Black Glinda? — Page 5

Fuschia Walekr - VERY good...and no offense, but she added some "black flair" - and you all know what I mean, and if you don't....I give up...

heh, we joined BWW the same day...well, I signed up as bso on that day....

Updated On: 2/1/05 at 11:37 PM

hehe i actually joined this past summer (my name was "jwei12") hehe, but something got messed up with my account and i couldnt sign in, and rob couldn't salvage it.., but at least my fan photos from jwei12 are still up! haha

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bso: I understood your point about reverse discrimination, I didn't need clarification.

kissmycookie: Although Audra is an amazing talent (obviously,) her roles in CAROUSEL and (potentially) MY FAIR LADY are not race-specific and they could work as either, so that's not the point this thread is trying to make. There are certain roles that can be played by any race, and there are those that absolutely cannot. Mdmd. T in LES MIS is not race-specific, that's why there was no "ruckus" raised about that.

However, a side note on Audra actually playing Dot in SUNDAY: an African American woman playing Dot in a production of SUNDAY is implausible. Didn't she do it in a concert setting? If they brought back SUNDAY to Broadway, the role of Dot really could not be successfully played by a black woman, as the role of Dot is based on a woman from a very famous painting, and the woman in the painting is white. It wouldn't make sense. Plus at that time in France, a famous artist such as Seurat wouldn't have been seem with a black woman as his companion, and he certainly wouldn't have become as famous if he painted african-american woman in a public setting - it would have been frowned upon. It's exactly like a movie or stage adaptation of Da Vinci's MONA LISA, and a black woman playing mona lisa. It wouldn't work because it's not historically accurate.

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An interesting note about the wiz is that legally white people could not play parts in the show until the company that owns the rights to it changed that policy only a few years ago. It had to be an all black cast.

And I am also fairly certain that the character sheet given to auditioning actors that describes the roles and critera for the parts in "Wicked" specifies that glinda must be caucasion.

See, that's a problem. If the sheets say that Glinda must be white, I would love to know why. Sure, it would seem more "normal" for her to be white, but would it really change the whole meaning of the show if she was portrayed by an actress who was black? or Asian? or Native American?

Just a thought.

In regards to the cast of THE WIZ having to be all-black LEGALLY, I doubt it was done maliciously, like, "Ha ha! We hate whites! No whites in MY show!" I highly doubt that. It was probably meant to be a POSITIVE thing; a show in which people of color were guaranteed roles. If it could be cast with white actors, a lot more places would put it on, but the roles would probably be filled with white people. So it was most likely a way to add black roles to the already slim number of roles for black actors.

Updated On: 2/1/05 at 11:49 PM

Who said anyone was racist?

If that was a response to my post, please don't jump to conclusions.

Josh didn't say anyone was racist - I think it's just like what we were talking about!

Damn, I was so hoping to see Star on the bubble...as it is dragged across the stage by Oxen

Personally I don't think it would change the meaning of the show nor do I think that race should be an inssue in many casting situations, however in this specific musical I think that something would be lost in translation.

The musical is a rehatching of the wizard of oz. While I doubt the L.F. Baulms books specifically described the race of Glinda, the film that we all know and love portrays her as being white. That is not to say that she couldn't be, but she wasn't.

In order to sufficiently carry the plot of the wizard of oz into the musical, I believe that glindas race must remain constant with the movie in order to make the transition not only clear, but believeable.

Yes, wicked is essentially revamping the entire story of the wizard of oz so the arguement that a change in race won't make a difference can be used. However, the fact that wicked is also attempting to be a realistic prequal must not be ignored.

Do I think a black woman could play glinda? I think there are countless black acresses who could both do the job fine and countless audience members who would have no trouble accepting them as glinda. However, in order to make the wicked a true backstory to the wizard of oz, I think that elphaba must be green, and glinda must be white.

I THOUGHT YOU LEFT!

LEAVE!

Don't you talk about anything OTHER than Avenue Q?

You are worse than Munk (ooo, i complimented munk - see, "the best way to bring people together is to give them a common enemy...."

I think he does refer to her light skin...or something....

Chote887: How does your opinion on maintaining the believablity in terms of the transition between the movie and the book hold given that Glinda, as played by Billie Burke has RED hair but is portrayed as BLONDE in "Wicked?"