Billy Porter: "Blacks Have Replaced The Jews"- Page 3

[morosco]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 2:16pm

Silly Porter.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 7/22/25 at 3:38pm

Like... do i wanna try lottery so I can see the disaster myself? I honestly don't know if its worth the effort...

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 7/23/25 at 1:33am

CoffeeBreak said: "If the production keeps Billy, he is currently scheduled out of the show

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

If the production lasts until October, I might actually go back on these dates.

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Posted: 7/23/25 at 6:50pm

Seeing him do this show in London, I was reminded (again) that his voice is just gone.  

Marisha is the one you go to see.  She's doing good her usual great work, solid acting, superb vocal.

Billy needs to just go away.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 7/23/25 at 7:13pm

BenjaminNicholas2 said: "Seeing him do this show in London, I was reminded (again) that his voice is just gone.”

The first thing I noticed in that interview was that his speaking voice sounded very, very gravelly, like a heavy smoker sounds. He’s always had a bit of roughness to his sound, but not as much as that. If he sings like that now too, I can’t imagine that being very pleasant to listen to.

 

[Owen22]

Posted: 7/23/25 at 9:13pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Watching the whole clip where he also reveals his nonsensical “backstory” for his version of the Emcee as an American fleeing the Jim Crow South of the 1930s leads me to believe that he really has no actual “take” on the character - at least not one that is based on the text or the much documented history of how Hal Prince came up with that character and why. As a result, he is unable to answer the interviewers’ questions with any clarity or depth, and his statement about Jews is just him trying and failing to come up with something meaningful to say."

Want to grab him (and almost any other POC who is playing a character non-traditionally) and let them know that they are actually playing WHITE. It's pretend. As much as we're pretending this is Weimer Germany, Billy Porter is playing a white person. As is Marisha Wallace. Especially in this production where the MC is more likely than not an actual Nazi! And if not a Nazi, the character is complicit with its all-Aryan desire for Germany!

Updated On: 7/23/25 at 09:13 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 7/23/25 at 9:29pm

I can’t really fault Porter for taking that approach to the Emcee given the production’s take on Cliff, who is explicitly intended as not being white despite the fact he needs to be friends with Ernst and generally blend in. It’s a production that is incredibly superficial. 

Updated On: 7/23/25 at 09:29 PM

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 7/23/25 at 9:58pm

There were SO MANY Black people in Weimar Germany and they were all artistic bohemians!!

Actually, there were only about 25,000 in a country of 109 million and they mostly came from Africa.

[Ensemble1752815460]

Posted: 7/24/25 at 4:17am

Kad said: "I can’t really fault Porter for taking that approach to the Emcee given the production’s take on Cliff, who is explicitly intended as not being white despite the fact he needs to be friends with Ernst and generally blend in. It’s a production that is incredibly superficial."

How is the Ernst Cliff dynamic superficial? One of the critical points is that people in the show and also the audience get a little taken aback when the armband is revealed, because Ernst has been projecting nothing but bonhomie. He's lulled them into ignoring signs about him. He also doesn't seem to have any qualms about Cliff's queerness. His being American was more important to his cause at that point. 

Cliff's background makes his read on the situation and his  pleading with Sally land with more weight.

 

Ernt is very willing to use him and then punch him when he stops being useful. 

[MezzA101]

Posted: 7/24/25 at 3:26pm

Billy scheduled to sit with the Jew Seth Meyers tonight.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/24/25 at 3:36pm

MezzA101 said: "Billy scheduled to sit with the Jew Seth Meyers tonight."

Surely there was a better way to phrase this.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 7/24/25 at 3:55pm

MezzA101 said: "Billy scheduled to sit with the Jew Seth Meyers tonight."


weird

[NYCtheater]

Posted: 7/24/25 at 3:57pm

We thought Seth Meyers was Jewish too, but the other month heard him say he is not. His grandfather was Jewish, but he wasn't raised Jewish. Here's more info: https://hollywoodmask.com/p/is-seth-meyers-jewish.html

 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/24/25 at 3:59pm

NYCtheater said: "We thought Seth Meyers was Jewish too, but the other month heard him say he is not. His grandfather was Jewish, but he wasn't raised Jewish. Here's more info:https://hollywoodmask.com/p/is-seth-meyers-jewish.html
"

“He should change his last name then. No non-Jew is allowed to use the name MYERS!” 
- The kids over on the Maybe Happy Ending Instagram, probably 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 7/24/25 at 4:47pm

MezzA101 said: "Billy scheduled to sit with the Jew Seth Meyers tonight."

[quizking101]

Posted: 7/24/25 at 5:08pm

Kad said: "I can’t really fault Porter for taking that approach to the Emcee given the production’s take on Cliff, who is explicitly intended as not being white despite the fact he needs to be friends with Ernst and generally blend in. It’s a production that is incredibly superficial."

I know Cliff was intentionally cast as a black man here and in the West End, but in my viewings on both sides, I’ve actually seen a totally mixed group of Cliffs now that I think about it 

U.K: Chris O’Mara (U/S), Taite-Elliot Drew (U/S) - both white

U.S: Ato-Blankson Wood, Calvin Leon Smith (both black), and Pedro Garza (Hispanic)

[MerrilyWePostAlong]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 2:45pm

Looks like Porter has continued to put his foot in his mouth (at least I hope that's all it it) in regards to Jewish people. This video alleges that recently instead of saying "She wouldn't look Jewish at all" he said "She wouldn't be Jewish at all."

Yikes.

https://www.tiktok.com/@broadway1011/video/7539572146813635870?lang=en

[emilyfaye48]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 3:24pm

That is an insane slip-up assuming it wasn't intentional. 

[KrupYou]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 3:35pm

the night i saw him he also trashed the material - ad lib: i didn't write the jokes.....

[kdogg36]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 5:31pm

MerrilyWePostAlong said: "Looks like Porter has continued to put his foot in his mouth (at least I hope that's all it it) in regards to Jewish people. This video alleges that recently instead of saying "She wouldn't look Jewish at all" he said "She wouldn't be Jewish at all.""

I don't really see much of a difference in terms of the impact of the song's ending. It's intended to be grotesquely anti-Semitic. "Look" works better with the song's visual gimmick - and of course it's the correct lyric - but I have trouble seeing how his mistake alters the meaning in any significant way.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 7:12pm

kdogg36 said: "MerrilyWePostAlong said: "Looks like Porter has continued to put his foot in his mouth (at least I hope that's all it it) in regards to Jewish people. This video alleges that recently instead of saying "She wouldn't look Jewish at all" he said "She wouldn't be Jewish at all.""

I don't really see much of a difference in terms of the impact of the song's ending. It's intended to be grotesquely anti-Semitic. "Look" works better with the song's visual gimmick - and of course it's the correct lyric -but I have trouble seeing how his mistake alters the meaning in any significant way."

I agree with you.  In their zeal to stress how much they hate Billy and his performance, they are going after stupid things.  In the original production, Joel Grey sang 'she isn't a meeskite at all.'  In the movie, Joel Grey sang 'she doesn't look Jewish at all.'  Why would some minor variation on that phrase, if there was one, cause so much 'sturm und drung.?  Between this and the emotion about the casting of Maybe Happy Ending, I wonder if these people lead otherwise charmed existences that they should get so worked up.

 

[whatever2]

Posted: 8/18/25 at 7:43pm

Updated On: 8/18/25 at 07:43 PM

[John Adams]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 9:55am

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Watching the whole clip where he also reveals his nonsensical “backstory” for his version of the Emcee as an American fleeing the Jim Crow South of the 1930s leads me to believe that he really has no actual “take” on the character "

I'm glad that the segment begins with him recording, "I Don't Care Much" because it demonstrates your point to perfection. After seeing that... that... (words fail me), viewers should have a good idea that the subject of the interview might be taken with a grain of salt.

To sing that song so hyper-expressively shows he is absolutely clueless about the character and is much more interested in "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!". 

As disinterested as he is in developing a thought-provoking, professional performance, that's how disinterested I am in any perspective he may have re: Blacks and/or Jews.

Updated On: 8/19/25 at 09:55 AM

[darquegk]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 1:24pm

I posted this on Reddit, but everything I've seen and read of him seems like he went in wanting to play the Alan Cumming Emcee, was told he's supposed to do otherwise, and said "screw it, I'll do it that way anyway."

[Dom P]

Posted: 8/19/25 at 1:25pm

The only logical response to thier (BP) amateur theatrics is B@#'# Please  

 

darquegk said: "I posted this on Reddit, but everything I've seen and read of him seems like he went in wanting to play the Alan Cumming Emcee, was told he's supposed to do otherwise, and said "screw it, I'll do it that way anyway.""

 

Updated On: 8/19/25 at 01:25 PM