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An all black "God Of Carnage'" ?

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#1

An all black "God Of Carnage'" ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 9:25am

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/god_of_different_color_IRNWlwQrnxscEe6fRzPB2I

I think it's a fantastic dea.

"The play lends itself to all sorts of casting possibilities. There's talk at some point of going gay, with two male couples."

That's an interesting idea, but I don't know how it would ultimately work.

Updated On: 3/10/10 at 09:25 AM

#2

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 9:39am

I think its so well written, that the opportunities for off-kilter "couples" seems pretty logical.

#3

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 9:47am

The last time I saw the show I kept thinking how the dynamic would work if Alan and Annette were significantly younger than Michael and Veronica. I don't have the script in front of me, but there's a part where Michael discusses how marriage wears you down or something to that effect. That moment could be portrayed as him attempting to teach a life lesson to a much younger couple.

It just seemed like an interesting possibility to me at the time.

#4

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 10:08am

I think one of the great things about how it is written is that the cast doesn't have to be an "all-anything" cast". You could have a black couple and a white couple, a gay couple and a straight couple, a mixed-race couple and a black couple, a mixed-race gay couple and a straight couple. The permutations are endless and so are the layers of subtext that could be added to the work. Nuances would play out left and right.

"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal "I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello

#5

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 10:11am

I was just thinking the other day that Tonya Pinkins would make a great Veronica.

"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert

#6

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 10:42am

I'd love to see Pinkins in this show as well as Veanne Cox as Annette.

"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal "I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello

#7

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 11:05am

The idea of Nia Long and/or Regina King on a Broadway stage makes me wet.

However King has a new show filming so I'm not sure her schedule at present would allow her to do it.

#8

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 1:51pm

King is on SOUTHLAND on TNT (which, by the way, is one of the most underrated shows on TV. Watch it.) but I bet she could do a stint in the summer.

I love her!

#9

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 2:17pm

This is a brilliant idea.

I would love to see Forrest Whitaker as Michael, Angela Bassett as Veronica, Taye Diggs as Alan, and Sanaa Lathan as Annette.

Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.

#10

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 2:39pm

I think one of the great things about how it is written is that the cast doesn't have to be an "all-anything" cast". You could have a black couple and a white couple, a gay couple and a straight couple, a mixed-race couple and a black couple, a mixed-race gay couple and a straight couple. The permutations are endless and so are the layers of subtext that could be added to the work. Nuances would play out left and right.

I agree. There are a ton of different dynamics you could play out in the show. It would be interesting to see the subtlties and nuances in the writing with different sets of mismatched couples.

#11

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 2:40pm

Why is it big news when they are thinking of making it "an all black cast"? I agree with BettyBoy72 that it doesn't have to be an "all-anything" cast. I think people forget about other races or minorities - yes, "black" is what first comes to mind, but what about Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern as well as the gay/straight comments made earlier in the thread. Casting shouldn't be black or white, pun intended. And did anyone notice that Lucy Liu is non-white?

#12

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 3:50pm

And did anyone notice that Lucy Liu is non-white?

Yes, and Jimmy Smits is Puerto Rican/Surinamese. This would be the first "all-whatever" cast since the original "all-white" cast.

Making something "all-racial" is a gimmick like anything else. Of course it doesn't have to be all-black, but neither did the recent revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

#13

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 4:56pm

I still think, 4 men would be absolutely fascinating.

"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling

#14

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/10/10 at 5:11pm

Would love to see the gay version. Maybe two moms and two dads?

"I never had theatre producers run after me. Some people want to make more Broadway shows out of movies. But Elliot and I aren't going to do Batman: The Musical." - Julie Taymor 1999

#15

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/11/10 at 11:54am

I was actually thinking of other shows where race is not important, but with roles that seem to only be filled with white performers. For example-the two women in Wicked...do they need to be white? And one of them is painted green anyway!

#16

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/11/10 at 12:50pm

There have been some black actresses who have played Elphaba.

#17

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/11/10 at 7:38pm

I haven't seen the show so I don't know--if race isn't an issue in the show I see no reason you couldn't have an all black or a mixed race production. In the Yasmina Reza shows that I have seen I don't think the race of the actors was important. Just because the original cast members were white there's no reason it always has to be cast that way.

#18

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/11/10 at 8:30pm

I've never seen Saycon live, but I've heard her- she is very good. A black Elphaba is a very interesting idea, because it puts it in a whole dimension. People ostricize her about her skin color already, and it seems that when someone who is black plays Elphaba, it adds an element of realism. Because racism is an applicable concept in real life and hits home to us the fact that people are really, in a sense, being racist towards her; which I think we're only really facing that concept at face value because "green" is not an ethnicity or a race, and the story is very much invented- but there are themes like prejudice and beauty over personality (Fiyero with Glinda at first, Boq with Glinda over Nessa, etc) that in the story that are very much prevalent, but we don't think about them as much. Not to say black people are ostricized now or trying to sound racist; but it just makes the concept that much more real. Get what I'm saying?

I don't think Glinda could be black. I mean, then again, it's really the talent that matters. I just think it would kindof be breaking a social norm, because Glinda's sort of iconically the prissy white girl. Nothing that couldn't be altered, though.

Recent Broadway and Off-Broadway:: Carrie, Merrily, Ionescopade
Next On The List :: Clybourne Park, Once, Streetcar, BOM

#19

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/11/10 at 9:35pm

romgitssean, I'm confused about how an African-American actress playing Elphaba could add any new elements to the show... considering she would be painted green.

How on Earth would you know her race?

Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.

Updated On: 3/11/10 at 09:35 PM

#20

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/11/10 at 9:37pm

Am I the only one disgusted by the fact that an article was posted on this issue? Just cast the most talented, no matter their appearance...

2008: Feb. 18- Rent, Feb. 19- Curtains, April 18- Xanadu, April 22- Wicked, April 26- Legally Blonde, May 31- Wicked, June 13- The Little Mermaid, June 28- Wicked and Young Frankenstein, July 2- The Little Mermaid, July 6- A Chorus Line and Legally Blonde, August 16- Xanadu, September 13- Legally Blonde and 13, September 28- Xanadu and Spring Awakening, Oct. 12-GYPSY and [title of show], Oct. 19- Hairspray & Legally Blonde, Nov. 9- Wicked and 13, Dec. 14-13, Dec. 26- Billy Elliot, 2009: Jan 1- Shrek, Jan 2- 13 and Wicked, Jan 4- 13, Feb 17- In The Heights, Feb 19- Billy Elliot, Feb 22- Sweeney Todd (tour), March 28- Mary Poppins, April 4- Mamma Mia!, April 15- Jersey Boys (on tour), April 25- next to normal & 9 to 5 May 1- Billy Elliot, May 3- Spelling Bee (tour), May 8- Chicago, May 21- Wicked, June 6- Everyday Rapture, June 23- The Wiz, June 25- Hair July 15- Shrek, August 9- Wicked, September 7- Rock of Ages, October 11- Next To Normal, October 23- The Marvelous Wonderettes, November 7- Ragtime November 29- Dreamgirls, December 25- Billy Elliot, December 30- Finian's Rainbow, 2010: January 9- Bye Bye Birdie, January 16- Memphis February 17- The Phantom of The Opera, February 18- God of Carnage, March 7- Billy Elliot, March 31- American Idiot

#21

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/11/10 at 10:40pm

The difference is that, though it is exploitative, American black vernacular has different rhythms and patterns of speech delivery than other speech patterns. An all-black production, besides being falsely "new," would theoretically play rather differently, at least in terms of line readings.

#22

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/11/10 at 11:09pm

Why not an all puppet version? Why not an all child actors version? What about all cats, all dogs? Heck, why not turn the show into a musical!

#23

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/12/10 at 12:52am

But race Does factor into the play. So does sexual orientation. Not that those lines--those of you who have seen the show know which I am referring to--won't become More interesting due to gay or black casting decisions.

#24

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/12/10 at 9:48am

There is a line in the last third of the play having to do with Michael's opinion of Veronica's work on the Darfur tragedy that would play out quite oddly with an all black cast.

#25

An all black 'God Of Carnage' ?

Posted: 3/12/10 at 10:28am

romgit, Wicked's supposed to be about racism? I had NO idea that was what they were trying to get at with the whole "person of different skin color is ostracized" storyline!

Formerly SirNotAppearing - Joined 3/08

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