Broadway has gone nuts. There of course is nothing wrong with using people of different race/sex/whatever to play characters. That’s part of “acting”.
But the musical “THe Great Comet” was just cancelled because, after the director tried to replace a black guy playing a russian character with the award-winning Mandy Potenkin, the race warriors threw a fit, Mandy dropped out, the sales dried up, the black actor quit anyway, and now the show is cancelled, and all the minorities playing other white russian characters are out of work.
Which seems to suit the SJW folks, because it’s not about employing minorities, it’s about being outraged if you try to replace a minority with a white person.
Of course, what is likely now is that black actor will never get hired, because who wants to hire someone who, if you try to replace them later, can get your show cancelled.
Meanwhile, shows like Dear White Bread (Dear Evan Hanson) win awards, and are left alone because they didn’t make the mistake of hiring a black person for a role they later had to change out.
That Great Comet story was ridiculous, especially since Josh Groban originated the role. I read on the Broadway World forum that the black actor who replaced Groban came to work unprepared, and was very difficult to work with. Now all of these actors are out of work. What a mess.