Opinions on "All Black" Versions of "White" Shows

[allant]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 2:30am

Board readers - I'd be curious to know your take on "All Black" casts for traditionally "White" shows. Case in point, the all-black version of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof". Now, before anyone DARES to raise up the "racist" card, I am not. I would be equally offended with an "All White" version of "The Color Purple". I wonder what Tennessee Williams would have said about that take on his play?

All the best!

[Idiot]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 2:53am

My opinion is that though most of the time race matters in a story, on occasion it does not. Where GOD OF CARNAGE could, in my opinion, play in any race or combinations of races, RAISIN IN THE SUN could not unless it was severely transposed to fit the concept.

As a writer, I believe that race has everything to do with who your characters are because their lives before we meet them is the very stuff they're made of. Races have cultures and, as I've said before, I don't agree that 'we're all the same'. We clearly aren't. It's true in life, so it's true in most plays.

I don't know anyone who could honestly say that their race is unimportant in the story of how they came to be who they are.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 6:04am

These threads never go well.

allant, if you do a search you'll find a wealth of threads discussing race and theater on this board. You'll need to weed out some of the more outrageous posts, but there are some astute comments and varying points of view that are worth reading.

[Patash]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 8:40am

Perhaps part of the problem is your term "all white shows". Many shows are not "all white" and assuming they are or need to be is probably as racist as speaking about "all black shows" or "black casts". On the other hand, I shudder to think how people would react if a show were billed as "an all white production" of anything!

But that said, I'd agree that it is pretty hard for an audience to be color blind when it comes to a play ABOUT race issues and the casting is very non-traditional. A "color blind" production of West Side Story at Stratford, Ontario with a clearly Asian actress as Maria, really left me with a lot of head scratching!

[haverchuck]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 8:58am

When I was in High School in the early 90's I was in a production of Guys and Dolls. "the white version". To help with practicing I went to a Record Theater to buy a cassette tape of a show recording (pre-CD age). The only one I found was the cast recording of the "all black cast" of Guys and Dolls from 1976 starring Robert Guillaume and James Randolph. Not knowing any better, I bought it. That is the cast recording I played over and over again and fell in the love with. I wish I would have seen that production. I still cant hear the word "chemistry" without responding in a deep sultry "a la Barry White" "yea..... chemistry"

I loved that recording and still listen to it sometimes.
Guys and Dolls 1976

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 9:14am

For whatever its worth, neither CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF or STREETCAR have ever been 'all white' shows. Both have always featured roles for people of color.

As a writer and a director I largely feel race is unimportant unless race is specifically addressed in the story. I personally wouldn't have a problem casting a black actor in AMADEUS and have seen actors of color play play traditionally Caucasian roles in my own works to great effect.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 9:17am

But you wouldn't reverse that though, would you?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 12:47pm

Board readers - I'd be curious to know your take on "All Black" casts for traditionally "White" shows. Case in point, the all-black version of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof". Now, before anyone DARES to raise up the "racist" card, I am not. I would be equally offended with an "All White" version of "The Color Purple".

You should really start by explaining why the all-black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof offends you.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 12:58pm

Pearl Bailey's HELLO, DOLLY! was one of the most exciting and exhilarating versions of the show. I truly preferred it over the Betty Grable company.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:01pm

It opens up a discussion of the concept of "ghetto theatre": using "ghetto" not in its modern bastardized definition, but meaning "a segregated place inhabited by a particular minority group, either by choice or not."

These plays (gay, African-American, etc.) take as an inherent theme the issues of being the minority; in fact, almost all gay characters, in either "gay" or "straight" plays, are identified primarily by their sexuality, and their story relies heavily upon their sexuality. Most African-American plays (like Raisin In The Sun or all of August Wilson's ouevre) are significantly about what it means to be African-American.

On the other hand, "white" plays are rarely inherently about what it means to be white. Because white (and heterosexual) has been the mainstream, the norm, for centuries, those plays are free to put other issues at the front (mental health, jealousy, revenge). Ghetto theatre can also deal with these issues, but in tandem with how minority status and identity are affected by them.

This means that most "white" plays can be treated more universally, since they don't specifically say, "these are white issues," and why an all-white (or Asian or Latino) Raisin In The Sun is just a strange idea.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:09pm

Jordan, is it just physically impossible for you to NOT make a snarky comment about how black people are taking all the white roles? Michael Bennett said "As a writer and a director I largely feel race is unimportant unless race is specifically addressed in the story." There's nothing to be reversed.

Updated On: 4/26/12 at 01:09 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:23pm

Now what about a show like Aimt Misbehaving, or The Wiz?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:27pm

What about them? Neither are about race.

Updated On: 4/26/12 at 01:27 PM

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:30pm

Predominately white high schools do The Wiz all the time.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:31pm

Generally, I think "all black" versions of shows should be a thing of the past, especially a show like "Hello Dolly" for instance. While I'm all for black actors playing a great variety of roles, not just those readily identified as black, as a general rule I don't see why the entire cast should be black. An all black show might be a product of a lack of acceptance of, or failure to embrace, interracial dynamics among the players. Of course, there are times when race and ethnicity come into play in the story and it may make more sense for some, or all, of the characters to be of a particular background, depending on the director's take on things.

Another important exception is that there is also room for adapting plays to reset them in a subculture other than the one they were originally set in, and, in those cases, there might be times when an "all black" or "all anything else" cast has an important purpose.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:48pm

newintown, that's as good an explanation as I've read on the subject. Good for you. And I think it illustrates perfectly why an all white version of AINT MISBEVIN' would work and why an all white version of THE COLOR PURPLE wouldn't.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:55pm

And, of course, there is the rare instance when an actor of color (say, Diana Sands in Owl and the Pussycat) has been replaced by actors of a different ethnicity. Because, though the actor's color may bring something subtextually to a piece, it's not inherent to the text of the piece itself.

Personally I think THE WIZ would be unbearable as an 'all-black' production now. R&B, funk and hip hop has been so completely subsumed by the mainstream that it would look totally ghetto doing an all-black Wiz. But a Wiz that is a celebration of a diverse urban culture is something I'd very much like to see.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:55pm

Phyllis. Darling. Love of my life.

I wasn't being snarky. And I hope you know I have no problem with color blind casting WHEN IT WORKS. But I wish to God people would admit that it's orally a one way street and any professional production using white people in roles known for being "black" would be boycotted and would never be considered acceptable.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:56pm

There are certain songs that would not work if sung by a white actor in Ain't Misbehavin'.

For example, "Black and Blue". I guess it could be done by a Caucasian actor but it would rob it of it's dramatic power.

Generally though I'm in agreement with Michael Bennett's comment that Phyl bolded a few posts above.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:58pm

But that's because, generally, those shows are actually ABOUT being black. Racial politics and identity are the fabric of the piece. As much as, I would argue, Brighton Beach Memoirs is about the white Jewish experience, and therefore should be performed by actors who can represent that (at least in my opinion).

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 1:58pm

I'm with MB, newintown. A very elegant response. Nicely done.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 2:01pm

But, Jordan, that's the kind of what-if nonsense that always bogs down these kinds of conversations. What roles that have to be played by white folks are being taken away from them? I don't know why it has to spelled out in each of these threads why a white person playing Effie White is different from a black person playing Maggie the Cat.

Frankly - and I say this just in the context of this discussion, I'm not trying to insult you or anything - I think what you're saying is that you're for color-blind casting when you think it works. And your idea of when it works is very very limited. And still, snark or not, your comment about not reversing things still doesn't make any sense, because there was nothing in the example to be reversed.
Updated On: 4/26/12 at 02:01 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 2:05pm

Robbie, I think that's fair. And I think that actually helps define "color blind casting" which is not the same as "non traditional casting," though many on those board seem to use them interchangeably.

Casting black actors in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is color blind casting. Casting an Asian Maggie the Cat is non traditional casting. And the difference is the inferred racial texture of the play.

Perhaps its worthy of its own debate, but I think many confuse the context of Tennessee Williams's works to be more racially specific than they really are. Those that say don't agree with an all black CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF feels so because they believe its 'historically implausible' (which is always a futile argument, because you can just about always find a real historical example to be the exception of every plausibility). But the plays themselves are very rarely ever rooted in what I would consider to be a racial texture, in which race is paramount or even implied to be relevant to the story as a whole.



Updated On: 4/26/12 at 02:05 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 2:07pm

Well yes, I'm for it when I think it works. But I'm only speaking for me, anyways. I'm also for a lot of other things when I think they work and not for them when I think they don't, as well.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 4/26/12 at 2:12pm

Newintown, I was thinking of the same arguements but couldn't think of a way to put it in writing. The I read your post. It was exactly what I wanted to say and perfectly written. Bravo.