| re: Drinks with two Great Comet cast members | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 04:32 pm EDT 08/06/17 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 04:23 pm EDT 08/06/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Drinks with two Great Comet cast members - ryhog 12:27 pm EDT 08/06/17 | |
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| But sadly for this production, with the issue of race and racism, mixing with social media outrage, it is not as simple as "let's just ask the question" or whatever -- once it's out there, even if not an outright accusation at first, you can't put it back in the can, and people take it and run with it... there is just so much kindling and dry debris at the floor of this cultural forest, if you don't want to start a fire (and have the results that come from fire) you have to be careful not to light a match. And no I'm not at all saying to silence people trying to stop casual or systemic racism... I'm saying I legitimately do not think it was the cause here nor was it present enough in any conceivably provable or even visible way to make this situation an example of it, but it was made an example anyway and it's now suffering the unearned consequences. It's kind of amazing... something like Game of Thrones, one of the whitest shows on TV, is HBO's highest rated show by far, and the only black people in it are castrated slaves freed by a blonde white woman, and outside of that everyone is white except for a couple of non-white actors playing people in Dorne and ethnically ambiguous people playing the Dothraki (a race of people generally seen as dumber, more animalistic, and more tribal but not in a way that is admired or celebrated)... why? This is a fantasy show, with very little to do with race as seen through skin color. And why is it so okay? Why do I hardly ever see the show getting backlash or think pieces about it? But this very diverse Broadway show gives a very unknown (relative to actual realistic name-stars) young black actor a shot at a lead role, which he's never had before, on Broadway, following a major international and now Tony nominated white star who opened in the role and playing opposite the similar no-name and inexperienced black female star (who was that with the white mega star (Groban))... and then sales plummet and his contract is paid out for his final 3 weeks so a much much bigger star who is the rare still-living theater legend with a household name can step in and try to save the box office... and that is called racism and an outraged and backlash spread to the point where the show is stigmatized and in all likelihood no other name actor or singer will dare step into the mess, and the show will close. I just don't think it's fair, even if you acknowledge that probably some amount of systemic racism played into the handling of the situation even if unintentional (which I have every reason it was, and had entirely to do with his level of experience and fame (and that if they treat actors like that the only ones they wouldn't would be more famous actors - i have no reason to assume that particular thing but no one else has reason to assume they treated Oak the way they did because of his race), which is the reason I think all of this happened in the first place). |
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