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Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Sierra Boggess Withdraws From WEST SIDE STORY Concert Following Backlash
www.broadwayworld.com: Last week it had been announced that Broadway and West End star, Sierra Boggess, had been cast as Maria in an upcoming concert version of the classic musical West Side Story presented as part of the Proms 2018 concert series at London's Royal Albert Hall.
Well this a mess.... once again. I really don't understand why she was cast in the first place, especially in this age of political correctness, it just seems like bad producing to even consider someone that is white in a role that is clearly for a Latina woman. This role in particular also holds a very negative connotation for constantly being played by a white woman up until a couple of years ago. In high school theatre its one thing, they may not have any Latina actress' to choose from, which just means that they shouldn't be doing the show, but that's a separate discussion, but this is the West End- I expect more. I do appreciate that Boggess commented candidly on the topic and made it a point to say this is in fact a race issue. In the future, I really hope this problem ceases to exist because it just furthers the problem after all the progress has been made.
Yet again another article on the fact that an actor was cast in role not meant to be played by them. When will producers and executives know this is not okay? I do understand how sierra said that since this was a concert she was just giving a voice to the score and not to the character. She did apologize and I do think she did not understand how this could come off as a bad thing However, they could have cast anyone else in the role to not have this problem. I do not understand how in 2018 we keep having these problems. And the only reason that things get changed is when there is some huge twitter backlash and than the actor withdraws. Why could they not have just given the role to the person of the right race to portray the character? In the future I hope this stops happening and casting is done right and fair
2 comments:
Well this a mess.... once again. I really don't understand why she was cast in the first place, especially in this age of political correctness, it just seems like bad producing to even consider someone that is white in a role that is clearly for a Latina woman. This role in particular also holds a very negative connotation for constantly being played by a white woman up until a couple of years ago. In high school theatre its one thing, they may not have any Latina actress' to choose from, which just means that they shouldn't be doing the show, but that's a separate discussion, but this is the West End- I expect more. I do appreciate that Boggess commented candidly on the topic and made it a point to say this is in fact a race issue. In the future, I really hope this problem ceases to exist because it just furthers the problem after all the progress has been made.
Yet again another article on the fact that an actor was cast in role not meant to be played by them. When will producers and executives know this is not okay? I do understand how sierra said that since this was a concert she was just giving a voice to the score and not to the character. She did apologize and I do think she did not understand how this could come off as a bad thing However, they could have cast anyone else in the role to not have this problem. I do not understand how in 2018 we keep having these problems. And the only reason that things get changed is when there is some huge twitter backlash and than the actor withdraws. Why could they not have just given the role to the person of the right race to portray the character? In the future I hope this stops happening and casting is done right and fair
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