#TonysSoWhite ?

Curious as to why there isn't such a backlash this year as to the lack of diversity. I've seen a couple articles that have pointed this out so far



https://www.forbes.com/sites/leeseymour/2016/04/04/the-tonys-are-just-as-white-as-the-oscars-here-are-the-tonyssowhite-statistics/amp/

Updated On: 6/12/17 at 07:45 PM

I've seen plenty of backlash and I think it's mostly ridiculous. If you look at the nominees rather than the tiny number of winners, theres plenty of diversity. The musicals still have a ways to go, but Great Comet was the most diverse and the most nominated show of the season. Come From Away was much less diverse but still confronts minority related issues. As far as the plays, nearly every single best play nominee was diverse, related to minorities, or featured color blind casting. I can only think of 2 plays at all this season at all that aren't diverse. Just because you don't care about it, doesn't mean it isn't there.

Here we go again. Did you notice how many non-white actors were nominated this year? Are the Tony voters required to vote quotas now instead of talent, although in general nominations based upon talent is a whole other thread. I mean for example: a Tony voter is to take into account that they voted for a non-white featured actor in a play, so it's safe to vote for the white actress in a leading role in a musical? Next it will be that we get rid of the gender actory requirements altogther and just for the he/she/they/it/hirs and if we don't this will prove that we are prejudice and depriving people of the fluid or pan or trans persuastion of their opportunities to get a Tony, especially if they don't feel male or female identified that season. In fact, why don't we just give everyone a Tony that appeared on broadway during the year so that everyone will feel special and equal and not traumatized that someone recieved an award and they did not. Nothing like beating the dead horse again, and again, and yet again.

I apologize - I thought the article was from this year. A friend forwarded it to me when discussing the topic. But I still think it stands, especially in relation to last year.

This year felt like a mixed bag- a fair amount of shows, like Comet, Groundhog Day, and Come From Away, did feature diverse cats (with CFA also displaying some sorely-needed body diversity), but that was barely represented in this year's nominees and even less so in the winners. It felt a little embarrassing that the closest representation POC got onscreen (aside from Mimi Lien and Alex Lacamoire's offscreen wins) was for Jitney, where the award was accepted by a white person. I don't think it was a disaster of a year, but Broadway still obviously has a long way to go in terms of diverse casting and representation, just like pretty much every other type of media.

I think that some of it is a numbers game. In a given year only a handfull of shows get the buzz and dominate the awards. Last year it was Hamilton and The colour purple which happened to have diverse casting while this year it was Caucasian heavy DEH and Dolly.

The Tony nominators/voters can't help who the audience and critics gravitate to.

It's a shame that Miss Saigon, a POC heavy cast, was badly reviewed so didn't produce as many Tony nominees as it could of.

I think a major point here in terms of the general oscars vs. tonys has to be recognized. There are around 400 movies eligible for oscars each year and therefore the selection of nominated films is significantly more arbitrary than the tonys. Statistically because there are so many films it should'nt be heard to have a diverse group of nominated actors and films. Being that the Tonys pick from a much smaller pool there is going to be greater variation from season to season in terms of what stories are recognized. Color Purple and Hamilton in the same season was a nice coincidence but there are enough movies like that every year. Hope that made sense.

I'm sorry, is there a quota system of which I am not aware? Please let me know what numbers we are trying to hit so I can weigh in on how Broadway is doing.

Or if people have stories of personal experiences of racism influencing creative decisions on Broadway, that would be interesting too.

But talking about a hashtag with nothing behind it is kind of boring.

CallMeAl2 said: "I'm sorry, is there a quota system of which I am not aware? Please let me know what numbers we are trying to hit so I can weigh in on how Broadway is doing.

Or if people have stories of personal experiences of racism influencing creative decisions on Broadway, that would be interesting too.

But talking about a hashtag with nothing behind it is kind of boring.



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Exactly. We can't just look at a bunch of white people being nominated or winning and shout RACISM RACIAM RACISM. What we need to understand is the systems, processes and behaviours that are leading to this. Are people being actively discriminated against when it comes to being cast in shows and/or when awards seasons come around (if so, who and how and why?), are shows being written with not enough roles for POC (and if so, why?), what is the demographic prevalence of POC actors compared to the general population? (E.g., are there more or less POC interested in persuing this career).

There are probably many many reasons why there are less POC winning or being nominated for awards. Some because of racism but others because of benign reasons. It would be good to understand where exactly the apparent racism is - without any evidence I'd guess discrimination is occurring not at the Tony/awards level but at the initial writing and casting level where people don't 'see' in their vision POC playing certain roles, even if there is no reason they could not. I don't blame the Tony Awards for this.

Updated On: 6/12/17 at 10:15 PM

Ok well let's look at Dolly for example. Do we know that they had more talented POC to choose from but still went with a white actor? I mean I guess we can't know for sure but if we look at the leads one by one and consider what they bring to the show - it is reasonable to think in my opinion that they genuinely did not have a better option. Bette, Kate, Gavin, David in particular are all turning out top-tier performances. I would not be surprised if they were simply the best choices.

qolbinau said: "Ok well let's look at Dolly for example. Do we know that they had more talented POC to choose from but still went with a white actor? I mean I guess we can't know for sure but if we look at the leads one by one and consider what they bring to the show - it is reasonable to think in my opinion that they genuinely did not have a better option. Bette, Kate, Gavin, David in particular are all turning out top-tier performances. I would not be surprised if they were simply the best choices.



qolbinau, I agree with you.



You mention 'white actor' in Hello Dolly. How about an actor named White http://www.playbill.com/article/bette-midler-gives-final-bow-in-hello-dolly-to-understudy-christian-dante-white

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HeyMrMusic said: "Yes, that is true, but also how many opportunities have Bette, David, Kate, and Gavin had to finally arrive at this moment in this production and two of them finally get career Tonys? How many chances will Eva Noblezada have to have the same success, the same room to grow and finally land a plum role to win a Tony? Even after Lea Salonga won the Tony for Miss Saigon, she never got a role worthy of her talents ever again because she was never really considered for one because of her race.

What about her roles in Les Mis? She played both Eponine and Fantine. Granted, they are smaller but I think they were definitely roles worthy of her talents and she got to perform a couple of the most iconic songs in the show, in my opinion. I actually first became aware of her when I was a teenager because of Les Mis. I saw her on a talk show once performing On My Own and was blown away by her voice.

But as for the rest of your points, I agree. POC should definitely be considered for roles of normal people.

Lea originated roles in Flower Drum Song and Allegiance, productions arguably not worthy of her talent and only about Asian struggles, none even her own nationality.