Finally There's An All White Version Of HAIRSPRAY!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 9:41pm

It's So The White Kids Can Learn A Valuable Lesson, Y'Know?

[Kad]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:19pm

I honestly can't believe Shaiman and Wittman signed off on all-white productions.

[Actor2]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:25pm

This is unacceptable. Depending on the production, I can understand shrinking the black ensemble, or rounding it out with other minorities, but completely eliminating the racial undertones in the leads is so so wrong.

This is worse than blackface.

Updated On: 1/30/12 at 10:25 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:28pm

I honestly can't believe Shaiman and Wittman signed off on all-white productions.

I can't believe it, either. They probably don't want to deny themselves $$$$$$$$$$$.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:32pm

He is wrong when he says you need a fat girl for Tracy, since many of the assorted Tracii have worn padding.

I saw an all-white children's theater production of Once On This Island. And it was well north of the Mason-Dixon!

Updated On: 1/30/12 at 10:32 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:32pm

I am laughing so hard. Bravo, Dallas Observer!

[JP2]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:37pm

I sure hope there's video.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:42pm

I saw an all-white children's theater production of Once On This Island. And it was well north of the Mason-Dixon!

Well, in fairness, there are 2 licensed librettos of that show. One of them makes the conflict about race, the other about social classes. I've seen both done in community theaters, and each is effective in its own way.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:56pm

I, too, find it hard to beleive that THOSE are the words MTI insisted on printing as the disclaimer. This doesn't sound kosher. (Not to mention morally repugnant.)


MOST (at least MANY) Traceys, have worn padding professionally.

(I've seen Once on this Island performed quite well with an all white cast -- I think the difference is that its just as much as about elitism/classism as race. I think VISUALLY it does work better with a multicultural cast.)

There are MANY shows that I have resigned myself to NEVER being able to produce as my students come from a pretty white community. There are many things my students lack because of their 'privledged' upbringing.

[Kad]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 10:59pm

Most Traceys wear padding because they lose weight from doing the show.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 11:12pm

Once On This Island is rarely done with a "multicultural" cast per se... as originally written, it deals with highborn, assimilated blacks versus the native, lower-class blacks. It is implied that the highborn may have a lighter skin color, but the difference is often indistinguishable.

I feel like the show works best when it is NOT cast "about race," and black and white actors intermingle. It makes the point about the "different classes" much more class-based, and not on a visible skin-tone point often hard to cast well across an entire ensemble cast.

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 11:16pm

My high school did the show last spring, (which surprised me, as my director shut down my recommendation of Ragtime because we "didn't have any black kids at the school") and I think we only actually had one black kid from our school who played Seaweed, our Little Inez was a ringer brought in from the elementary school. The "black kids" in the show were played by anyone ever so slightly dark and a collective 43 pounds of bronzer.

I really don't know how we weren't shut down before rehearsals began.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 11:41pm

The "black kids" in the show were played by anyone ever so slightly dark and a collective 43 pounds of bronzer.

So basically blackface.....

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 11:42pm

Eh. After reading the article I have a hard time getting too worked up about it. The kids wanted to do Hairspray, the parents shelled out $250 a pop for their precious snowflakes to do Hairspray, so the PCT was by-gum obligated to do Hairspray no matter how awful the final product. Everyone involved (save the reporter) got what they wanted and it doesn't extend beyond a strip mall in Plano, Texas.

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 11:42pm

[The heartbreak of double-posting...]

Updated On: 1/30/12 at 11:42 PM

[Tag]

Posted: 1/30/12 at 11:59pm

Yes it does seem this "reporter" is on some crusade. Really, let it go.

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 12:09am

Maybe his parents wouldn't shell out the $250?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 12:13am

He is wrong when he says you need a fat girl for Tracy, since many of the assorted Tracii have worn padding.

And the picture they chose to run of the Plano Tracy certainly looks unsvelte, unless that's a prosthetic double chin.

I just don't understand why when we hear these kinds of stories, the production gets to go on. Remember that high school Chicago that performed without permission (or whatever it was?). They were allowed to continue their run. Maybe the rights-holders go easy when kids are involved? I dunno. I have no dog in this race, so I don't really care, but I find it curious.

Unsuprisingly, some of the comments on that piece are just gross. But this can't be true, can it?

Also if anyone cares about the facts, the playwrights anticipated theatres might struggle to assemble a cast with perfectly balanced ethnicity and so require (you do not have to ask for dispensation as is inaccurately reported) an explanatory statement be placed in the playbill that explains: “to deny an actor the chance to play a role due to the color of his or her skin would be its own form of racism"

That just can't be right.




Updated On: 1/31/12 at 12:13 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 12:22am

I assumed those photos were from various other productions--not this production. they don't look young enough 9if the cast contained kids who stood still and picked their nose i assume some were at least elementary school age) and they look like the standard production, not a cheapo one as described here.

I get the anger, and the musical flat out shouldn't have been chosen--at the same time I do kinda agree with those who say it's not worth getting worked up, being some small, children's theatre production (I would have been more upset if they had had the kids in blackface, of course). I went to a high school with a major theatre program, which was one of its selling points, but while we had maybe two black students in our musicals a year (Vancouver Canada isn't really known for having a large black community--Asians on the other hand are a different matter), our teacher was pretty careful to choose shows which weren't about race. (Which means obviously we did co9lour blind casting versions of shows like Oklahoma, etc, but wouldn't have even attempted King and I even if we had enough Asians to do it--which we did--just to put everyone on a level playing field and not to bring up problems like this). It seems common sense...

(BUt I can see, after the movie especially, Hairspray being a show a lot of kids want to do--still...)

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 12:26am

Ah, you're right about the picture. I knew the other two weren't from this, but for some reason I thought that one of Tracey was.

[tazber]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 12:28am

I bet some of those reports the kids had to write would be a hoot to read.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 12:46am

Sigh...it's things like this that really give Texas a bad name.

That said, at my Texas high school (2000-2004), we did To Kill a Mockingbird (only two black people, the others were hispanic) and Teahouse of the August Moon (all of us in olive makeup with black eyeliner and dyed blue-black hair...speaking the lyrics to "Mr Roboto, b/c we couldn't speak Japanese). So, what do I know?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 2:13am

For anyone who chooses to read it for themselves, the letter from the creators mentioned in the article can be found in full on the Hairspray page on the MTI site, under the "billing" tab.

http://www.mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000297

The creators DO acknowledge that in some cases, amateur companies may not be able to find a suitable ethnic make-up. Let's be honest, sometimes it is sometimes a group such as those that could benefit most from the themes and lessons of Hairspray.

To be frank, this is a group of children performing in a strip mall in Plano, TX. If anything should be taken from this article is that the director and choreographer BOTH seemed to resent and be embarrassed at working on the show with just white kids, justified or not. rather than being proud of what the kids were doing 9well or not), or finding any number of creative ways to address the racial disparity and spin it to somehow work to their advantage*, they threw the kids under the bus and said, "Nope, not my fault we no black people and I am ashamed". They couldn't even really find a way to say that it is a shame that they weren't able to draw black children into the show and keep them there..

* they could have stated that having white kids worked to the idea that white kids and blacks kids, as Tracy says, aren't so different. They could have said that, like Tracy, you the audience member were not seeing the racial differences. They could have said "This show has a fantastic message and great music. Come out, see it. It is a shame that we weren't able to recruit black kids for the show and we want to reach out and involve minority children in this program so that we can do this show again in the future with the racial divide intact".. any number of things. SHAME.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 2:41am

Yuck. It's kind of gross that they'd use the word racism to describe white people not being allowed to play black people in a show about race, but whatevs.

This whole thread is moot then, as well as the article that inspired it.





Updated On: 1/31/12 at 02:41 AM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/31/12 at 3:53am

Phyllis,
Purely to make the observation and not taking an opinion on the point I am about to make, but I often wander across discussion about "double standards" in color-blind casting, where it is considered GOOD for a black actor to play a traditionally white role, but disrespectful for a white actor to play a traditionally black role. It's an interesting / productive dialogue to have. Flipping the situation, if this were a predominantly black troupe and Tracy, Edna and Velma were black actors, what would the response be? Hypothetically, we may say it would be the same, but would it be quite so severe?