Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess in PHANTOM tonight! — Page 4

Another thing to consider about Norm Lewis being cast as the Phantom, regardless of his vocal ability, - and even in the context of growing (thank god) diversity in casting decisions overall - is whether the color of a performers skin should be ignored completely or actually celebrated and incorporated into the directorial aspect of the role. Further, how does this increasing diversity affect the notion of suspending the disbelief? A case in point - when I saw Norm as Javert I had absolutely no issues believing that this is what Javert could look like. There need not be made any directorial or staging changes to Javert's part whether the actor is white, black, asian, etc...

With POTO it's different because direction and certain details need to change in order to avoid obvious errors or continuity issues. More specifically in "Past the Point of No Return". In that scene Christine realizes that she is performing with the Phantom and not with Piangi when, towards the end of the song, she puts her hands around Don Juan's face and feels the mask under the cape. Up until now the Phantom part was sung by white actors, Piangi's part was sung by white actors, so no issues. When I was watching Norm and Sierra in the same scene I couldn't stop thinking - "This makes no sense, because Christine would know right away that it's the Phantom, not Piangi, because the color of the hands is different [black]. Piangi is a chubby white Italian dude."

So the question is, should a performer - when his background/ethnicity is new to a production - simply be put into a cookie-cutter role created for others before him; or should directors, producers and audiences truly accept diversity, embrace it and evolve our shows/productions to account for the richness of backgrounds in a show when doing so makes sense?

To me - this little continuity issue with revealing the Phantom behind Don Juan was one of many peeves that made the Norm Lewis-Sierra Boggess production that much less enjoyable.

Updated On: 5/29/14 at 12:57 PM

The cloak which Don Juan wears - either as a prop for a play within a play, or as a piece of clothing - is meant to imply and represent at the very least a minimal ambiguity about who may be wearing it. This little gadget - from a director's view point - should allow the audience to continue questioning whether Christine is aware of who is truly behind it.

The hands though are an obvious give away and there's no way most audience members won't think "How is she not seeing this?". Just my take:)

I had been meaning to find a tactful way to ask how they were handling the body doubles. The point of no return could easily be solved with a damn pair of black gloves.

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