Where is BLACK BROADWAY these days? — Page 4

There are no black actors in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and haven't been in a while.
What's up with that?
This is a show that should be completely colorblind because it appeals to younger audiences and they should see the world as multi racial and cultural.

I always found it inresting that a lot of the earlier "black" musicals were written by white authors, starting with PORGY AND BESS.
Comden and Green wrote HALLELUJAH BABY.
I thought the all black HELLO DOLLY was very interesting (Maybe because Pearl Bailey caught the spirit of the show.)
And Even more interesting was the multi racial PAJAMA GAME.
I agree that it was a time of the race rebellion and a lot of this was forced, but at least they were trying.

When I was young, I was first introduced to the theater world through a production of The Tap Dance Kid. I loved that show and still remember parts vividly some 20+ years later.

Black theater is/was a sign of the times.

Hippie/ free love movement brought shows like Hair, J.C.S., Company, Pippin, Godspell (Please correct me as this is all just coming from the top of my head.) Then it became black is beautiful period with The Tap Dance Kid, The Wiz, Ain't Misbehavin'...now we have the child at heart where Disney pumps out every classic they have to the stage (What will they do with The Fox & the Hound??) and the big epic musicals..Cats, Starlight Express, Phantom, Wicked..fill the stage with Iron beams and automated lighting and sets(and actresses) that fly into the rafters or float above the audience...or where the baby boomer has their nostalgic moment during every jukebox musical that comes out (Lemon, Jersey Boys, All Shook Up..) Seen a good movie lately? Maybe they'll make a musical out of it (The Wedding Singer, Sunset Blvd., High Fidelity, Steel Mag.)...thats life!

I am all for a good reemergence of black theater as long as theres an audience for it and the production is put together well.

And lastly, AndyF...there is no need to get to that point of degradation for the sole purpose of a laugh. And I say that, not as a black man..but as a HUMAN.

Does a show need to have an all-black cast to be considered a black show? Hairspray has several main characters who are black and must always be played by black actors. So did Ragtime. Do these roles not count towards "black Broadway" just because there are also white characters/actors in the same show?

I think he was trying to say that producers don't really think in those terms. But it just didn't come across that way upon the first reading. The offensive portion to me was the "negrotizing" comment. That seemed to be coming directly from him.

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I think selecting all black shows because they are all black is a step in the wrong direction. If something calls for an all black cast, that's fantastic, but that shouldn't be why it is selected...it should be because it is a good show. How would people feel about a show being labeled "all white cast?" I doubt that would go over too well. There may be some racism on the side of producers, I'm not saying there isn't. but maybe that comment about African Americans just not connecting with theatre is influencing these decisions. It's a vicious cycle...African Americans don't come to the theatre, so why choose a show geared toward their culture...even though such a show would bring them in. What do we do?

If I were an honest producer, I would research the target audience for a prospective show, and see how many of that demographic attend the theatre...If my target audience is 18-38 African American males, and they rarely attend the theatre, I'm going to think twice about investing. Producing is about money, not equality.

I say get the people in the theatre, and more shows will pop up for them.

It also gave us the all-black HELLO DOLLY, which some people, myself included, found a little distasteful because it was *imposing* a black sensibility on a work. If you think that's no big deal, imagine an August Wilson piece with an all-white cast and tell me it would have any where near the same feeling.

You really don't see the difference or are just being deliberately obtuse?

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Just a note....The Denver Center Theatre Company did an all Black version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" two seasons ago which was quite interesting. Some things took on a new meaning and it was quite powerful. It was also very well attended. But again, it still did not draw many more African Americans out to the theatre. But it did at least draw a few more. And again, it was the show we featured at our Gala Dinner. The actors have said to us year after year that they look forward to our Gala nights because that night always has the most Black audience members and they rely on the response from them during the show.

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IMO uncaged is onto something. Perhaps it can be attributed to my age, but I much prefer seeing a lily-white production of a well-written, performed and directed work on B-Way to anything from Tyler Perry and to a lesser extent, gasp...David E. Talbert. I'm going to regret this post someday because I'm trying to complete a novel which I hope to one day adapt to stage and I'm unequivocally "black".

Much of this springs from my beef with the rapper & hip-hoppers than have come on stream over the past 25 years or so and my wish to never see any of their fare on a stage anywhere. My fear is that if Broadway producers start pandering to a demographic group that simply isn't feelin' stage plays/musicals which aren't replete of minstrelsy the Great White Way will head down the same slippery slope that has the US recording industry in free-fall right now. That is, where there is simply no accounting for taste.

I'm not some hoighty-toighty prude out of touch with the times either. It's just that really good R&B with poignant lyrics & well constructed music has been displaced by hoodrats & hoochie mamas spouting drivel over beats thrown together by nob twiddlers who change their names every 3 months and put themselves out a indie record producers. R&B acts that took the time to hone their craft in recent years past can't even get a record deal these days with the premium labels.

Live theatre is still safe haven for thinking persons and those that appreciate the avant-garde both of which transcend banality. I'm had enough of the backyard BBQ/hair salon/your big mammy-themed movies that have surfaced of late featuring some rapper-turned-actor & predominately black cast. Heck yeah, I'd be pleased by more black broadway fare but not due to producers lowering the bar in terms of production values and casting/directing just to put more brown bottoms in seats.

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Updated On: 12/20/06 at 04:59 PM

French...I don't claim to hold a monopoly on truth or reason but will offer that many AfAm baby boomers find the chart-topping rap & hip-hop out there now absolutely repugnant. It is SOULLESS, misogynistic in terms of lyrics, ill-composed in terms of sonority and trite.

A few of you are going to jump all over me for this next remark, but the salvation of R&B as an art form rests clearly in the hands of sheep of another fold now like Robin Thicke & gasp...Justin Timerlake. I refuse to add Gwen Stefani to the list for a number of reasons including my opinion that 'Holla Back Girl' is the worst song every recorded on this planet. Perhaps we need another British invasion because the home team hasn't a clue any longer.

I'll spare you a treatise on the history of R&B recording. The R&B acts of only a few years back were "polished" and groomed by the label's A&R execs before they were turned loose on the public. I to this day still shake my head over a label allowing Keyshia Cole's debut album to be released with her butchering the English language on one track in which she ad libbed over and over "I shoulda just did it".

The hip-hop & rap music producers have sampled the heck out of quality R&B recordings but the end product is NOT an improvement in the estimation of many of us who span both the civil rights & hip-hip eras. The twain shall never meet I'm afraid.

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Updated On: 12/20/06 at 05:19 PM

Hey...am I am glad this tread has turned into an intelligent conversation about Blacks in theatre. A conversation that I think should be had and had honestly as a lot of you have been about the subject.

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>> You really don't see the difference or are just being deliberately obtuse?

If it makes you feel all smug to call me obtuse, go for it, bud, but the simple fact remains: take an August Wilson play, play it "white", and then tell me it's the same theatrical experience.

The all-black DOLLY? Little more than a minstrel show, something that in the 19th century would have resulted in comments like "Look at those darkies dance!" When Merrick presented it, he knew exactly what audience would come see it, and it damn sure wasnt a black one.

The truth is a painful taskmistress. Deal with it.

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Javero....Actually if that ever happened, I could see them sofening the show up just a bit and turning to a Babyface type composer for the music.

Fenchurch.....Exactly. And when I saw "The Color Purple" the audience was mostly white. Although I know it is drawing a large black audience. Most of the predominently black shows that have been on Broadway don't just attract black audiences. They have to attract more than that to be successful. (Did I say that right?!!)

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