Indians and Asians Diversity Issue

As for Broadway, I really hope that they can do a revival of Kismet (an old Classical musical) and do a revamping of it. It's set in Baghdad, and would be a perfect opportunity to cast Indian, Arab, etc. Perhaps Ramin Karimloo who is Iranian could be in it.

As for Asians, they have a more shows than lets say Latinos like myself.

Pacific Overtures, King and I, Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song, Allegiances, Here Lies Love, Chinglish, Yellow Face, M. Butterfly, etc.

For Middle Easterners/South Asian, um Aladdin? and Kismet.

Then all of us minorites have the few cameo roles in plays.

"Chinglish" and "Yellow Face"? I imagine shows that are likely to be deemed offensive to the races they're supposed to represent can be struck from the list.

Indians are supposed to be represented in Monsoon Wedding, though I haven't heard any news about that lately.

Speaking of the Monsoon Wedding musical, I just had a scrounge around and there have been a few recent tweets at least, it sounds vaguely as though there has been another workshop or something. Here's one from a few hours ago from director Mira Nair:

https://twitter.com/MiraPagliNair/status/698600775325458433

First of all, in general, white people dominate the Arts just like they do every other institution in our society. That's what makes them "white people"/ the dominant/majority culture. Therefore 90% (not a real percent) of the things they produce in these arenas will be by them and for them. Even when minorities are included, it's usually FOR the white gaze, that is, designed to be easily digested by white audiences.

Unlike black and latino people, Asians as a large minority culture, are primarily a relatively recent addition to American culture (many are first, second, maybe third generation) compared to blacks who have been here in large numbers for 100s of years and Latinos who owned a big chunk of America before the the late 1800s. So they've had more of an opportunity to fight, force and work their way into positions of power and infiltrate the white-dominated institution that is The Arts. Even though there are huge strides in television I think Asians, Indians, etc. still have a long way to go before getting to the same level of inclusion, even with the boost they've gotten from blacks and latinos who have broken down many barriers. Not to mention cultural expectations Asian immigrants have for their children, hence the prevalence of Asians in medicine, technology and business.

Totally true. It all starts with writing and if there aren't any voices that are Asian and Indian, there won't be stories to be told with that perspective.

yeah, true

There was actually a new musical that premiered this year at La Jolla Playhouse called Bhangin’ It…

Playbill Synopsis: SYNOPSIS:

“Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award, Bhangin’ Itis an exhilarating new musical that celebrates the traditions we inherit from yesterday and those we create for tomorrow.

Mary, a biracial college student, thinks she’s got all the right moves on the Bengal Tigers Bhangra team, until she gets kicked off it for not being “Indian enough.” Undaunted, she and her roommate Sunita put together a team whose only criteria for joining is a desire to dance. Drawing from competitive Bhangra and mixing it with other Indian and Western dance forms alike, Bhangin’ Itis a brash, intoxicating and joyous musical for America today.”

One of my old classmates was in it over the summer, which is how I heard about it! Here’s to hoping it’s a step in the right direction, and they’re able to eventually move to broadway.


edited to add: I’m an Asian American and I always smile when I see at least one Asian person in the cast; while it’s usually not many, it’s a vast improvement from even just a few years ago. Additionally, I could not love how diverse the Into the Woods revival cast any more if I tried! They did an absolutely fantastic job with that show across the board. I would love to see more Asians cast as they have been - in roles with no specific ethnicity required.

Updated On: 12/1/22 at 08:32 AM

I'm still surprised a Bollywood style musical hasn't made it big on Broadway, though I know DDLJ (though somewhat white-washed?) is in the pipeline.

I think the other thing is that Broadway (and other parts of the entertainment industry) tends to favor people who are familiar as artists, who have been shown to be successful commercially. Jon M. Chu has gotten a lot of high profile projects after the success of Crazy Rich Asians. And Soft Power lampshaded it, but David Henry Hwang is kind of the main Asian playwright that anyone knows (this is not meant as a slight to the many many other Asian playwrights that exist btw).

I don't know that I've seen a lot of Indian-specific theater companies, but there are a few Asian ones (that tend to skew East Asian, at least from what I've seen) like Ma Yi, NAATCO, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, and East West Players (in LA). I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the number of productions featuring Asian storylines that I've seen in NYC, though most of them don't make it as high profile as Broadway.