The Debate Over Colorblind Casting Isn’t Settled After All

[macbeth]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 4:09pm

NY Times Link

Jesse Green's first 'essay' since being pushed out of the critic's seat takes on quite a topic. 

A Black Hedda Gabler on film and a white Korean robot onstage are sending mixed signals about the status of cultural diversity and representation.

[Kad]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 4:52pm

Kind of a pretty thin piece, to be honest. Considering the topic- and the fact that it’s centered on two controversies that have mostly blown over- I was expecting something more than rehashing.

Updated On: 11/19/25 at 04:52 PM

[witchoftheeast2]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 5:05pm

Hamilton: School Edition was announced and people are already up in arms about casts being only white people. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 7:28pm

Do we expect a school version of Hamilton to uphold the racial point of view or just put on the show that kids want to do? It's like when they super watered down Rent. It's not really the POINT the original writers were making but it's just a fun show for kids, so it's kind of a shrug for me. 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 7:37pm

witchoftheeast2 said: "Hamilton: School Edition was announced and people are already up in arms about casts being only white people."

Here's the thing: The kind of middle/high schools that can put on a show like Hamilton will have money. Typically, those schools are more suburban and lean heavily white. Just like In The Heights, Lin has explained that racial casting doesn't matter in an educational setting, and an educational setting only. So yeah, if you have two People of Color at your school who are interested in theater, the rest of the cast will be white. Not as bad as some other shows, but not great.

My suburban high school did a production of The Wiz with all white people and one Asian kid. It was so embarrassing.

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 7:56pm

"Here's the thing: The kind of middle/high schools that can put on a show like Hamilton will have money. Typically, those schools are more suburban and lean heavily white."

Aside from the revolve, Hamilton has almost no set on Broadway. I'm not sure what would prevent an extremely barebones staging. I don't think you even need period costumes.  

 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 8:09pm

I was referring more towards the license and royalty fees to perform it.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 9:27pm

Kad said: "Kind of a pretty thin piece, to be honest. Considering the topic- and the fact that it’s centered on two controversies that have mostly blown over- I was expecting something more than rehashing."

I've had this problem with a number of Jesse's "essays" lately (like the recent one about how composer bio pics in the 1940s used to not be very factual.  Really?)

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 11/19/25 at 10:20pm

Comparing Nia DaCosta’s Hedda, where she adapts the Ibsen story to a different medium and makes significant changes to the story, to Maybe Happy Ending, where literally all that changed was the race of an actor is kind of ridiculous. 

Also, I get DaCosta declined to talk to Jesse Green for the story, but I was at a Q&A where she was very directly talking about race.  Green is factually wrong that race is never directly addressed in Hedda. There's a point where Hedda's ex girlfriend (another change to the story), lists Hedda's husband being "white and thoroughly middle class" as reasons he and Hedda are incompatible. Later, Hedda explains she couldn't be a professor because there are only two female professors at the local school and they're both white.    

DaCosta’s understanding of why Hedda's is so desperate and resentful centers on her being a Black woman in the 1950s and it is in the script.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/20/25 at 6:41am

Thanks for that.  I haven't seen Hedda yet, but that seemed really odd to me because even in the trailers it seemed apparent this wasn't just an example of colourblind casting where we weren't meant to see that Hedda was played by a black actor. 

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 11/20/25 at 7:14am

Kad said: "Kind of a pretty thin piece, to be honest. Considering the topic- and the fact that it’s centered on two controversies that have mostly blown over- I was expecting something more than rehashing."

Yeah, Green’s reviews and essays - at least since joining theNYT - have shown him to be a light weight. 
 

The article states:  “And what also grates is the fact that they only do this to Asian characters,” he added. “You would never see Coalhouse Walker” — the Black lead in “Ragtime” — “replaced on Broadway with a white guy.”

This is such a silly comparison but Green blithely fails to address.