Blacklisted from Broadway List

[JsnWse]

Posted: 10/30/07 at 3:14pm

Time for an interesting thread: Who has been put on the infamous blacklist in the Broadway community, and what did they do to get there? Story time!

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/30/07 at 3:44pm

Jeanne Eagels was blacklisted by Actor's Equity in 1928 for 18 months because of her unprofessional behavior (like not showing up for weeks at a time). The blacklist was lifted the same month she died of an overdose.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/30/07 at 4:26pm

"Broadway, with its smaller clientele, did let them perform, but work in the legitimate theater was sporadic and much less remunerative than in movies or TV. Ultimately, many of the blacklisted actors had to abandon their careers and take whatever jobs they could find. More than one blacklistee ended up waiting tables. The blacklist took a personal toll as well. Broken health and broken marriages, even suicides, were not unknown. When the blacklist lifted in the 1960s, its former victims were never able to fully resuscitate their careers. They had simply lost too much time."

---Ellen Schrecker, THE AGE OF MCCARTHYISM: A BRIEF HISTORY WITH DOCUMENTS.

A sickening era. And people like Ann Coulter want to bring it back with a vengeance.

[commasplice]

Posted: 10/30/07 at 6:50pm

(Small threadjack: the Schrecker book is excellent.)

Jerome Robbins "named names" when he was questioned by HUAC.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 10/30/07 at 7:02pm

Didn't I read in an interview that Mary Testa was blacklisted from Broadway for some years?

[Act0r721]

Posted: 10/30/07 at 7:07pm

Haha, I think this thread needs to be clarified. Because JsnWse asked what they did to be blacklisted, I'm thinking that (s)he is not thinking of the McCarthy witch hunts.

Here is the Mary Testa thing:

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Question: You did three shows on Broadway and then there was about a ten year break before you came back.
Testa: Yeah, I kind of got blacklisted. [Laughs.] It's a very interesting story. I had done a production of Company at Playwrights Horizons, actually before I did the first three Broadway shows. But I was blacklisted . . . . they were so appalled at what I had done with the material because I kind of took liberties with Sondheim's music. I was unaware that he was such a god because, as I said, I was not involved with musical theatre, so I didn't really know his work. I sort of knew a little bit, but I didn't really know his work. So I kind of took liberties. I was Marta in Company, and people either really loved it or really hated [my performance]. I'm not going to name names, but there was a casting person who totally hated it and was in control of most of the Broadway shows at that time, and blacklisted me for 12 years. But I was very busy doing other things. I wasn't lacking work. I did a lot of concert work at that time and a lot of Off-Broadway and I was always busy. And then in '96 I did Forum and ever since [then] I've been back on Broadway.

I did a lot of downtown theatre. I was in a lot of interesting to-the-left theatre before that time and a lot of concert work. They just weren't seeing me for all the British shows. They weren't giving me appointments. It was fine with me. I was very happy, I was very busy. But Forum was really [the start of a run of Broadway shows] … this is my ninth Broadway show.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/110020.html
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