"A New Deal For Broadway" abolishes all-white creative teams; includes commitments from Shubert, Nederlander, Jujamcyn to each rename theatres after a Black Artist — Page 4

The people arguing that white women yield similar power as white men on Broadway need to have their heads examined. None of the theatre owner chains are controlled by women; the vast majority of directors have been white men; there are few prominent agents who are women. Yes the recent Best Musical winners have had a decent representation of female Lead Producers, but Broadway's most prolific Lead Producers are white men (with occasional exceptions).

Music departments are just as bad (with, again, a few exceptions). Not just the orchestra players, but the music directors/supervisors, arrangers, orchestrators, and above all the contractors. There's still this weird idea perpetuated by the classical music/opera world that a conductor should be a man in a tuxedo.

"that said- arent there a bunch of theaters named after no one? The Marquis Theater is named after an object and/or a hotel. The Imperial, the Broadway, the Music Box, the Broadhurst. the Majestic- all seem long overdue for name upgrades (especially The Broadway, which as someone pointed out above, is particularly ridiculous)"

Is there some rule that a theater has to be named after someone? I am actually surprised theaters have not done the same as sports stadiums and sold the naming rights of the theater for big dollars. Just think, you could have theater like The Imperial change their name to the "American Airlines Theater" -lol.

"JGPR2 said: "Is there some rule that a theater has to be named after someone? I am actually surprised theaters have not done the same as sports stadiums and sold the naming rights of the theater for big dollars. Just think, you could have theater like The Imperial change their name to the "American Airlines Theater" -lol."

Are you being facetious? "

Yes !!!

joevitus said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "The people arguing that white women yield similar power as white men on Broadway need to have their heads examined. None of the theatre owner chains are controlled by women; the vast majority of directors have been white men; there are few prominent agents who are women. Yes the recent Best Musical winners have had a decent representation of female Lead Producers, but Broadway's most prolific Lead Producersare white men (with occasional exceptions).

Music departments are just as bad(with, again, a fewexceptions). Not just the orchestra players, but the music directors/supervisors, arrangers, orchestrators, and above all the contractors.There's still this weird idea perpetuated by theclassical music/opera world that a conductor should be a man in a tuxedo."

The "people," which is me, never made that claim. But there are powerful women directors who decide what their team is going to be and who they work with, and there are powerful creators of color like Lin Manuel Miranda who have a say in the teams that produce their work. If there are no Black people on the creative teams of Broadway, it's as much their fault as anyone else. (Of course, there may be Black people on creative teams on Broadway, so the whole argument is fraudulent to begin with.)Pretending that all these wonderful white women and people of color are doing everything they can, but mean old white men are standing in their way is just utter nonsense.

It's a nice comic strip vision of the world, though, that makes sure not to cast aspersions on a perceived "ourpeople" while finding a convenient "those people" toattack."

Old white men ARE STANDING IN THEIR WAY. U clearly don’t work in the theatre, or u wouldn’t have written that utterly craptastic statement.
Open a US history book and start from the beginning. Don’t stop reading.

joevitus said: The "people," which is me, never made that claim. But there are powerful women directors who decide what their team is going to be and who they work with, and there are powerful creators of color like Lin Manuel Miranda who have a say in the teams that produce their work. If there are no Black people on the creative teams of Broadway, it's as much their fault as anyone else. (Of course, there may be Black people on creative teams on Broadway, so the whole argument is fraudulent to begin with.)Pretending that all these wonderful white women and people of color are doing everything they can, but mean old white men are standing in their way is just utter nonsense.

Ah, yes, you are playing the old racist model minority game where one minority is played off another minority group. It's the game racists have played for centuries. One version is "if Lin-Manuel Miranda can do it, why can't you?" Another version goes, "If there are no Black people on creative teams of Broadway, it's as much their fault as anyone else." Your comment is a perfect example of BLAME THE VICTIM! Wow, Joe, you play both versions in the same post. JOE, YOU'RE A RACIST.

In commet #56 posted 8/24.21 1:42pm, you said, "I totally support more diversity, but let's be real: if it isn't voluntary, it isn't going to happen. Considering the money involved, nobody is going to jeopardize the future of a Broadway show to employ someone whose skills/talents they aren't as pleased by/assured of just to satisfy some arbitrary criteria." Ah, yes, old racist game of implying a person of color was hired not because of their skills, but because of their skin color. Joe, you are a Grand Master of this game. JOE, YOU"RE A RACIST!

You tell people they are living in a cartoon world. Ha! Joe, you say you support diversity, but it is clear you support diversity on YOUR terms. How white of you. JOE, YOU'RE A RACIST!

unclevictor said: "joevitus said: "ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "The people arguing that white women yield similar power as white men on Broadway need to have their heads examined. None of the theatre owner chains are controlled by women; the vast majority of directors have been white men; there are few prominent agents who are women. Yes the recent Best Musical winners have had a decent representation of female Lead Producers, but Broadway's most prolific Lead Producersare white men (with occasional exceptions).

Music departments are just as bad(with, again, a fewexceptions). Not just the orchestra players, but the music directors/supervisors, arrangers, orchestrators, and above all the contractors.There's still this weird idea perpetuated by theclassical music/opera world that a conductor should be a man in a tuxedo."

The "people," which is me, never made that claim. But there are powerful women directors who decide what their team is going to be and who they work with, and there are powerful creators of color like Lin Manuel Miranda who have a say in the teams that produce their work. If there are no Black people on the creative teams of Broadway, it's as much their fault as anyone else. (Of course, there may be Black people on creative teams on Broadway, so the whole argument is fraudulent to begin with.)Pretending that all these wonderful white women and people of color are doing everything they can, but mean old white men are standing in their way is just utter nonsense.

It's a nice comic strip vision of the world, though, that makes sure not to cast aspersions on a perceived "ourpeople" while finding a convenient "those people" toattack."

Old white men ARE STANDING IN THEIR WAY. U clearly don’t work in the theatre, or u wouldn’t have written that utterlycraptastic statement.
Open a US history book and start from the beginning. Don’t stop reading."

Cure. You've got to pretend I don't know history. Will history books tell me if Susan Stroman a man? If she's a woman, and she doesn't hire Black people on her creative team, she's part of the problem. Same for Julie Taymor. Susan H. Schulman. This pretense racism is only practiced by white men and always practiced by white men shows you're the one who needs to crack a history book, dear. Life is so far from simple.

"But if enough deep pocketed producers say they will only invest in shows where people of color are at least X% of the creative team, it would be a powerful incentive for that to happen."

So what is the magical percentage of POC that should be on all creative teams? Is 25% enough or maybe it should be 50%? How long before that percentage does not make you happy and there are demands to make it higher? I kind of think deep pocketed investors don't give a damn what color the creative team of the show is going to be, they are worried about their investment. In other words, hire anybody you think will make the show better and return my investment in the show which at best is risky in most cases.

Updated On: 8/26/21 at 08:49 AM

I wonder if there are any new all-white creative team shows scheduled to open who feel a bit nervous of a social media backlash (but clearly all decisions would have been made earlier than this). Hope people can be a little forgiving in the short-term...change come slow. We may need some of these shows to survive opening in a pandemic :).

JasonC3 said: "I find it hard to believe that some in this thread see that as a controversial statement."

The etiology of a majority of the controversies in 2021 America is seeded in your statements. The notion that "melting pot" does not just refer to Irish and Italian [etc] immigrants is freaking out a lot of people for whom white privilege and systemic racism was baked into their culture.

Kad said: "I find the “only the BEST person for the job should get it” argument (already a rather empty argument, as it is common knowledge that the best person for a job does not always get it for any number of reasons) leads to an important question: why have so few non-white (and non-male) people been the best person for the job?"

Another thing to recognize is that we are talking about art. What is the definition of "best" in that context? [Hint: there is no such thing as best in art. Is William Ivey Long or Jane Greenwood or Dede Ayite {and so on...} the "best" costume designer?] When we hire based on self-replicating standards of "best" we degrade. I encourage those who are showing their seams in this thread to eschew all of these terrible notions of systemic racism so that we can have the truly "best" theatre our collective creative juices can muster.