RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks- Page 4
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks#75
Posted: 6/20/26 at 5:15pm
Robbie2 said: "It was highly improbable and virtually non-existent to have Black nuns within Austrian convents during that period"
It was also highly improbable to have American nuns there too, or nuns born after 1980, but I suspect the next actor who plays Maria will possess both those traits. I think it takes a profound lack of imagination to be distracted by a Black performer in a show like The Sound of Music.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks#76
Posted: 6/20/26 at 5:23pm
Robbie2 said: "iluvtheatertrash said: "Maria Von Trapp wasn't "originated by a white woman", she WAS a white woman. A real living, breathing one."
It was highly improbable and virtually non-existent to have Black nuns within Austrian convents during that period"
I agree with you...
Stand-by Joined: 5/19/20
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks#77
Posted: 6/20/26 at 9:21pm
kdogg36 said: "Robbie2 said: "It was highly improbable and virtually non-existent to have Black nuns within Austrian convents during that period"
It was also highly improbable to have American nuns there too, or nuns born after 1980, but I suspect the next actor who plays Maria will possess both those traits.I think it takes a profound lack of imagination to be distracted by a Black performer in a show likeThe Sound of Music."
You would have the exact same argument as Robbie2 if the show was replacing a role for a POC with a white performer. Your standards are nonexistent. But Broadway is dead, and Lear DeBessonet is talentless so it doesn't really matter who they cast, the show will still suck.
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks#78
Posted: 6/20/26 at 9:44pm
Lincoln Center's Met Opera has presented Black artists as European characters for years. If we can have a Black Mimi we can have a Black Maria at the Lincoln Center Theater. Musicals are not documentaries.
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks#79
Posted: 6/20/26 at 10:12pm
Voter said: "You would have the exact same argument as Robbie2 if the show was replacing a role for a POC with a white performer."
Well, the principle I'm applying is that, if race is not a theme of the show, then it should be cast without regard to race. That applies to most (but not all) of the standard repertory of American musical theater.
Because in our society people who aren't white are "the other," it's highly likely that any role written originally for a Person of Color is in fact a role whose race factors into the theme of the show. There may be exceptions, but I can't think of any off hand.
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks#80
Posted: 6/20/26 at 10:15pm
MysteriousLady said: "Lincoln Center's Met Opera has presented Black artists as European characters for years. If we can have a Black Mimiwe can have a Black Maria at the Lincoln Center Theater. Musicals are not documentaries."
Jessye Norman as Sieglinde is in the running for the best operatic performance I've ever seen.
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks#81
Posted: 6/20/26 at 10:21pm
I treasure the video of Jessye as Sieglinde. O hehrstes Wunder!
RAGTIME closing August 16th; Cast Changes in Final Weeks#82
Posted: 6/21/26 at 3:19am
I read the thread backwards and assumed the Sound of Music discourse was related to Kondo taking over Evelyn (historical woman who was white with an actor of color playing them as the connecting thread).
I caught her in early May and found her to be a solid, bubbly Evelyn with a great voice. As someone who has been in Ragtime in high school and regionally twice, I have to admit I was a little shocked to see someone so clearly Asian playing Evelyn, even more so when she was dressed with the New Rochellians singing “there were no immigrants”. While her song is a silly departure from the main story, I feel like her storyline was included by Doctrow to contrast what happens to white men who kill (given a trial with a jury and found not guilty despite shooting someone in the face) with Coalhouse’s fate.
I got over my surprise and she really is a great Evelyn. My husband (who is black, fwiw) did not see any issue with colorblind casting there. Was curious if there was anything other discourse on it, but I guess not!
-Jeff Bowen's worst onstage line flub.
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