A White Black Guy In Hairspray? — Page 2

The same thing happened at two of the performances I saw when the show came to San Francisco a few years ago. Joe Abraham (white) filled in for one of the black kids. The first time he appeared in every scene that the black kids were in. The second time I saw him do it, he was in some of the scenes (detention) but was left out of the record shop scenes.

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to DG - i think you're completely missing the point of this thread. i don't think there's anything bigoted about someone pointing out the possible problems with casting in a show of this nature - when a show is built around integration, but they don't have enough black swings to go around the ensemble, its going to prove a problem. when the integration theme can get skewed because there's a white actor playing a fundamentally black role, no matter how big the part, it brings up issues of realism in the theatre, suspending disbelief etc. not to mention casting oversights!

there's been a similar debate going on in the UK when they've cast their first black and asian billy elliots - it would be interesting to hear your opinions on it. this is a kid's role on alternate weeks - but the (white) parents will stay the same throughout. not to mention that at this point in time, there were not many ethnic minorities in Durham.
sometimes we can go for colour-blind casting, where it isn't a major issue to the play etc. however, it doesn't seem to work both ways. for instance, i've never heard of a white child playing Simba in the Lion King, a white Kim in Miss Saigon etc. would you say its not important then?

Maybe I'm missing the sarcasm, god I hope so, but...

Susan B. Anthony was white.

~Sam

I've seen this happen before...it doesn't bother me though because...it just doesn't :)

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First off let me just say that its a completely ludicrous (not to mention a little insulting) notion to infer that there is a "shortage" of black talent to fill a black role even if it be a swing. My question is.. would they switch it around and put a black person in one of the tradionally white roles in the show? i think not. and if they did, would the excuse be that there was "not enuff white talent" to go around? NO. we would all then know how ridiculous that statement is.With the abundance of black talent in NYC, it comes down to nothing but lazy and cheap casting.

Updated On: 5/3/06 at 10:15 AM

It does when the show deals in racial themes. YES. and again there are folks mentioning the shortage of black talent as the possible reason why this would happen. I am all for interacial casting but in a race specific show its just lazy and cheap to do so. Again if we are gonna suspend disbelief lets cast a black tracy.. good idea? i mean really. would they dare put a black actor in a white role in hairspray and ask us to "suspend disbelief?" i'm think we all know the answer to that.

Updated On: 5/3/06 at 10:19 AM

Before this goes on a wild tangent, I do believe SueLeen was being sarcastic in her post regarding the lack of black talent. She made a wild silly statement so as to point the reader to what she wanted to say next. Hyperbole as a literary device.

Sorry...I should have said my response was more about the Billy Elliot thing mentioned above. The one exception to my own colourblind rule is when part of a show deals specifically with race.

Akiva

Well...they have run out of white female swings before and had a guy go on as "Louie", one of the nicest kids in town instead of LouAnn....not that that makes any point really...just highly entertaining...also Rashad Naylor (sp?) was a male swing for the Dynamites...he never went on though. The fact of the matter is economy has to be taken into consideration and Broadway shows have to be more and more streamlined casting-wise...which has its upsides and downsides.

Akiva

I do see what you are getting at, but at the same time think of it from the producers side of it. Their are usually three swings and if you think about it the least important group to cover is the black males....the white ensemble are all introduced by name and are in the show quite a a bit...the black females need to understudy Inez, Dynamites and Motormouth...whereas the black males really only understudy Seaweed.

Akiva

i get it. its the way the show is designed. It lends itself to certain black male roles being played by white male actors. from the producers standpoint the dollar is the most important thing and in there minds im sure its about where they can skimp and save money. where? the black male roles. hey its life.

Broadway is a huge financial risk...so many shows don't recoup their investment, and when a producer does make money they often reinvest it in other shows. If someone wants to make a lot of money they don't necessarily become a theatre producer...there are other more secure jobs. They do it out of love, for the most part, AS WELL as business. Broadway theatre capacities are really not that high, which means limited intake of money every night, whether you are a huge hit or not.

So after the initial opnening few years when they felt it made sense to cut a swing cutting the black male track wasn't the racist choice...it was the logical one for the show.

"If it wasn't a business, it would be called 'show show'"

Akiva

I'm pretty sure I saw BD Wong go on as Tracy in Hairspray. Am I wrong?

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