Dutch company of "On Your Feet" cast white people as Gloria and Emilio

Back in the 80s I had a friend who was in a dinner theatre production of "Leader of the Pack" that cast a white actress as Darlene Love. I guess in those pre-internet days they figured no one here (western Canada) would know.

I don't think you can blame the actors. This is all Gloria. They just want the $$$$$

You lot never heard of blind casting. We recently had a black Mozart in Amadeus at the NT. Only in the racist US, skin colour matters. Get over yourselves it's not important..Can the actor play the part, if yes their colour is irrelevant

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Updated On: 5/10/17 at 06:08 AM

lotiloti said: "Only in the racist US, skin colour matters. Get over yourselves it's not important."

Anti-blackness is global. Kthxbye.

This is the ethnic makeup of The Netherlands. Not sure why you're so outraged or surprised by this.I think you should channel that rage into our current administration:

Dutch 79.3%
EU 6.3%
Turks 2.4%
Indonesian Dutch 2.3%
Moroccans 2.2%
Surinamese 2.1%
Caribbeans 0.9%
Chinese 0.3%
Iraqis 0.3%
Other 3.9%

Alexander Lamar said: "lotiloti said: "Only in the racist US, skin colour matters. Get over yourselves it's not important."

Anti-blackness is global. Kthxbye. "

No, it's not.

In the Netherlands, black people play roles in theatre, film and tv all the time and people of any race are mayors of towns, etc. People actually see them as people, because people don't hammer on color so much. Black people actually wish to be seen as people and therefore behave like that.

In the USA, it seems color is the only thing that black people talk about, in situations that even have nothing to do with it. As long as that is the case, equality will not arise.

That constant focus on race and that attitude shock me every day. Even lyrics in shows baffle me, such as "I can't sing, I can't even rap, I move worse than a white boys dad". What the hell?

As long as you think an attitude like that makes you cool or is allowed, you will not be seen and treated as equal.

If you show yourself as a real person on a daily basis, that's what will come back to you, if you show yourself as a race-focused individual on a daily basis, that's what will come back to you. Pointing a finger to the other side is not the solution. Of course people may find this hard to hear and rather stay in the victim role, but really, when you start noticing how many people are talking about race all day long (making jokes, remarks or just plain playing the victim role), it's shocking. That's what keeps it alive and makes it worse.

As for this show, I am really glad that absolutely nobody in their country cares about the casting, Spanish and latin people are equally excited about the show, and vice versa Spanish and Latin people are cast in other roles in theatre, film and tv that were not specifically written for it, and nobody cares about that either.

"I guess, though, that raises the question, why produce a musical about people of an ethnic group that isn't common in your country?"

Answer: to make money.

Isn't the genie in the Hamburg production of Aladdin white? I mean, it doesn't seem that shocking for that part of the world.

Thank you, newintown, for that obvious answer to my largely rhetorical question.

I can't keep up with what's not racist and what is racist anymore. I mean, so you're saying it's okay to cast white people when no other ethnicities are around? So, if I'm doing The Color Purple in farmland Nebraska, that's okay. But not in downtown Chicago? This all seems so silly. The show is obviously about them and their heritage and has songs in Spanish. This is silly.

I think Vajen van der Bosch actually looks quite a lot like Gloria Estefan...

Rightly or wrongly, there is a long tradition in European musical theatre in countries with mostly homogenous ethnic makeups of using white actors for everything - either that actors/actresses making a living playing one role in lots of countries and learning the lyrics phonetically. Taking into account the comparatively miniscule populations of these countries, and then the even smaller proportion of black/hispanic/Asian citizens, and then the subset who are MT actors, then the subset who are GOOD MT actors... you get the picture.

I suspect the Dutch wouldn't bat an eyelid at this casting. Then again, for a brief, not-so-glorious day or so, the Dutch production of Mary Poppins had a Christmassy video on their website with Mary Poppins singing and dancing with Zwarte Piet, the enormously controversial Dutch Christmas golliwog...