LEMPICKA Previews — Page 13

As other people have stated the reviews will most likely be mixed to negative. The Tony nominations come out on April 30th. Hopefully, they have enough of an advance to keep running until then.

I just watched an Instagram video of the composer crying into their cellphone and saying “We’re just high schoolers trying to put on a show.”

Says it all, really.

Because Rachel Chavkin wanted to prove how progressive she is

There are so many problems with this show and Amber's performance is not one of them.

If they offered it to anyone else, I’m sure it was a woman of color. It’s been a part of Rachel’s MO

I was was actually thinking while I watched the show what Carmen would have been like as Tamara. I don’t adore Carmen as a performer (I find her voice is but unpleasant to listen to at times), but she has a magnetism and a star quality to her that I think would have served the piece very well.

Seriously, whatever the structural problems with this show - with its craft, its decisions about what and when to musicalize or its handling of the source material - they have zero to do with the diversity in its casting. When these digressive arguments ensue about the supposed inclusionary casting bias in a major working artist, here a director, no one wins. The Broadway theater is a beautifully representative canvas right now. In the last two years alone we've seen a Black artist play Florenz Ziegfeld and a gifted woman take over a male role in a hit musical without a blink of an eye. As it should be. How does the art form benefit from finding fault with race or gender decisions in role assignments? And in 2024, when the NYC theater is if anything a model for the culture - workplace or community - what's the issue? I'm baffled by this umbrage taken.

Updated On: 4/14/24 at 07:46 PM

Broadway Flash said: "Liking Carmen Cusack better than Amber makes us racist?"

No, but you implying Amber was hired solely because she’s a Black woman and Chavkin wanted to show how progressive she does make you racist.

I don’t post here often or interact with people, but I’m regularly shocked by some of the truly abhorrent things you say and then turn around and act like other people misinterpreted.

Broadway Flash said: "I mean, I don’t think it’s a stretch to think thatshe intentionally wanted a woman of color in the role."

can you show us in writing where she has said this? You're really going hard on this assumption that it's her "MO" but like...where has Chavkin said that this role was targeted to be played by a person of color? What interviews exist that support this claim? A lot of people on here draw conclusions about a lot of inconsequential stuff that is harmless, but you're directly implying Iman was wanted for this role specifically because she is a person of color- so go for it and tell us what you're getting this from. Do it. Seriously, go for it.

Updated On: 4/14/24 at 07:57 PM

Broadway Flash said: "Apparently not as good as Carmen Cusack"

Who was in the show 6 years ago, I know you can't tell the passage of time very well way back there in 1959 but this is sad. You're over here bemoaning that a character that isn't even real isn't white. I have a sneaking suspicion you never even knew Carmen Cusack played the role at one point prior to this discussion.

Broadway Flash said: "I mean, I don’t think it’s a stretch to think thatshe intentionally wanted a woman of color in the role. "

I barely post here anymore, but all your jabs, everywhere about inclusive casting is so annoying.

If you don't agree with it, dont like it, think it's been forced, then cool, that's your opinion, it is VERY well known by now. So why not just focus your energy elsewhere? As somebody who works in theatre and have my own issues with the theatre (not with inclusive casting), I don't feel the need to post non stop posts about it.



Nobody is saying you can't have an opinion, theatre without opinion would be incredibly boring (and it's boring enough right now), but ask yourself, why do you feel the need to keep posting about it in numerous threads? That's the bigger question, why do you think the board needs to keep hearing the same thing? To be 'controversial' for attention or maybe because you just feel you have to be the loudest voice. Whatever the reason....move on.

Well it’s a combination of things. She gave a whole speech about diversity when she won the Tony. The first person who played the role was white, and many have said did it better. I feel like it’s a trend now to cast black actors as the “liberal” character. Some like it hot, cabaret, lempicka, others. And the role she’s playing was a white woman who we see in the art. it can confuse people when you see the painting, and it’s a white woman. So yes, I happen to think casting a black woman in the role was intentional. I never said it was a bad thing.