Hugh Jackman in The Music Man — Page 18

theatretenor2 said: "Four Tony Award Winners join Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. This is looking to be bigger than Hello, Dolly!"

What surprising but excellent news! There's going to be a lot of unplanned scene-stealing

This will likely be followed by news of the theatre choice!

Hugh, Shuler and Warren Carlyle (as Dance Captain) once worked together in the RNT Oklahoma! in London.

Updated On: 9/5/19 at 10:18 AM

Hugh Jackman and Shuler Hensley together again in a classic musical. I like it.

mamaleh said: "As to cast diversity, the original casting call announcement specified that the role of Tommy Djilas could be any ethnicity. So I have a feeling that featured role will likely be filled by a person of color, along with members of the ensemble. I can’t think of any recent Broadway show where race or ethnicity was immaterial that totally lacked diversity."

Every principal of the HELLO, DOLLY! revival.

Will the trombones also be white? I love Foster, and this cast is excellent, but it's almost like Rudin is trying to make these casts as white as possible.

HeyMrMusic said: "I don’t care if you have six or sixty Tony winners in your cast; this is shaping up to be the whitest revival since...Hello, Dolly!"

It didn't take long for the race trolls to come out.

HeyMrMusic said: "I don’t care if you have six or sixty Tony winners in your cast; this is shaping up to be the whitest revival since...Hello, Dolly!"

Fair. Given that the talent already attached would have sold tickets, I'm not sure why they felt the need to fill the rest of the cast with lauded actors at the expense of a more diverse cast. It's starting to feel intentional. This brand of nostalgia is starting to feel a bit loaded.

But it's unnecessary. To use the Little Shop revival as an example, no one's going to be suddenly more motivated to buy tickets because they cast an actor who is respected but not particularly great at selling tickets as Mr. Mushnik. Sure, it's a relatively significant part but it's nothing compared to the main roles that are already filled by the star talent.

I was going to say something about the systemic issues at every level that lead to fewer actors of color being critically lauded but that's a whole can of worms.

DottieD'Luscia said: "I was hoping that Beth Leavel would have been cast as Eulalie Shinn."

She's not a bad choice and she's a Tony winner so she's qualified. It appears they are really emphasizing all the Tony winners in the cast and production team.

How can you justify being upset about the lack of diversity in casting, when you don't know everyone who auditioned for the show? I don't understand.

I agree it would be awesome to see some diversity in casting, but I don't know the whole story.

This always comes up- "we don't know who auditioned... maybe these really were the best people!" Y'all, that is hiding behind the illusion of meritocracy. You all know for a fact that talent alone does not decide casting- that's why Hugh Jackman is having a whole production built around him.

This isn't the middle of nowhere in Kansas with a shallow talent pool of all white people. This is New York City and there are scores of extremely talented performers of all stripes cramming into audition rooms every day for roles. We are lousy with diverse talent here. At the end of the day, you are going to have dozens of people in an audition that could play the role and ace it. And at the end of the day, who gets cast comes down to the preferences of a select few. And the select few tend to be selecting the same people.

Pose2 said: "How can you justify being upset about the lack of diversity in casting, when you don't know everyone who auditioned for the show? I don't understand.

Thank you, I completely agree. It's a business, they are trying to make money, and casting well known people gets you there."

First of all, none of these six actors actually auditioned for this show. They were simply offered the roles.

Secondly, the only one of the six who is a monetary draw is Hugh Jackman.