Audiences tend to be predominately white when the work on stage tends to be predominately white, the production has not made efforts to engage with non-white communities, and ticket prices are too damn high. The "artistic control" you prize goes hand in hand with lack of diversity on stage and in the audience.
That said, Rudin's brand is White People Theater (Highbrow and/or Populist), so I wouldn't look to him to bring in diverse production teams or even cast Black, Latinx, and other BIPOC artists in prominent roles in his musicals. So I wouldn't look to him to provide a path forward, and I can imagine a lot of people right now (predominately white) could use a nice piece of Nostalgia Pie, which "Our Town" delivers (though I think it's a much darker and cynical play than tends to be acknowledged). |
