First of all, the reference to "done to death" arises from the letter he received. Secondly, one casting about the word "rude" might want to consider what is going on with the use of the author's first name as if either you know him (which I doubt) or you consider yourself superior to him in some way (no comment). Finally, the reflexive turning the act under discussion on its head present additional issues that I don't think we need to address right now.
Let's take a step back. If we have lots of shows in which the absence of verisimilitude does not raise issues (and this is 99%+ of all shows), perhaps it would be good to examine, particularly in the U.S., with its race-obsessed legacy that just won't go away, if the problem is casting a black man as Tevye or some defect that prevents us from toning down our race lens. I saw a sold production of My Fair Lady not too long ago, at a high school in Westchester. Higgins was played by a 16 year old boy. No one seemed to notice. |
