Posted: 7/28/16 at 10:48am
OH DANG
https://www.facebook.com/baysttheater/posts/989041551195219
Posted: 7/28/16 at 10:50am
Yikes. Guess they realized the negative PR wasn't worth it.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:02am
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.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:47am
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.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:48am
and once again the PC police manage to f*ck things up for the rest of us...
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:55am
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
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:56am
Well, I do think it was foolish for anyone on this creative team to think, in this current hotbed climate of diversity in casting, that they could do a story that takes place in the Middle East with the mostly Caucasian cast.
Yes, it's just a developmental concert, and the controversy has likely been blown way out of portion, but the story itself is not a cartoon version of the Bible like "Joseph "
If it were a private developmental reading just to hear the music and lyrics and script, I can understand simply casting the best actors available, regardless of race. But it would've been a mistake to Launch the production publicly in this way. Which is obviously why this is been scrapped.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:57am
I totally agree that the casting was a huge issue but for the concert to be cancelled altogether? That's kind of awful.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:57am
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.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:58am
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
Posted: 7/28/16 at 11:59am
Anyone thinking that they have just turned this into a private developmental reading? Hmm….
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:09pm
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
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:18pm
Well, it really was less about diversity or "authenticity," than it was about the majority's ignorance of the current state of science and history and the fact that no one knows what the ethnic composition of Egyptians was around 1300 BCE. In fact, the current point of view in the anthropological world is that it's pointless to discuss "race" at all when approaching ancient cultures.
But let it pass - few people are interested in facts or science as much as feelings.
Updated On: 7/28/16 at 12:18 PM
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:22pm
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.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:25pm
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."
Oh? I forgot that Adam Pascal, Sherie Renee Scott, and John Hickok passed for whatever race everyone insists ancient Egyptians were. They looked awfully white...
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:28pm
Or they could have just recast everyone? Disappointing because I really want to see this happening
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:28pm
disneybroadwayfan22 said: "Or they could have just recast everyone? Disappointing because I really want to see this happening"
Probably not within two weeks.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:28pm
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.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:36pm
jawjuhh, that's absolutely how it reads. Not just you.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:37pm
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.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:46pm
newintown said: "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."
Oh? I forgot that Adam Pascal, Sherie Renee Scott, and John Hickok passed for whatever race everyone insists ancient Egyptians were. They looked awfully white..."
When I say "diverse," I don't mean, "attempt to replicate Ancient Egypt." Because I agree, that's impossible.
Posted: 7/28/16 at 12:56pm
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
Posted: 7/28/16 at 1:54pm
You're correct that we can only really speculate as to what ancient Egyptians *actually* looked like...which is why this should have been viewed by the creative team as an opportunity to make an attempt at real diversity and cast performers from many ethnic backgrounds. As we know (or should, anyway), there is diversity in appearance even within societies comprised mostly or entirely of one ethnic group. However, I sincerely doubt, given the climate and location of Egypt, that most ancient Egyptians looked like Marin Mazzie or Stark Sands.
And for those asking why this specifically is a problem, the answer is because it is connected to a larger problem of diversity in casting. It's not "just" this one thing, because this concert doesn't exist in a bubble. Just like any of those lily-white productions newintown mentioned don't exist in a bubble. Our world is colorful, and that should be represented on stage in all contexts, but ESPECIALLY in a musical version of a film where the characters quite clearly are not white.
