Was Kristolyn Lloyd making a dig towards DEH? — Page 2

MEAN GIRLS

Rainah said: "But Dear Evan Hansen? Hello Dolly? Next to Normal? Chicago, MFL, Phantom, Waitress, Wicked? So many shows are all white and shouldn't be. MANY of them have casting notices that don't even allow non-white actors to audition."

I don't want to seem like I'm denying any problem, but a lot of those shows have done well at diverse casting in recent years (although there is definitely room for improvement!). N2N ran for a little under two years and had their original cast there for most of it. While it was all-white, they didn't have many cast turnovers to bring POC in. Also Hello Dolly hasn't been running for very long either, therefore having a similar issue. I completely agree that POC need to be included more and I hope a show like Hello Dolly really makes more of an effort in their future replacement casting.

Also, fact check: at least in recent years, literally none of those shows have asked for white people only except for Glinda in Wicked. While they may have issues with POC, saying they don't even let POC audition isn't actually correct.

Just saying there's no reason the families in DEH can't be mixed race giving us an ethnic Evan Hansen. But it will never happen. They'll keep churning out the dorky white guys.

qolbinau said: "I doubt it’s a dig at a specific show - maybe the culture of casting in general. But sad for her to think she might have been cast for token ‘diversity’ (or racial diversity* more specifically - I want to continue to challenge the notion that diversity is just skin-deep). Maybe she was cast because she was the best person for the role? At least, I hope so.

Unfortunately, we all have to call BULL and SHIIIII. That show was in DC with an all white cast. People were throwing around the name, "Dear Evan Hansen: A New American Musical." When they opened that show, they had EVERY intention of bringing that EXACT cast to Broadway. The show opened, and suddenly people are writing the Washington Post PISSED that a "new american musical" has cast only white people....

Those WHITE producers looked at that cast and said, "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe, One of you White people has to go! Lets cast a random Black girl in that little role" Then they climbed back out of the whole they were hiding in and said, "See!!! We filled our diversity quote! Is everybody happy? Please don't boycott us!!!"

It's show BUSINESS! They didn't re-write a single line of that character to showcase a Black girls POV or sensibilities in 2016. THEY DONT CARE. UGH!!!!!

Jared is specifically written to be a white jewish boy from the suburbs. Not a great example there. But yes, Evan could be POC - that's fine. Hopefully they eventually make it so.

Stereotypes exist because they're partially true, whether it's politically correct or not.

Liza's Headband said: "Stereotypes exist because they're partially true, whether it's politically correct or not."

I don’t think we want to dive too deeply into the discussion of what you just said...

qolbinau said: "I am directly responding to a post in this very thread that claimed Evan has to be an attractive, white skinny male for the show to work. "

This also matters less. You said the show could work without an attractive Evan because it has, which is a) a matter of opinion and b) not what we’re discussing.

qolbinau said: "I am directly responding to a post in this very thread that claimed Evan has to be an attractive, white skinny male for the show to work. "

I haven't seen any Evan that was mildly attractive, despite being white. There's no excuse NOT to have a POC Evan.