Racial Issues and BWW Posters- Page 3

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 12:21am

Agreed. And on an aesthetic note, I think darker skin tones work really nicely with Taymor's designs.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 1:18am

Yes, people are racist.
People here on this board are racist.

They are threatened by black people, but not threatened by Asians.

There is a great monologue by Scott Thompson as 'Buddy Cole' that explains the difference. It's funny, but VERY telling.

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 1:19am

2 arguments that should never be used in this discussion, but always are:

1- "If you'd do that, why not an all white 'Raisin'[Or some other show where race is made explicitly important]?"

This argument is stupid because the show being discussed is almost always one with no specific races set for the characters. Therefore, your argument is lame. But from the proponents of color-blind comes:::

2- "Well, people don't really burst into song, do they?" This, too is stupid. It basically says that casting, design, and direction don't matter and the audience should blindly accept everything onstage because they're singing. Lame and a half, guys.

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 2:37am

I feel like in Musical Theater, with the exception of shows such as Ragtime that really needs to be cast along racial lines for a reason, that there is nothing to get all uptight about. Are ya’ll saying you can suspend your belief that someone is bursting into song and dance, but Lord forbid that that someone isn't necessarily the race that usually plays the part.

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 8:26am

What did I just say?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 1:20pm

FENCHURCH!

THIS THREAD WAS SO LOST WITHOUT HIM.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 1:26pm

AnnaK<3LMIP: When I saw The Lion King tour, there were a few white actors.

Reminds me, a local high school that supports color-blind casting and doesn't have many Asians in its drama program is going to put on Miss Saigon. Sorry, but I think that a mostly white cast of MS would not work. Ugh...

[Ryan2]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 1:31pm

All Black Follies I'm sorry to be wouldn't be right.

The story is about these grand ladies who were ex-stars of big shows...around probably the 30s/40s maybe 50s ... therefor it wouldnt be fitting given the social/historical context.

You cant re-write history and past affairs, and you have to stay true to the script and how, in certain shows, historical background from when they are set.

Posted: 6/23/07 at 2:02pm

Au contraire, Ryan. In addition to all black revues and shows, there was massively popular black Vaudeville, Broadway and burlesque preformers-- Ethel Waters comes to mind immediately.

It would be fascinating to hear an "Ethel Waters" character sing "I'm Still Here" but I'd hope Sondheim would make it more specific to a black performer of the era. Not for any "racist" reason, but that character would have a lot more trials to survive.

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 2:42pm

EdmundOG it is not a lame argument it is the argument. Most musical theater takes places in a heightened sense of reality. Race in 95% of shows should not matter, unless it is dealing with a specifically with race issues or is biographical.

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 3:18pm

"The story is about these grand ladies who were ex-stars of big shows...around probably the 30s/40s maybe 50s ... therefor it wouldnt be fitting given the social/historical context."

Tell that to Lena Horne, Pearl Bailey, Eartha Kitt, Dorothy Dandridge, Ruby Dee, Josephine Baker, Diane Carroll, Bessie Smith, Marian Anderson, Ethel Waters, Katherine Dunham......

All these women are considered "grand ladies"

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 3:19pm

"It would be fascinating to hear an "Ethel Waters" character sing "I'm Still Here" but I'd hope Sondheim would make it more specific to a black performer of the era. Not for any "racist" reason, but that character would have a lot more trials to survive."

Eartha Kitt has done the song.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 3:31pm

The people who argue for racial purity on stage never seem to mind when Kismet is cast with the most lily white of actors. Why is that?

I posit that we white people think we are the "normal" race and all other races are some odd mutation. We white people are pure and everyone else is some weird contaminated variation.

So we don't feel the slightest twinge when we see other races played by white people.. but the other way around and we get all annoyed and start screaming "historical accuracy!"

Unless the drama of the show comes from race issues..then for the most part, color-blind casting is not a problem. And if we want theatre to remind us of our common humanity -which is what good theatre does - than we should welcome to chance test our racial assumptions and broaden our suspencion of disbelief.

Updated On: 6/23/07 at 03:31 PM

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 6/23/07 at 3:37pm

^^^ Well Put. Like those Nordic looking egyptians in Aida. I always thought that show was about region and not race anyway so that wasn't even a big deal. It really never is, but it is odd nobody said that show was not accurate.

Updated On: 6/24/07 at 03:37 PM

[seahag2]

Posted: 3/15/15 at 2:19am

edit: this was it's own thread before i just moved it to another board

Today I came across a local production of In the Heights with a number of white people casted. While this turned me off, it wasn't surprising (we see it all the time with West Side Story, Evita, Miss Saigon etc). What I found very disturbing was that they had 'cast spray tanning sessions' to help out the those ...hm....lacking in melanin.

It also reminded me of the all-white children cast putting on Hairspray a few years back.

I've heard the argument that it's all acting and you're supposed to believe in the actor's ability to portray the race even if they don't look it (or in some cases, aren't even the race in question). Sometimes it's passing....and sometimes, no matter how talented, I just can't believe in a White Motormouth Maybelle.


all white hairspray