Tuesday, April 05, 2016
The Tonys Are Just As White As The Oscars
Forbes: #TonysSoWhite might become the new social justice hashtag. In the midst of a notably diverse Broadway season, we delved into the Tony Awards database to see how they compared to Hollywood’s highest honor. The result? The Tonys and the Oscars are almost the same institution when it comes to racial diversity.
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Wow. This really, sadly, shouldn't be as surprising as it is. I always think of theater and Broadway paving the way and making strides in equality and diversity but I guess when it comes down to it, their really isn't that much of a difference. I want to think that this year will be different, surpassing statistics compared to the Oscars, but if its true, it will primarily be because of Hamilton. Not that thats a bad thing, but Hamilton was receiving a lot of mixed reviews when they did color blind casting, so any diversity that is pulled into Tony nominations took a lot of hard work, and shouldn't have been as big of a fight as it was. I think what is really important to look at when these kind of statistics are released is also the percentages of races on Broadway shows. Maybe the best step forward is to keep color out of casting performers and hiring the creative team.
Well that was upsetting. Honestly, I had never really noticed how incredibly white the Tonys were until reading this article, but now that I think about it, I can definitely see how little diversity there is at the Tony Awards. I think a lot of people do not really consider the Tonys as they do with the Oscars because the theatre community or industry is not particularly seen as a racist industry or business. A lot of great stories about race come out of theatre, and theatre in general is just often more progressive than other forms of entertainment. However, I think, when it comes down to it, the entertainment industry in general is just racist on its own. I think this year will be an outlier in the statistics, due to Hamilton and other shows with diverse casts or casts led by minorities, but in general there are just not that many roles created for people of color other than roles specific to their race for which people are typecast. Truly colorblind casting is more or less a myth, apart from Hamilton. Often, shows like the recent revival of Les Mis will have a few people of color in the ensemble or playing a role or two that is typically given to a white actor and call it colorblind casting. I think that is where a lot of the "Diverse Broadway" illusion comes from. Broadway itself is diverse, in that the ensembles are typically at least somewhat diverse. However, the leads, unless they are playing a role specific to their race or they are in Hamilton, are usually white. From there comes the issue with the Tony awards. On the creative side of the Tonys, it seems like basically everyone is white, but that is less obvious, since they are not seen by audiences, which perpetuates the "Diverse Broadway" illusion even more.
With how much concern I had over #OscarsSoWhite I never stopped to think about the theater industry's biggest awards and how those were affected as well. Something I'd also like to see in this article was a chart of data showing the last ten or twenty years of the Oscars and the Tony's and seeing how they compare in diversity to the overall chart, perhaps seeing if there was a change from the 90's forward, when more diverse musicals began appearing. It is true, that Broadway loves diversity in terms of black actors, but generally disregards roles for Asians or Latinos. Or they are usually chorus members, something not rewarded by the Tony's. Like, when I saw last year's Honeymoon in Vegas, the 4 title characters were white, with several other races simply in the background. I think that's the big issue. Of course movies, and shows, like Hamilton and Star Wars, show that it's a financial and critical success to have diversity in casting, but it's still prevelant that leads be played by white people. THis is probably a producer or casting director's thought to draw in the crowds of old white people that generally go see theater. But, again as we can see, that's changing and as we get a newer, younger and more diverse audience, casting will change, too.
This article makes me really upset. I have always tried to think that the theatre world was better than to be so homogeneous in the nominees and winners of the Tony’s. I know that times are different now than when the Tony’s started in 1943, but that does not excuse the lack of diversity. I think a worrying statistic is how few Asians have won a Tony. The fact that only ten have won is just completely staggering. I really hope that this season on Broadway is in fact a turning point for theatre and the entire entertainment industry. The shows mentioned in the article, Hamilton, The Color Purple, and Eclipsed, all show that their is hope for Broadway, even though it is probably a coincidence that all three shows appeared in the current season. That is not to discredit the step forward however, as any coincidence can be a positive sign for the future.
The #OscarsSoWhite movement was essential in calling out the movie industry for their lack of diversity, but I do think that they left all other areas of entertainment in the dust. With the popularity of shows that are diverse people seem to forget that this is definitely not a typical Broadway season. I think that one of the best points that this author raises is that "celebrating this season’s diversity doesn’t resolve Broadway’s issues – it underscores them". Shows like Hamilton and Eclipsed have been hugely successful at promoting diversity in theatre, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there has been all that significant of a change. However, if more shows like this are consistently produced every year then maybe we'll be able to say that Broadway has really become diverse. On a positive note, we're starting to see change in this area a little closer to home. From the admitted students that we've seen the incoming freshman class of CMU actors and MTs seems to be much more diverse than any currently here. If other schools are also beginning to do this then it will ultimately really help to create real change in the theatre industry as a whole.
Again, it’s far too often for my liking that an article comes on the green page that deals with either the gender or racial inequality in the entertainment industry, but I guess at least means that we are talking about this issue instead of sitting on our asses and doing nothing about what is clearly an issue. I’m disappointed that as a society, we still don’t get the fact that everyone has something valuable to contribute to theatre, and to the conversation that theatre often starts. It’s a shame that we know how unequally the wealth of jobs is spread towards white men, and yet we do nothing or little to actually correct the issue. It’s a shame that in 2016, one of the more liberal industries is still struggling to get over issues that were the defining movements that are the trademark of 50 years ago. It’s a shame that we’re not the only ones, and that this problem extends beyond theatre, and it’s scary that some people don’t think it’s an issue.
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