Billy Porter: "Blacks Have Replaced The Jews"- Page 2

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 12:50am

MichelleCraig said: "I also think Billy Porter has been, unsuccessfully, trying to stretch his deserved 15 minutes into a career. One deservedly earned career moment doesnot a legend make. Hopefully, Porter will come into a unique, individual role he can make his own again. CABARET, and everything surrounding it, was not Porter’s opportunity for this.
"

Do you mean his Kinky Boots fame? He’s had a very respectable career since the late 90s at the very least. Kinky Boots may have been the pinnacle of it, but he was career-successful even before that. I don’t really like his voice now, and his brand is fatiguing, but on the It’s Only Life album from the early 2000s he’s at his best. 

[Bette's Turban]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 1:43am

BorisTomashevsky said: "MichelleCraig said: "I also think Billy Porter has been, unsuccessfully, trying to stretch his deserved 15 minutes into a career. One deservedly earned career moment doesnot a legend make. Hopefully, Porter will come into a unique, individual role he can make his own again. CABARET, and everything surrounding it, was not Porter’s opportunity for this.
"

Do you mean his Kinky Boots fame? He’s had a very respectable career since the late 90s at the very least. Kinky Boots may have been the pinnacle of it, but he was career-successful even before that. I don’t really like his voice now, and his brand is fatiguing, but on the It’s Only Life album from the early 2000s he’s at his best."

No.  It wasn’t till Kinky and then Pose ( was that what it was called?), that he kind of had a persona that broke thru.  And he knew how to work the red carpet events. In the late 90’s he was an off and on working performer .   He is full of himself and not very bright .  Theres not much there .. there. 

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 2:41am

We caught this in duo in London.  Ms. Wallace is an absolutely fantastic Sally.  Billy fell flat in the role and vocally.  After this ridiculous statement, the production should immediately replace him with a bigger/better name. Someone with a better performance record who isn't offensive.  Calvin Leon Smith should also be replaced.  His acting in the role is overwrought and unbelievably amateur in dramatic moments. Omari Douglas & Daniel Bowerbank, Cliff actors on the West End, were both believable and handled the role beautifully.   Go out with a bang Cabaret.  They have the Sally.  They need a MC and Cliff on par. 

Updated On: 7/22/25 at 02:41 AM

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 3:00am

If the production keeps Billy, he is currently scheduled out of the show

August 21st - August 24th  &  October 9th - October 11th

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 3:07am

Jesus f*cking Christ, Billy. 

No, the blacks have not replaced the Jews at this moment in time. Maybe if that was said around George Floyd’s murder & the Black Lives Matter movement, that sentence could have made some sense. You know who’s being rounded up and shipped to camps? Latinos in America. That is the only demographic that would make a sentence like that work today. 

Which even then, it doesn’t. There is a very obvious and widely documented rise in antisemitism that peaked just last year, so how are the Jews being “replaced” exactly? 

Let’s not forget his bone-headed behind participated in a letter supporting Israel, and then tried to backtrack saying “I don’t know enough about it to say anything, it’s not my hill to die on, I don’t want to be part of that conversation”, complaining about people commenting Free Palestine on his Instagram, and then being blatantly ignorant about the conflict in general as well as James Baldwin’s stance on the matter…while also writing and starring in a biopic on the man. God help us all with that one. He’s always been full of himself and a bit ignorant, but it’s worse. 

The only explanation for such behavior was brought up in divorce court, and why his ex didn’t trust Porter around their dog. The brain is fried, darling.

Updated On: 7/22/25 at 03:07 AM

[ER765]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 6:03am

It’s also not a competition as to who is persecuted more or treated worse…

What an idiotic comment on so many levels. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 6:08am

CoffeeBreak said: "Calvin Leon Smith should also be replaced. His acting in the role is overwrought and unbelievably amateur in dramatic moments.”

Maybe you saw him on an off night, but I HIGHLY disagree. Ato Blankson-Wood was basically a set piece that had no real chemistry with Gayle Rankin (who was truly on dramatic overdrive to the point where she was just crashing out the entire show with no arc). 

Each time I saw Calvin, he was able to bring that necessary awkwardness of a repressed queer man who is growing more cognizant of the country changing around him - and the frustration that those he cares about are choosing blissful ignorance. I believe he cared about whoever was playing Sally (Auli’i, Eva, and Gabi Campo).

He’s currently out for an extended period recovering from shingles-induced facial paralysis that has affected his ability to perform, so if you feel so strongly, Pedro Garza is on for him this week at least. (Although Calvin & Garza are playing from the same hand). 

 

[OhHiii]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 6:51am

They should just pack up the show at this point. Billy and Marisha were never going to put this how in profit territory, and this will only exacerbate that. 

What an egotistical moron he is. There's a reason he doesn't work much on Broadway anymore. He's a *problem*.

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 7:48am

Billy is (and has been for a long time) the Emperor without clothes.   He also seems to think he is much more knowledgeable than he is - his production of The Life waded into territory that just showed how superficial his understanding was.

This production of Cabaret is soooo misguided in the same way.  Every actor playing Cliff is black which is a bizarre choice and makes no sense. 

Erasing Jews has been a trend going back to the Fiddler production starring non-Jews, to the museum of Broadway, to the Academy of Motion Pictures in LA. 

[OhHiii]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 8:03am

Dreamboy3 said: "Erasing Jews has been a trend going back to the Fiddler production starring non-Jews, to the museum of Broadway, to the Academy of Motion Pictures in LA."

That last sentence is crazy given leadership/producers of the things you mention are in fact Jewish, but anyway...Pedro Garza is not a Black actor and plays Cliff quite often. 

What Billy said here is ridiculous and out of bounds, but please lets live in reality. 

 

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 8:33am

Ermengard,

Assuming you are correct, unless you were in the room I’m not sure how you know how decisions were made. And I can also think of several reasons why Jews may opt to not highight the Jewish experience. Jackie Hoffman used to do a bit out her experience with the Fiddler production. I contacted The Museum of Broadway this and didn’t get a response and of course there was a major backlash to the museum in LA.  I am “keeping it real”.

Your Cabaret example misses the entire point. In this production Cliff is always and consciously cast with a black actor (or, your example — which seems to be an exception that proves the rule — a person of color which doesn’t counter my point).

[DaveyG]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 9:24am

Billy Porter was great in Pose, and I was happy for his success. (I personally thought he was dreadful in Kinky Boots and did not deserve the Tony for it.)

But fame gave him the delusion that he’s some kind of intellectual force. He’s not. He’s a shallow thinker with a loud voice and a spotlight he’s done little to deserve since. 

[gibsons2]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 9:55am

DaveyG said: "But fame gave him the delusion that he’s some kind of intellectual force."

Can be said about 90% of famous (and infamous) people. 

[DaveyG]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 9:58am

gibsons2 said: "DaveyG said: "But fame gave him the delusion that he’s some kind of intellectual force."

Can be said about 90% of famous (and infamous) people."

Point taken, but Billy Porter has taken it to a new level. 

[gibsons2]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 10:17am

DaveyG said: "gibsons2 said: "DaveyG said: "But fame gave him the delusion that he’s some kind of intellectual force."

Can be said about 90% of famous (and infamous) people."

Point taken, but Billy Porter has taken it to a new level."

Not a dig at you at all. Unchecked narcissism and delusion in celebs is a fascinating thing to observe.

[UWS10023]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 10:29am

I wonder if he will be able to do La Cage at City Center?

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 10:45am

UWS10023 said: "I wonder if he will be able to do La Cage at City Center?"

No reason why not. Haven’t you heard? Black people have replaced the French.

[DaisyHilton2]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 10:46am

I believe the post was referring to the Academy Museum of Motion Picture's initial erasure of the story of Jewish Hollywood Pioneers when it first opened as well as the criticism of Jewish people being excluded from the Motion Picture Academy’s Representation and Inclusion Standards.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 11:04am

I saw a fellow Jewish theater-lover this morning say the Billy Porter thing is so bad because he used the word “replace” which brings Charlottesville to mind and I hadn’t even thought of that. The whole “Jews will not replace us”. I think that’s still a very open wound for a lot of people. 

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 11:23am

Jordan Catalano said: "I saw a fellow Jewish theater-loverthis morning say the Billy Porter thing is so bad because he used the word “replace” which brings Charlottesville to mind and I hadn’t even thought of that. The whole “Jews will not replace us”. I think that’s still a very open wound for a lot of people."

It was the word “replace” that made my eyes pop, for sure.