CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF coming back to Broadway with all-black cast — Page 8

Pss. Don't call John Doyle's shtick a gimmick lest you suffer the wrath of iluvtheEmcee.

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Updated On: 1/7/07 at 02:31 AM

I haven't read or seen "The Glass Menagerie" in a while, but the thought of that play with a cast of powerhouse actors who happen to be black has me spinning with the possibilities. What a fabulous thought, SeanMartin.

[EDIT] Just don't let David Leveaux near it.

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Updated On: 1/7/07 at 02:43 AM

Re STREETCAR: Can a black woman be a Southern belle, though?

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I had the great fortune to be attending the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center when Geraldine Fitzgerald and her all-black cast of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" came up to visit Eugene O'Neill's house, where the play is set.

It was interesting to talk to Earle Hyman, Gloria Foster and Al Freeman Jr. about their approach to this work and to speak with Ms. Fitzgerald about it as well. Some time later it was equally interesting to watch this piece performed.

I don't recall thinking about the black issue while watching this work, I just thought about how brilliant the characters were being played. Good acting is good acting and good direction is good direction and if they can both tell the story one should not have to focus on the color of the performer. I don't think that any actor (white or black) should be barred or discouraged from playing any role because of the color of their skin if they are competent performers. If that were the case, a lot of classical roles would be off limits.

The general reaction to that production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" was quite positive as can be read in the following New York Times review:

THEATER: 'BLACK CAST STAGES O'NEILL

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Updated On: 1/7/07 at 03:00 AM

I have it from a reliable source that Audra has already been approached to play Maggie (as the first choice!). The production has yet to be funded and while Audra is open to playing the part, scheduling will be key.

Since this production is far from a done deal (funding, theatre are not quite yet secure), I wouldn't get excited yet.

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I think an all black cast for the sake of having an all black cast smacks of separate but equal.

How about a mixed cast? I don't understand what the problem would be with that.
The actors don't have to play their own ethnicity, that's why it's called acting.

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(Will I be feeding the troll by responding? Probably.)

Honey, get off your historically accurate high horse. By your logic, only French people should perform CYRANO. Only *real* apes should perform TARZAN. Only dead, ancient Greeks should perform Sophocles-- and remember, those women were originally played by men, so I guess we should go back to that as well, right?

While I can see issues with the internal logic of CAT, they simply don't apply to STREETCAR or GLASS -- and if you bother actually reading the plays in question, you'll understand. So turn off your internet and go to the library for a few hours, then come back and tell us -- in specific -- why STREETCAR and GLASS wouldnt work.

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We need to have all-black shows because we can't do complete color-blind casting in many shows due to the historical times involved. A black Tevye or a black Julie Jordan would be historically inaccurate. Even shows that have black characters such as Hairspray or Showboat make the black characters secondary and not primary. Making a show or a play an all-black production gives black actors and actresses the chance to play the lead for a change...

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Why can't Julie Jordan be black? If Audra was Carrie, why couldn't she be Julie?

And SeanMartin, I, as an African American, do not see the problem with your marketing explanation. First of all, the producers aren't going to market it as "SO and so Presents: An ALL BLACK Cat On A Hot Tin Roof". I would certainly hope it won't even be advertised as that. I'm sure there will be a poster with the actors on it that will, obviously, be an indication of the race of the cast. And even if they do advertise it like that, that's a marketing problem, not an issue of whether African Americans should be able to perform in it.

And we'll just have to disagree that Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is less fitting for an all black cast than Streetcar or Menagerie.

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>> I, as an African American, do not see the problem with your marketing explanation. First of all, the producers aren't going to market it as "SO and so Presents: An ALL BLACK Cat On A Hot Tin Roof". I would certainly hope it won't even be advertised as that.

Well, if you cant see the problem with all-black-just-for-the-sake-of-its-being-all-black-for-a-mostly-white-audience, then that's your problem and not mine. It may not be advertised like that, but that's how it will be seen. And if you're comfortable with that, hey, go for it. Myself, I find it incomprehensibly a throw-back that says the colour of the actor's skin is more important than the part s/he plays, but hey, I guess that's just me.

>> If it's not about race what's the freakin deal?

A production like this is very much about race, thank you.

>> Would a black actor really get cast in a mixed cast? No probably not

Then you dont go to much theatre, do you? Yes, Broadway is still very much a white guy's territory, but I dont think that's something I'd cheer about too loudly, given what's there these days.

But both you and LostLeander simply miss the point: this is stunt casting on a global level (global in the sense of every part of the play, straight across the board). And if you cant see that, seriously there's no hope.

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It is widely accepted that Shakespeare, and most classical text for that matter, can be cast "anything goes", solely because they are classical texts, and in SHakespeare's case at least, originally performed with men. So if we can have an african-american as the king of Scotland, and no one complains, then why is it suck a big deal to try people of different, less expected races in roles and see if they can make it work. They will oftentimes have to work harder if the play they are in seems to rule out their race in the role because of historical circumstances, or for any other reason, but if they're good enough to make me believe, I won't care. Why not try and all black cast of Cat? Who knows how it'll turn out.

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