www.theroot.com: New York City is rejoicing! After major pandemic related setbacks, Broadway is back. And with strong attempts made to diversify its full time casts, there is additional reason to celebrate. Broadway’s longest running musical, ‘Phantom of The Opera’ has debuted its first Black actress to play the lead role of Christine Daaé.
5 comments:
I’m so happy we have our first black Christine! She is so cool!!! I’m sad but not surprised that it took so long for broadway to cast a black lead in the classic show. I think it’s so sad that Emily Kouatchou reconsidered being an actress because of how long that change has taken. It makes sense, it’s uncomfortable to be working in a space where you and your people are undervalued and underrepresented. The fact that black women have to be “10 times better and work 10 times harder” is a testament to how theatre as an industry needs to back up all the talk about inclusivity with actual action to diversify all aspects of productions, ESPECIALLY the classics. If an industry’s “classics” are a beacon of white supremacy, then the entire industry is built upon a foundation of white supremacy. If black women can only be cast in modern shows that have spots carved out for them then they are not given the same opportunities as their white/male counterparts and they need to be given access to those opportunities.
It’s extremely wonderful to see a Cristine cast as a woman of color! Emilie Kouatchou must be so proud of herself for taking on this challenging role and for the representation that she is providing to so many. Although it is still a little sad that it has taken so long, the longest running show on Broadway in fact, to cast a black woman in the lead role. Especially with this idea of an ingenue, there has historically been only one person cast to play that type of role, a skinny white woman. There is such a range of women who are perfectly able to play Christine, yet somehow everyone who has played her has looked almost exactly the same. There is still a lot of work to do with type casting like this. None the less, now young black women can see themselves being portrayed as the beautiful ingenue in Phantom.
Emilie Kouatchou has been an alternating swing on the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ cast for quite a while now. Hearing she’s been promoted to play ‘Christine’ not only feels correct but is exciting. I believe it was Brittney Johnson who “made history” as the first Glinda of color– a fact which actually received some backlash in the eyes of racist viewers (because there is no other way to put it) “Glinda has to be white.” What is perhaps most shocking is to think we are in the 21st century and a strong attempt to diversity a production is equated to casting a Black actress and/or actor. That is not to say this is not a step in the right direction. It most definitely is for while it took this long for any Black woman to play Christine, but there have been so many talented Black women who could have.
I love that Christine is officially a woman of color now. Emilie Kouatchou has been playing her as a swing however being officially cast in the role is a big deal. I am a little saddened that it took so long for a woman of color to be cast in a role that is such a classic and more importantly has existed for so long. It is definitely something to be celebrated but we should also as the question of why so long and what more can the shows do. Emilie is definitely not the first woman of color to exist that would be perfect for the role nor is she the first woman of color to probably audition for the role and be perfect for the role. I think broadway needs to continue casting people of color in such big roles especially when the roles don't demand the character to be a certain race. Performers of color are often just limited to "black roles" or "asian roles" or "latino roles" and not given the opportunity to play someone that does not surround their race. This is a good step forward and hopefully we see more of it to come.
I am OBSESSED with Emilie Kouatchou. I first heard about her entry into the Phantom cast as a swing back in October, and I remember being very impressed by the clips of her singing skills. As a long time nonwhite fan of The Phantom of the Opera, it is so refreshing and relieving to see a black woman step into such an iconic role. But it is also simultaneously incredibly dismaying how long it took for this to happen; Kouatchou herself has also expressed disappointment at the lack of diversity in leading roles for Broadway theatre and how that made her reconsider her own part in Phantom. And with Brittney Johnson being cast earlier this year as the first black Glinda for Wicked, this could hopefully be the start to some much needed changes for diversity in today’s mainstream theatre productions. I so hope to watch her perform sometime in the coming months.
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