Thoroughly Modern Millie -- Casting Non-Asians — Page 2

here's hoping for an all caucasian high school production of the color purple! "helllll no!!!"

My production (which was just students) had two Caucasians as Bun Foo and Ching Ho and it just made it funnier. They had extra work to do to nail the accent but it worked fine, they just wore wigs and used special make up,

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Well Patash, I just played Ching Ho in a very well reviewed, very well received production and Im about as pale, blond and practically Aryan as one can get. We also cast a girl (also caucasian) as Bun Foo. As long as the actors playing the roles adhere to the dialect, and lines as written and play the characters as genuine, the contrast to Mrs. Meers' parody is just as affective. In answer to your question, the audience will go along with you as long you sell it properly.

And to be honest, it's not called Thoroughly Modern Chinese people. It's Millie's story...everyone else is just there to help her tell it.

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I really don't think this is a good idea. Ching Ho and Bun Foo are clearly written as Chinese-Americans. I can only imagine the uproar if there was a question of casting a character that was clearly written as African-American such as Trevor Graydon's African American manservant (if there were one). People would be appalled if there were suggestions to make up a Caucasian actor in blackface and have him adopt an "African-American" accent. I still cringe everytime I see Mickey Rooney as the landlord in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

I think part of the problem is that pieces that TMM are playing on the stereotypes that were exploited by Hollywood for so many years. It's one thing to include Asian-Americans on the joke, but when you start having white actors playing these characters, I do think it becomes very uncomfortable.

eatlasagna, now you've confused me. If I'm reading your post right, you seem to be saying it's GREAT for minorities to play white people, but it's not OK for white people to play minorities. I guess I don't get why that is true. Of course I'm not talking about roles that minorities play that are just "people" and what race the character is makes no difference -- but where a character clearly by history or by story or by relationship with other characters IS white. I saw a bizarre production of West Side Story at Stratford, Ontario with an Asian Maria. Somehow it just didn't make sense in a play that is totally about Puerto Ricans and Americans.

I have to be honest with you, those roles are not good roles, Asian or not. I mean... I would love to see an Asian male playing one of the better roles in Millie, like Jimmy or Graydon. I feel like this would be typecasting in the sense that whoever was Asian would automatically be assumed to play those roles. While I understand where it's coming from, it's not the typecasting advantageous to the Asian male in my opinion. The roles are not major characters, not great singing parts/acting parts. They sing in "Chinese" and with accents. I personally think the roles themselves are offensive. Honestly, I think the musical is rather offensive. Mind you, I used to love this show... and I still love some of the songs in the show and they are great to sing. Great tap dancing numbers, really fun to watch, but I think the overall concept with the fake Chinese hotel lady with an accent and the two Chinese boys who are 'slaves' of hers is offensive.

The truth of it is, eatlasagna, in my opinion, anyway, that it shouldn't make a rat's ass difference what your race is unless there is a specific reason in the show that it would not be right for someone of a certain race to be cast in the role. People try to dance around it and have different viewpoints to be sensitive and fair, just like in any working environment. That frustrates me, because if we are really in a society where races are equal, then it just SHOULD NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE, period. Why should it even be an issue? It only becomes one when it is treated as such.

" have to be honest with you, those roles are not good roles, Asian or not. I mean... I would love to see an Asian male playing one of the better roles in Millie, like Jimmy or Graydon. I feel like this would be typecasting in the sense that whoever was Asian would automatically be assumed to play those roles. While I understand where it's coming from, it's not the typecasting advantageous to the Asian male in my opinion. The roles are not major characters, not great singing parts/acting parts."

Not meaty roles, but definitely not any less substantial acting-wise and comedy-wise than cardboard cut-outs like Jimmy or Graydon. Ching Ho was one of the most fun roles I've had.

I'm also getting the vibe in this thread that people keep saying that it is offensive because they are supposed to be offensive. If the characters offend you, can someone please WHY they are offensive? Not WHAT is offensive, since people keep saying that the characters and their situation is, but I honestly don't understand WHY that should offend.

I worked on a production with two white brothers and one asian - they did eye make up on the two non asian ones and put them in this sort of outfit + wig and called it a day.

Actually Patash I perfectly understand this fact considering I was Mrs.Meers in the production I just finished, and if you read my earlier post I also stated that I understood it does take away from the joke. The King and I may not be a perfect example, but in either show you're going to have to pretend, whether it be a full cast or two actors (unless of course you find the correct race or ethnicity for the role). What I'm trying to say is that while Ching Ho and Bun Foo are indeed supposed to be asian, the contrast between Mrs.Meers and the two of them is quite great. It's very evident that Meers isn't really an asian woman, she reveals her true identity in the first scene. I know you're having difficulty with the choice of casting white males, but it's not the first time it's happened and it won't be the last.

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As an asian actor, I find this very offensive. When we did millie, we made sure that we had two clearly asian actors. Although it's ok for Mrs. Meers to be white, it's inexcusable for the brothers to be non asian. If you don't have the ethnicities to do the show. Don't do it. It's like Ragtime with a all white cast, or Kim played by a white girl, I just think that it's wrong. Period. As an asian actor, I've really only been cast as my race once, and that was as the Interpretor in The King And I, the director tried her darndest to get as many asians involved as she could. Luckily the King was asian. This raises another point, since the King And I is done so often, is it morally accepted that the King (along with the Kralahome, Lun Tha, Tuptim, and others) be played by caucasion people?

"Your ignorance is just unbelievable. You don't understand why it would be offensive? When people comically portray a specific group of people by using a stereotype, it's offensive obviously to the group that is being made fun of.

I think it's even more terribly offensive to see white actors performing those two roles with thick Chinese accent. But if they don't have that dialect, it wouldn't make sense. Therefore in my opinion, the show shouldn't be done without 2 Asian actors.

And in this case, I think race/color does matter, just like in Ragtime, The Color Purple, or Miss Saigon. Those two characters ARE obviously Asian, no matter how small the part is. It wouldn't make sense to cast nontraditionally."

While the show takes great lengths to appear politically correct (making them doing bad things against their will, unlike the film, and making them basically end up as the heroes in the end, as LuvUrBatBoy pointed out), I still stand by my opinion that, like so many other characters in the show, Ching Ho and Bun Foo are parodies of the absurd stereotypes of the time. No group is being made fun of.

I agree that the show probably shouldn't be done with two non-Asians IF those people are available. Having to cast white kids in the roles should not stop a high school or community theater from doing this very accessable, innocuous show.

I just music directed a production where we had caucasians in the roles. It does not work. Period. The point of Mrs. Meers entire act is destroyed.

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