fantasy show race doesn't really matter, unless you count Elphie's green skin as race. Fiyero has been played by an African American, so why not Glinda?

Anyway, her hair was red in the original book.

[jasobres]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 8:52am

If she was played by a black, they would have to change the lyrics to:

"For I know that's how you want me to write back.
Yes.
There's been some confusion for you see my roommate is....
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe......
.........BLACK!"

[JHartnow]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 9:16am

Why is this thread back? While we're on this 2-year-old topic, though...did anyone see the (very, very blonde) Japanese Glinda from Universal Studios Japan? Quite interesting, indeed.

[parislover87]

Posted: 1/29/07 at 9:50am

all you need is a blonde weave and a bubbly soprano... if you can have a black or asian Belle, you can have a black glinda.. BUT you risk disappointing idealist movie idiots that come expecting the original glinda from the movie