#101
Posted: 10/27/03 at 11:12pm
nyunique
i agree with you that flower drum song would be very unual with someone other than a chinese person playing a principal role. There are a few examples of musicals or plays that are particularly sensitive to race. Yet i see nothing wrong with a black actor playing a jew in nazi germany. It is only his color that you must get around. Many of the people selected to play jews in shindler's list were not jewish but their skin color was white so it didn't matter. now in the movies it is unheard of to not cast to type so i only use shindler's list to illustrate the horrible limitations facing a person who may have talent but who's skin is not white. a thousand more roles are written for white actors. Your observation on Flower Drum song is insightful, yet consider that once a musical or play is no longer NEW. anyone should be given a license to interpret a role even a chinese role where the shape of the eyes is the determining factor less than skin color. Many asian actors in Miss Sigon were not vietnamese but their eyes looked right. when the show was NEW asian actors were offended that a white actor was selected over an asian one to play a lead role. They protested because the show was NEW. now if there was a revival the protest would be less vocal. Likewise when dreamgirls was NEW black actors would have protested efie not being black if that's how she was written BECAUSE very few major new musicals are written that give blacks leading roles so when they do come along blacks want them FIRST. but in revival it would be perfectly acceptable and encouraged to cast nontraditionally in order to give the show a twist... ie. A fat white effie as long as she could sing the demanding songs or a japanese effie... if she could make the audience cheer when she sings the soulful songs. Please consider this. my motivation for taking so much time to explore these important questions of race and casting stem from a deep wish that talent be promoted over silly differences between us like color or eye shape or other characteristics that are unchangeable. Curiously, a white actor can wear prosthetics to change the shape of his eyes but an asian actor cant go back the other way. also a white actor can wear black paint to play othello and often did.
i agree with you that flower drum song would be very unual with someone other than a chinese person playing a principal role. There are a few examples of musicals or plays that are particularly sensitive to race. Yet i see nothing wrong with a black actor playing a jew in nazi germany. It is only his color that you must get around. Many of the people selected to play jews in shindler's list were not jewish but their skin color was white so it didn't matter. now in the movies it is unheard of to not cast to type so i only use shindler's list to illustrate the horrible limitations facing a person who may have talent but who's skin is not white. a thousand more roles are written for white actors. Your observation on Flower Drum song is insightful, yet consider that once a musical or play is no longer NEW. anyone should be given a license to interpret a role even a chinese role where the shape of the eyes is the determining factor less than skin color. Many asian actors in Miss Sigon were not vietnamese but their eyes looked right. when the show was NEW asian actors were offended that a white actor was selected over an asian one to play a lead role. They protested because the show was NEW. now if there was a revival the protest would be less vocal. Likewise when dreamgirls was NEW black actors would have protested efie not being black if that's how she was written BECAUSE very few major new musicals are written that give blacks leading roles so when they do come along blacks want them FIRST. but in revival it would be perfectly acceptable and encouraged to cast nontraditionally in order to give the show a twist... ie. A fat white effie as long as she could sing the demanding songs or a japanese effie... if she could make the audience cheer when she sings the soulful songs. Please consider this. my motivation for taking so much time to explore these important questions of race and casting stem from a deep wish that talent be promoted over silly differences between us like color or eye shape or other characteristics that are unchangeable. Curiously, a white actor can wear prosthetics to change the shape of his eyes but an asian actor cant go back the other way. also a white actor can wear black paint to play othello and often did.
orphan
