Prince of Egypt Concert - Long Island — Page 5

Yikes. Guess they realized the negative PR wasn't worth it.

Geez. I'm sure we'll get a detailed press release citing scheduling concerns or something, but I am very surprised. I don't think cancelling it, y'know, actually addresses any of the issues.

 I wonder if perhaps DreamWorks is behind pulling the plug on this concert. This would have been a decidedly inauspicious way to launch this "brand" for the stage. They may have thought it would be better to let the dust settle and regroup.

 

 

MinnieFay said: "and once again the PC police manage to f*ck things up for the rest of us..."

So sorry that people wanting racial equality have inconvenienced you by possibly causing the cancellation of a concert of a second-tier animated musical. Your suffering is palpable.

 

Updated On: 7/28/16 at 11:55 AM

I totally agree that the casting was a huge issue but for the concert to be cancelled altogether? That's kind of awful. 

MinnieFay said: "and once again the PC police manage to f*ck things up for the rest of us..."

Who's "the rest of us"? Those who are slowly fading into obscurity? So you feel insecure! Whoops! Well, it's not going to get better for you.

My favorite reply on this (general) subject is by ProjectAmIRight in this thread:

http://auditionupdate.com/index.php?p=283368&s=3

BroadwayConcierge said: "Have to say I side a bit with Minnie on this one. Kad, if the one-night concert of a "second-tier" piece was so meaningless, why did its racial composition matter soooooo much? If this was a full-fledged production, I'd be arguing otherwise—but I really am rather disappointed by the outcome of this. "

I never said it was meaningless- it's still a notable concert with recognizable theatre names in the New York area- but if you're more upset the concert was cancelled than over the fact that the people involved didn't think this would at all be an issue, then perhaps your priorities are misaligned.

The casting for this was super bungled and showed remarkable tone-deafness- calls for more diversity in theatre have reached fever pitch just this year. Hell, the movie Exodus: Gods and Kings caught a great deal of flack for a white-washed cast, like, a year and a half ago, and that was even another retelling of the story of Moses. This is a property that should have been an incredibly easy diversity win- hey, Aida managed to do that years ago while still being in an Egyptian setting. It was a no-brainer.

 

Updated On: 7/28/16 at 12:09 PM

Kad said: "This is a property that should have been an incredibly easy diversity win- hey, Aida managed to do that years ago while still being in an Egyptian setting. It was a no-brainer."

 

They also cast white people as the rich folks and black people as the slaves, but hey, it was 1999.

Or they could have just recast everyone? Disappointing because I really want to see this happening 

Can' tell if I'm reading too much into it but I'm a bit put off by the way they worded that FB post, especially the last sentence, especially reiterating the "Free one-night community event".  It seems sort of emotionally manipulative and puts blame on the people "responsible" for its cancellation, rather than making any sort of apology about the core issue.

Clearly the cancellation has nothing to do with race.  My guess is that Dreamworks did not want to launch the product with such and low power cast and that the recording contracts were linked to the live performance contracts.

It is a great title  (right up there with An American in Paris as an actual title) and will net Dreamworks millions more with an initial recording of a more high power cast. They couldn't announce that this cast wasn't strong enough to make big bucks  in a recording or launch a new product so they went with race since it is easier to swallow.

Not sure I get your point, then - didn't this cancelled production have a diversity ratio of 1/3-2/3? I mean, we can always hope for more, but that's not what one would call lily-white (like recent Broadway productions of Dames At Sea, Long Day's Journey Into Night, A View From The Bridge, Fiddler On The Roof, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Hand To God, and so on and so forth).

Updated On: 7/28/16 at 12:56 PM