Actors in an amateur production of Show Boat will not be treading the boards after the musical was caught up in a race row and cancelled
Posted on 10/23/2007 5:29:14 PM PDT by Stoat
An amateur dramatics group has abandoned plans to stage the musical Show Boat with blacked-up actors after a public outcry.
Organisers had claimed that heavily made-up white actors would have to be used for the production set in America's Deep South because there were no ethnic minority players in the area.
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Actors in an amateur production of Show Boat will not be treading the boards after the musical was caught up in a race row and cancelled
But after criticism that its stance was dehumanising and offensive, Grange and District Amateur Operatic Society has cancelled rehearsals and replaced the show.
Instead of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's controversial 1927 musical - with songs featuring the word n****r - it will now produce Waltzes From Vienna, a stage version of Alfred Hitchcock's 1934 film.
The society had promised to show sensitivity in the frank treatment of race issues in Show Boat and said it would use less offensive phrases such as 'coloured folk'.
But despite the town council in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, approving the use of the local theatre, opponents still called for the production to be scrapped. The Methodist church where rehearsals were to be held also came under fire.
Last night Nash Thakker, a 41-year-old regeneration manager in the nearby town of Millom, said: "I'm glad it's gone. The play itself was derogatory to black people and has no place in modern society.
"As a black person I would have found the show offensive."
The society has refused to comment on its change of heart. But at the height of the controversy the show's director Christine Bell said she would stick to her guns.
"It's ridiculous," she said. "We're a small town, there aren't any black actors here."
She claimed the blacking-up plan had the backing of the National Operatic and Dramatic Association.
Mrs Bell also told a local newspaper: "I am not a racist. It's difficult to put on any show these days without offending people."
At the national census in 2001 the population of the South Lakeland area, which includes Grangeover-Sands, was 99.2 per cent white, compared to an average across England of less than 91 per cent.
In 1999, Studley Operatic Society in Warwickshire was banned from performing Show Boat with an all-white cast after the local council ruled that blacking-up was offensive.
Well gee, the 1951 movie adaptation of it won an Oscar and was nominated for two more.
"It's ridiculous," she said. "We're a small town, there aren't any black actors here."
Rationales based upon logic and reason are irrelevant in matters of racial politics.
Here's a news flash for the Grange and District Amateur Operatic Society -- that is just as offensive.
“The play itself was derogatory to black people and has no place in modern society.”
It was a milestone in Broadway history, and the “offended” have no business censoring it.
I’m offended by lots of movies. I simply don’t go to see them.
Given the way anti-semitism is sweeping Europe these days, it's inescapable that the this relationship is far more important than the blackness or whiteness of the actors.
They’d probably still complain if they used an all-white cast without blackening any of the black characters.
“Showboat” tends to bring out the closet racists.
I bet this fool is just fine with rap music that depicts black people as greedy gangsters, whores and degenerates.
And BTW, what the hell is a "regeneration manager" anyway? That sounds like a fancy name for a loafer.
It was a milestone in Broadway history, and the “offended” have no business censoring it.
I’m offended by lots of movies. I simply don’t go to see them.
Excellent points all.
Wasn't there a movie just a few years ago that featured two famous black actors putting on 'whiteface' makeup and dressing as women?
I didn't see it because it appeared to be yet another movie that would rob me of two hours of my life that I would never get back, but I would never dream of demanding that such a movie be barred from production in any way.
Given the way anti-semitism is sweeping Europe these days, it's inescapable that the this relationship is far more important than the blackness or whiteness of the actors.
That may indeed be a factor in this matter and I appreciate your bringing it up. Killing the production for 'racial' reasons allows the anti-Semites to have their way without coming out of the shadows, although the breadth and scope of anti-Semitism in Europe is breathtaking and severely troubling in its brazenness and cancerous metastasis as well.
“Showboat” tends to bring out the closet racists.
I'm sure that you're right.
“Well gee, the 1951 movie adaptation of it won an Oscar and was nominated for two more.”
I don’t recall the ‘n’ word being in any of those songs!
Maybe the stage play had different music than the movie.
Maybe in some places, but there are still places in North Carolina where if you refer to someone as “black” you’ll offend them.
What have you found to be the 'preferred' designation?
I bet this fool is just fine with rap music that depicts black people as greedy gangsters, whores and degenerates.
And he would likely be shouting "RACISM!" if anyone were to ever openly suggest taking steps to clean up the rap 'culture' that is so very destructive to a very large part of society.
And BTW, what the hell is a "regeneration manager" anyway? That sounds like a fancy name for a loafer.
LMAO!
From a superficial and admittedly minimal search it appear to be a 'resource manager' for a given region or area. This is probably one of those job descriptions that is so loosely defined that in practice it ends up being precisely as you suggest :-)
They’d be better off just putting on the show as written. It is a fine musical with great songs. It actually condemns racism and racists (particularly those who oppose interracial marriages) as an important plot element.
bump
Today Monty Python would be off the air after one episode - they did gay jokes and used black face etc.
The Thought and Speech Police continue to make strides...
I judge each individual person upon his or her own merits, but when dealing with groups of people I am forced by Reality to make certain assumptions based upon experience. With that understood, I wish black people would stop being so touchy and defensive over stuff like this. Yes, 400 years of slavery and all that, but every ethnic group was oppressed at some point by somebody. Imagine if we German-Americans freaked out every time a Hogan's Heroes rerun came on.
The original cast also included the brilliant African-American actor, Paul Robeson.
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