Shampooing the Black Kids from Hairspray
 

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/mixm...heatre_the.php

The only "suspension of disbelief" I see here is the that someone actually thought this was ok.

Interesting that the theatre doing it correctly notes that the copyright holder imposes a $13,000 per incident of blackface if it's discovered.

I'm going to share this on the GXP page.

This Childrens' Theatre sounds pretty sketchy all around.

BTW, I truly wish they had named the lead character something other than Tracy. I mean, my name hardly ever appears in movies or books and when it does, it's the name of a fat girl with bicolored hair???

Yeah, but it's also Katharine Hepburn's character in The Philadelphia Story.

The only times I can think of my name coming up are:
1) soap opera, nymphomaniac
2) soap opera, psycho
3) L & O Criminal Intent, criminal's idiot girlfriend
4) Seinfeld, Jerry's girlfriend who introduced the annoying "shmoopie" talk

So no, you don't get to complain :p

The article mentions this, but Plano is not necessarily a hotbed of diversity.

Maybe they should've picked another production, but to insinuate that they're having "no coloreds allowed" auditions is a little misleading.

Wow. My parents live one town over from Plano, so I can truly believe this happened there. You'll be relieved to know that when Phoenix's Valley Youth Theater did Hairspray last summer, they cast the African American roles with very talented, hard-working African American kids. It was an incredible production, as befits an organization that helped nurture the talents of Jordan Sparks and Emma Stone.

My city! Noooo! D:

"There are also no naturally fat girls in Plano."
^That caption killed me. #insider

Get your people, please lol

Interesting article. I loved his point about money perhaps being a motivating factor for the PCT with their tuition and major sponsors. I also liked his comment about the nose picking actor and the photo of the black actors.

Having been in the position of having to chose plays for middle schoolers I totally understand the demands of having to worry about budget, parents, and a small pool of actors. Guess what? There are plays your kids may want to do that you JUST CAN'T. The drama teacher before me had told my kids they could do Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Cinderella" - apparently not aware of the difficulty and expense of getting the rights, and forgetting that she was teaching at a middle school of 40 students so even casting the thing (never mind the musical aspect) would be impossible. Yes, they were disappointed. Welcome to theater - heck, welcome to the real world - where you don't always get what you want.

Every year I would get the play catalogue and teasingly tell my headmaster the plays we would not be doing: "The Vagina Monologues", plays about sex (and you would be amazed at how many of those are in a catalogue directed to middle school and high school directors), etc. Sometimes race blind casting is good. In this case, um, no. If you have a known group of actors, as in this case, you pick a play that plays to your strengths. If you know you have a lily-white cast, pick accordingly.

It is very misleading. I kept reading trying to find the "Black people ban."

:confused: There was no where stated or implied that blacks were not allowed...in fact the choreographer (who is black) said in the article that they started production with a few blacks in the show, but they all dropped out. Where are you guys getting the "no coloreds allowed" and "black ban"? Did I miss part of the article?

I didn't see that part, either.

The headlines for articles are often misleading - they make them as controversial as possible to get you to click on through.

I now have The Doors going through my head - "Click on through to the other siiiiide!"

I took the headline to mean that they shampooed the characters from the script, not the actors from the audition process.

FYI - While I enjoy reading "The Dallas Observer", you need to know that it's the independent newspaper. Basically, it follows the philosophy that if you don't live in a hip/bohemian neighborhood of Dallas (Uptown, parts of Lakewood, Deep Ellum, Bishop Arts District, and Oaklawn & Cedar Springs-before they were gentrified) then you must be an all-white-white-bread-lovin'-yearning-for-the-days-of-JR & SueEllen (tv show, not the 2 gay bars) person. If you live in the suburbs? God bless you and have mercy on your soul.

This is the same newspaper that had an undercover reporter go to some Highland Park High School student parties a couple of years ago. The reporter was hoping to find rampant drug & sex among the HP elite. When it turned out to be boring, normal high school parties, the reporter ended up criticizing the girls for wearing Uggs and the boys for wearing NorthFace jackets.

That being said, if I had been the director of PCT, I would have cut my losses and not performed the show. But, the Observer is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Those people are in luck:

Dallas (TNT, Summer of 2012)

Desperate Housewives alums Josh Henderson and Jesse Metcalf play the sons of JR and SueEllen and Bobby and Pam.

Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, Charlene Tilton and Steve Kanaly will all be back (but Victoria Principal won't be).

I guess it was only a matter of time.

The way that the article read (and, seemingly, the way some of you all took it - forgive me if I'm wrong), it seemed as if this theater was making a conscious effort to make this a "white" production. When I see a title like "Shampooing the Black Kids from Hairspray," it makes me think that the theater turned away black actors at the door.

Like I said, Plano is not very diverse, so it's not surprising that one would find an all-white cast in that city. Perhaps they should've gone with a different production, but I don't know what goes into choosing a play for a theater like this.

Yep.

It sounds like what went into choosing it was the kids begging to do it.

Literally one of the first things you learn in Theater 101 is that when you choose your production your first considerations should be budget (different shows cost different amounts, depending on royalties, sets, costumes, props, etc) and can I look.at my talent pool and pinpoint at least two people who could play each role. If that means Songs for a New World with a 4 person cast and no set necessary, do that. If you know you're going to have problems getting even one male to audition, don't pick Damn Yankees where you need to field an entire baseball team - to with Quilters instead.

I'll obviously defer to you when it comes to theater discussions ;)

Like I said -- if having an AA cast is essential to the plot, then they probably should have picked a different production. However, for the Observer to make this into a "OMG THEY'RE FORGETTING ABOUT THE BLACKS" race war is unnecessary.

Should the Harlem Children's Theater (for example) ONLY have productions with all black casts? And would it be OK for a newspaper to comment on something like that, knowing the city demographics? This is my problem with the article.

There's a difference between all black casts and all black characters. For many characters in many shows, it's irrelevant to the story whether a character is black or white. In Hairspray, race is central to the story.

This.

I saw a production of Les Mis where Fantine was black and her daughter Cosette was white and it wasn't a big deal, because it didn't matter in the story.

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_shadow (Post 2122684) Like I said -- if having an AA cast is essential to the plot, then they probably should have picked a different production.

I should have said "characters" instead of "cast"

My knowledge of Hairspray is limited to the Divine/Travolta character, so I was not aware that AA characters played a significant role in the production. I have acknowledged that they probably needed to pick a different production, though.

That's true.

(I have intentionally never seen seen Hairspray. LOL.)

Oh, I know you have. But yeah, a central part of the plot is about integrating a teen dance show in early 1960s Baltimore.

The musical has some good songs (and the movie version of the musical is actually better than the stage version, I think), but I prefer the John Waters original.

Interesting.

I used to live in the Baltimore area, so I've been a fan of Waters for a while. Everything that I've heard about the story has been 1) "coming of age" for the "big girl" and 2) LGBT related, due to the Edna character.

IDK about Edna. It was probably chosen for her to be a man in drag so she wouldn't be considered attractive. I didn't write the play so I don't know if that is the case or not. But yeah racism plays a huge part in the story.

Me too. I've never seen the musical, but it strikes me as sanitized of JW's trademark twistedness.

Not completely. There's the song Tracy sings to open the show, with lyrics like these:

The rats on the street
All dance round my feet.
They seem to say
"Tracy, it's up to you."
So, oh, oh,
Don't hold me back,
'Cause today all my dreams will come true.

Good morning Baltimore!
There's the flasher who lives next door,
There's the bum on his bar room stool,
They wish me luck on my way to school.

In the movie of the musical, "the flasher who lives next door" is a cameo by John Waters.

I think having Edna played by a man is more so a homage to Divine than anything else. I think if Divine was still alive he probably would(and should) have revisited Edna's role in the remake.

I saw the movie adaptation of the musical and yes, it was disappointingly mild.

This.