....in the best possible way.
The harshness of the phrase succinctly communicates the pain in Cable's heart. Much as he wishes it wasn't so, he harbours these prejudices and judgements in him. As we all do, especially those of us brought up in a time where they were casually thrown around, often without any conscious malice.
It's one of the brilliant aspects of R&H's show (and Micheneer's original book) to have an admitted racist as your heroine. And to cast Broadway's sweetheart in the role. The audience would have identified very closely to Nellie's predicament and probably shared the same misgivings and, hopefully, would have left the theatre questioning the lessons they'd been carefully taught. |
