Phylicia Rashad to take over as Violet Weston- Page 2

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 8:56pm

And Elizabeth Ashley as her sister? That is one WHACK gene pool.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 8:57pm

Rashad is 60. Dunagan was 64 when she played the role.

So age isn't an issue.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 8:58pm

Fierce.

[hpeabody930]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:05pm

I can't even imagine her in the role. I see her as much more of a Mattie Fae, but she's no Violet.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:07pm

I'm....

so confused.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:11pm

Wow,

That's like Florence Henderson as Rose in Gypsy - Phyliicia Rashad replacing Estelle Parsons (the most amazing actress).
Pure Bull****. You couldn't pay me to see that. Maybe her amazingly bad choreographer sister, Debbie Allen, could direct her.

Updated On: 3/5/09 at 09:11 PM

[Patash]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:18pm

What's next? Britney Spears in The Color Purple? Lea Solonga in In the Heights? Angela Lansbury as Nellie Forbush? While I'm basically for color blind casting where it doesn't mean anything, physical appearance (sadly including race) IS important to many roles.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:23pm

There is the very famous incident of Tennessee Williams taking out a court order against a German productionw an African American Stanley.
Suddenly the play has a lot less to do w the author's intent and a lot more to do w race relations in general.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:26pm

Updated On: 3/9/09 at 09:26 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:29pm

I'm sorry, I think this is just laughable. Color blind casting works "sometimes" and it's a rare "sometimes" and even then it's only a one way street. When it works, fine. When it doesn't it can be extremely confusing. I remember going to see 110 IN THE SHADE (I was unfamiliar with the piece before going in) and having NO clue how these people were related, or if they were related to each other. It was like looking inside Brangelina's house and trying to make sense of it.

Whatever happened to the Marin Mazzie/Jason Danielly PORGY & BESS, by the way? Is that next season or has it been postponed?

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:31pm

I'm going to have to agree that color blind casting has to make sense. If you're going to cast an african-american phantom of the opera, then go ahead and do it, it's fine,but this... no


If anyone remembers that disaster RH's cinderella remake with brandy... you would know that ethnic casting has to make sense. In that movie, Whoopie Goleberg (I just destroyed that name) and that guy who played John Jacob Aster in titanic had an asian son in that movie. And... Bernadette Peters had a black daughter and a white daughter, uh... that kinda makes no sense.

Updated On: 3/5/09 at 09:31 PM

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:35pm

^^
True, but that was also a fairy tale and to quote Cinderella "It's possible"

But this is far from a fairy tale (obviously) so it would be hard to smudge the racial casting

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:36pm

So I guess there will be an extra 10 mins. added to the play each night.

Back in the 60's I think it was the 60s, Hirschfeld did a series of drawings for Playbill called UNLIKELY CASTING, Carol Channing as Lady M, Zero Mostel as Peter Pan, etc.

This one is right up there.
Updated On: 3/5/09 at 09:36 PM

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:54pm

Anna Shapiro knows what she's doing.

Ironically, Sally Murphy (who plays Ivy Weston) played Rashad's daughter already in BERNARDA ALBA at Lincoln Center a few years ago.

[CurtisTaylorJr2]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:57pm

People ought to wait and see what sort of performance she delivers, instead of basing everything on race. The race card shouldn't be pulled for every single little issue.

And I'd like to add, this is fiction we are talking about, sometimes you have to suspend your beliefs and just view the play for what it is, a story. Updated On: 3/5/09 at 09:57 PM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 9:59pm

I don't think race is an issue. Aside from the one line that was noted above, I don't think it is going to be a problem.

I do think those of us who have seen Rashad's five most recent performances, each with that same characterization, time and time again, have enough evidence to anticipate that she will be delivering the same performance now for the sixth time.

[Plum]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:15pm

Speaking of Bernarda Alba - it's the fact that I watched the show and saw how woefully miscast Rashad was as the tyrannical matriarch there that makes me have serious doubts about her ability to be a good Violet. She was marvelous as Aunt Ester in Gem of the Ocean. But...Violet isn't Aunt Ester. At all.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:25pm

Plum, to be fair, Bernarda Alba and Violet Weston are both "terrifying matriarchs" in completely different ways.

To say that Rashad was miscast as one (which I would disagree with) and use it as a reason why she'd be inappropriate as the other isn't really appropriate in context.

I concede that Rashad does tend to play the "quietly intense" archetype quite frequently, but let us remember that Estelle Parsons's Violet was equally as terrifying as Deanna Dunagan's in a polar opposite way.

As I said, Shapiro knows what she's doing. Let Phylicia step on stage before you call her performance into question. Maybe she, like her predecessor, will find new nuances in the role that we haven't yet seen.

Updated On: 3/5/09 at 10:25 PM

[ChristopherDurangFan]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:50pm

I vote for re-casting all of the Weston roles with black actors--the Steppenwolf ensemble has several really great black actors in its ensemble. Ora Jones could be a great Mattie Fae, Jon Michael Hill could do Little Charles...who knows, May 26 is a ways away, they could already be planning that. I think it would be interesting.

[jeffrey1dog]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:53pm

Sorry if this sounds racist, but there's no way in hell I could suspend belief and see her as the mother and sister of all these white people... at least not without an explanation via some additional dialog added to the script to acknowledge it. This is the dumbest casting I've ever heard of!

[A Director]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:58pm

I think this is an example of stunt casting. The practice has kept Chicago running for years.

I've seen non-traditional casting work for many productions.

The joke of the Hirschfeld drawings was the actors weren't know for a particular type of role. Carol Channing wasn't known for serious roles and it would take a winch to fly zero.

[winston89]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:04pm

I am all in favor of color blind casting but I feel that it has to work. Rashad in August is a situation where it won't. It won't work having her up on the stage with the rest of the Weston family being white and having her be the matriarch. The only time I saw Rashad on stage was in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and I didn't like her in it. I do really want to go back and revisit August, but I guess I will be doing that after her stint in the show is over.

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:23pm

So is this why she's going to Jenny Craig?

[Sondheim_Geek]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:26pm

Bizarre...and scary.

If Shapiro/Lavey/Letts was involved in this casting then I have complete faith. If not, it's going to be a royal mess.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:42pm

Phylicia is as big a name as Estelle. Both had large roles on popular sitcoms and both are theatre vets. The more I think about this, the more I like it. Her eyes could burn holes through you. The dinner scene is going to be horrifying (in a good way) I imagine.