Why Colorblind Casting Can’t Save the Classic Musical

[Robbie2]

Posted: 9/14/21 at 9:05pm

You can’t pick and choose which parts to celebrate and which to sweep under the rug.

Interesting but true!

https://slate.com/culture/2021/09/schmigadoon-musicals-broadway-color-blind-casting.html

[edmundog2]

Posted: 9/15/21 at 6:45pm

An interesting read, and not unjustified, but it was an odd choice to base it around Schmigadoon, since they make a bunch of basic errors about the show, which makes their premise seem more unfounded than it is.

[BWAY Baby2]

Posted: 9/15/21 at 6:59pm

All seven new plays debuting on Broadway this fall were written by Black playwrights. -----and still complaining?  

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 9/15/21 at 7:42pm

BWAY Baby2 said: "All seven new plays debuting on Broadway this fall were written by Black playwrights. -----and still complaining?"

I think what the article is going for is that straight plays on Broadway are willing to do the work to make sure marginalized voices are heard, and that it's time for musical theatre to catch up.

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 9/18/21 at 11:52pm

Alex Kulak2 said: "BWAY Baby2 said: "All seven new plays debuting on Broadway this fall were written by Black playwrights. -----and still complaining?"

I think what the article is going for is that straight plays on Broadway are willing to do the work to make sure marginalized voices are heard, and that it's time for musical theatre to catch up."

No, it's not. 

It's saying that works of theater from the American past need to be engaged wiith honestly including what contemporary audiences might see as their racism and sexism rather than airbrushing them to make them comfortable and profitable for contempoary audiences. 

 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/19/21 at 12:05am

or we can just stop doing the (not all that comfortable or profitable) classic musicals altogether and start enjoying the bountiful harvest of new musicals that will be only too happy to fill the void. 

[Owen22]

Posted: 9/19/21 at 7:05am

HogansHero said: "or we can just stop doing the (not all that comfortable or profitable) classic musicals altogether and start enjoying the bountiful harvest of new musicals that will be only too happy to fill the void."

Oh, if there only WERE a bountiful harvest of new musicals...

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/19/21 at 9:16am

Owen22 said: "Oh, if there only WERE a bountiful harvest of new musicals..."

Oh, there is. If only nostalgia wouldn't keep rearing its ugly head.

[binau]

Posted: 9/19/21 at 9:26am

I just found the article claim that "Schmigadoon! makes a halfhearted attempt to go the way of the Oklahoma! revival"  to be a very bizarre comparison...they couldn't have had more different intentions. 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 9/20/21 at 11:01pm

No one is going to walk away from "Ol' Man River," or "Some Enchanted Evening" or the Bench Scene. These have attained the status of great and timeless art. Would that Grand Opera could leave Carmen on the shelf a bit more, although it does contain some nice tunes.

The recent disappointing runs of Carousel and My Fair Lady may point to fewer revivals of the classics. When they are revived, bury the angst and just present them as a product of the times in which they were written. Anyone offended has my permission to stay home.

And we can go forward with so many new shows with such diversity in those playing the cast and being the creatives. (Although I do sometimes wonder at all those Jewish composers deposited on a few square miles about Manhattan within a period of about 30 years. Perhaps they were meant to be special.)