How about a black version of FOLLIES? — Page 2

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "I think casting all one race version of productions is something that is not very done often."

This is interesting, a good example is the Sound of Music movie. This could be considered an all white cast. If the movie woud be made today, one of the children would be black, or the Barones, or the Captain or whatever.

In this particular project, that would not feel as truthful, given the setting and time.

There is a difference between "deliberately excluding black actors" and "casting that works best". This difference seems to be hard to understand for people.

These forced current "all black" topics, deliberately excluding whites, are not the same as something as The Sound of Music film.

Because if there is true equality, not everybody has to be in everything, and that should not matter.

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Folliesis about the all-white Ziegfield Follies."

I know of two African American performers in Ziegfeld Follies, Josephine Baker and Bert Williams. Perhaps there were others.

Now that it's been established that black performers were in fact in numerous Ziegfeld Follies, I'm sure audiences back in 1971 would have been thrilled (and not even questioned) seeing Lena Horne on stage singing "I'm Still Here." Only thing is she was much too big a star to ever play Carlotta.

BrodyFosse123 said: "Or MAME?"



It would be interesting to see an all-black ensemble sing the lyrics in the title song that have now acquired an uncomfortably racist connotation:



You've got the banjos strumming
And plunking out a tune to beat the band!
The whole plantation's humming
Since you brought Dixie back to Dixieland!
You make the cotton easy to pick, Ma-ame!
You give my old mint julep a kick, Ma-ame!
Whoever thought a Yankee would
Put our little Dixie belles to shame?
You've made us feel alive again!
You've given us the drive again
TO MAKE THE SOUTH REVIVE AGAIN, MAME!

I’m sorry, but it seems like what a lot people are saying is because the original Ziegfeld Follies (which is not the FICTIONAL Weissman Follies) and other similar “downtown” revues were excluisitory and segregated, that therefor the Sondheim/Goldman 1971 musical titled “Follies” is about while people and the meaning/character/themes would be lost and changed, for worse and unacceptably to many of you, if cast with only, or predominantly, black performers (or generally non-white performers)?

I don’t believe this is a real, or valid, point when talking about my favorite musical of all time. Sure, this show was created by white people. That’s a fact. However, I believe his work cuts deep enough and is well written enough for people of any color and background to play almost any of his roles without sacrificing one ounce of artistic integrity/expression.

Updated On: 7/3/18 at 02:55 AM

gypsy101 said: "some people in this thread need to google what racism actually is lol"

I totally agree. And not even all google hits are accurate.

Racism is the exceptionalistic idea that races can be ranked as superior and inferior compared to eachother. This can result in different standards for one race over another.

What is happening everywhere, and also in this thread is that people continue to separate. An "all 1 color" version of anything just because you feel you have the right to demand it 100% based on color only, is racism.

Updated On: 7/3/18 at 08:30 AM

Black is synonymous with diversity!

Only in America.

Dancingthrulife2 said: "Black is synonymous with diversity!

Only in America."

Yes, black people have a very special place in American history and culture for many reasons.

Updated On: 7/3/18 at 10:17 AM

Mister Matt -

You misunderstand me. POC actors have argued recently is that although "being allowed" to play originally white roles is great, there's something about it which erases their own IDENTITY. That's what I mean by erasure. It's like, "Thanks for giving me the opportunity to play Blache DuBois in Streetcar, but next time, rather than asking me to try to fit myself into a dusty old play that's really about white people, can we do a show that's not by a dead white guy?" The point is, although "reinventing" the classics with diverse casting and other new ideas is great, many POC are tired of feeling like "guests" in the predominantly white institution of theatre.

I may be white, but I am married to a Latina, and my daughter is therefore Latina, so as a theatre artist and educator I do have a rather personal investment in this. Lay off the personal attacks and save your self-righteousness for someone who actually is "closed-minded." Thanks.

Updated On: 7/3/18 at 10:38 AM

SH*T, I wanna see Jenifer Lewis do Lovett in Sweeney Todd. In fact, while I'm on that subject, here's an idea I once had for a mostly black Sondheim production, in this case Sweeney. I came up with the idea based on a remark Chris Bond made in his foreword to the mass market paperback edition of the Sweeney libretto.

In reading it, my attention was drawn immediately to two things: one, the unusual notion that an author would be so excited by someone’s adaptation of their work that they would willingly direct a later production of said adaptation (at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1981, in this instance), and two, a little idea he had for costuming the ensemble. I’ll quote the relevant portion:

"…when I have directed the show I have always shifted the emphasis of the first two scenes of Act II by having grotesquely frock-coated and crinolined figures in half-masks as Mrs. Lovett’s customers and Sweeney’s anonymous victims because I don’t want people involved with them. Visually, this ties up with the dumb-show rape of Sweeney’s wife in Act I, and I like the idea that the pie shop and barber shop have become a chic venue for the gentry to attend – the white folks slumming it in Harlem, so to speak."

Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but I read that last turn of phrase (bold for emphasis mine) and immediately pictured the barber shop culture of the Harlem Renaissance era, and thought about the reviews that a racially charged cast might receive. Pair that with Sondheim’s ideal rendering [an environmental staging that kept the show close to the audience with smoke and streetlamps and fog rising from the floor “and somebody would pop up beside you and scare you to death"], perhaps specifically using Bond’s pared-down approach (cast of ten, orchestra of five), and you’ve got a compelling show.

Anthony Hope………Leslie Odom Jr.
Sweeney Todd……..Norm Lewis
Beggar Woman………Audra McDonald*
Mrs. Nellie Lovett………Jenifer Lewis
Adolfo Pirelli………Billy Porter
Judge Turpin………George Hearn**
Beadle Bamford……..Ethan Slater***
Johanna Barker………Adrienne Warren
Tobias Ragg………Anthony Ramos
Bird Seller / Jonas Fogg………Eliseo Román

* if one wanted to follow the current “in an actual pie shop” revival’s approach, one could also have Audra double the Beggar Woman and Pirelli; I think it’d be a tour de force
** I liked when he did the Judge opposite Michael Cerveris at Sondheim’s 80th, and I feel like it’s an interesting passing of the torch, considering so many other Sweeneys – Timothy Nolen comes to mind – have graduated to the Judge
*** I watched him at the Tonys, and I’m sure he’s lovable as SpongeBob, but I just found him the appropriate level of creepy for this

Updated On: 7/3/18 at 01:04 PM

Invoking Streetcar is a particularly bad example, since it as a text and a play in particular focuses subtextually on race and class. Only a Prince-esque "Concept" production might make it work and make sense, which is why in the last revival (and the second to last revival of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof) didn't work. But that wasn't the actor's fault - the actors are all talented indivudials who deserve to work, and the (artistic) failures of the productions lies squarely on the directors.