At the end of September, I and my friend went to watch a Broadway musical drama “Chicago”. For the aspects of musical, dance and theatrics, it’s a great show. The music was beautiful, the dance was lovely and the theatrics was excellent. By watching this two hour show and learning the background information, I had a few reflections. The staff line-up process and staff leading us to our seats are like teachers who provide us the preparation before the show. During the show playing, those actors and actress are also like teachers, using the ways of singing and dancing, also their body language to vividly described the story of Chicago. Audiences like us sitting on our seats, watching and listening their performance as a “student”. Musical show is a great curriculum of teaching and learning.
There is one thing that I observed which brough up my curiosity. The leading character “Roxy” was played by an African American player named Angelia Ross; another important character “Velma” was played by a White American player named Amra-Faye Wright. As I know, years ago, most leading characters in Broadway were played by White American players except those “African characters”. Right now, because of this so called “equality”. Broadway decided to make many African American players to play the leading characters. Before these decisions pointed out, Ms. Wright was the player of the character “Roxy”. After this decision of “equality” pointed out, Ms. Ross became the player of “Roxy”. Although it looks like a great decision to offer more opportunities for colored players, it’s not that wise as I think.
According to Nieto (2017), “Closely related to the dynamic nature of culture is that cultural identifications are multiple, electric, mixed, and heterogeneous. This means, for one thing, that culture cannot be conflated with just ethnicity or race” (pp. 69). I think this quote really applies to this case. Based on the acting skills and body language and performances of Ms. Wright and Ms. Ross, I think the white American player Ms. Wright deserves to play the leading character in Chicago. I think another reason that Broadway management team makes colored player to play the leading character is they received a lot of criticisms. My friend told me a lot of people criticized that Broadway prefer to use white players because they discriminate minority races. Their criticism may have a point, my thought was just based on one show, and there are many shows in Broadway, situations may vary.
As a Chinese, the reason I came to watch the show is I want to know the story of Chicago. I prefer to watch the show with the players who have better acting skills, that makes audience like me satisfied about it. I paid for the ticket and I wish to watch a great show. However, I found out that Broadway has excellent players like Ms. Wright, but she played a costar. About Ms. Ross, she is also a great player, but the leading character is for the player who has better acting skills. Broadway musical show is a specialty in New York City and it’s famous around the world. This is to provide the audience from all over the world the unique culture of The United States. I think the management team should rethink the issue of casting, they want the better play or they want this racial “equality”?
I understand that race is a major issue in America, but I think it should not conflated to some specific things, like the musical show. The statement that I made is from a third party, maybe what I think is not accurate, I just want to watch a great show with those deserved players. Also, I think those criticisms to Broadway of not casting colored players are not that proper. I know inequality of races happens on many places, these people can focus on those places where really want them to help them to fight for the inequality. For example, in some colored communities, there are schools with low government fund, unqualified teachers and poor environment. The reason is because it is in the communities with colored community. These kinds of places really need the attention of those people to seek for the real “equality”.
Reference
Nieto, Sonia. Language, Culture, and Teaching : Critical Perspectives, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.tc.idm.oclc.org/lib/teacherscollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5015631.