Colour-blind casting in 'Les Miserables'

KristinT · Colour-blind casting in 'Les Miserables'

I've checked several pages back, I couldn't see that this had been discussed lately. If it has, apologies.

I live in Australia, where the amateur performance rights have been available for years now, which means that not a season goes by that some company, somewhere, isn't doing this show. Which is good, because it is awesome.

I've seen a LOT of amateur productions of this show, in various states. And the vast majority (excluding the School Edition productions which are obviously running along a different line) were cast exclusively white/European. For some of these companies the fact could have simply been that no non-white people happened to audition. In other situations, with big talent bases to draw from, and well-known companies, I really doubt this would have been the case.

I'm guessing a lot of forum members here are from the UK and US where the amateur rights have also been released for quite a while. I'm interested to know whether you've seen a trend in colorblind casting in amateur productions of "Les Miserables" as opposed to other shows like, say, "Rent" where it's pretty much mandatory. (Having said that, South Australia had its premiere production of "Rent" last year, and the only non-whites in it were an Asian girl in the ensemble and Benny was played by, I think it was an Indian actor.)

Race and colorblind casting is obviously a very sensitive issue. But obviously this is just to do with "Les Miserables". I can think of some examples of colorblind casting in professional Broadway and West End productions, like Lea Salonga and Daphne Rubin-Vega as Fantine, and I think a black actor has played Enjolras on the West End. So clearly it isn't an issue for professional productions.

Our original professional production (the one with Anthony Warlow and Philip Quast) was cast all white/European. Our Tenth Anniversary professional production - which was in the late 90s and the last professional production we've had, boo, hiss - had an Asian girl playing Eponine. I obviously noticed she was Asian but I didn't have a problem with it (and, yes, child Eponine was played by a bunch of little white girls), and nor did most of the people I asked about it.

Of course, I can understand the argument of "It's a period piece and all the characters are white, so for authenticity it should be cast only white". But while I would obviously hate to see gratuitous colorblind casting - ie someone who can't act and isn't vocally right for a part getting it just so a director can say "Look, I cast a black person, aren't I liberal?" - to not cast amateur productions, especially, somehow seems strange and obtuse.

So. How do people feel about seeing non-white/European performers doing "Les Miserables"? Have you seen any amateur productions that did it and, if so, how did you feel about it?

The Very Angry Woman

This thread is a few years old, but worth a look: http://musicals.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47666

Your original production also had a hapa Gavroche and later on down the line, a hapa Young Cosette.

http://www.abc-cafe.com/lesmis/company/cast.htm

jackrussell

If it's done in period costume it does look a bit odd if the actors are obviously of an ethnicity that contradicts the setting. That said, if somebody can sing the part better than someone of the "correct" ethnicity, it seems wrong that they shouldn't have the chance to do so.

My inclination would be to go against it for productions of the show, as it risks breaking the audience's suspension of disbelief, at least for major characters. But for concert performances and the like it's fine.

High-baritonne

If it is a theatre production I feel that all productions should only contain people who actually looks European enough to play any role. But in musicals from 1950's to present should have color blind casting, unless it is necessary for a person to be either black or white because of story line. In concerts I believe that you should be color blind in the casting.

TheHappySandMan

Personally, I see no problem with it. A lot of rather unrealistic things happen in this musical, and something as superficial as an actor's race kind of pales in comparison to, say, suspending your disbelief enough to believe that, with all the murder and corruption and crime probably going on in Paris and France at the time, a police officer would obsess for more than a decade and then consequently kill himself over a guy who stole a single loaf of bread twenty years ago.

I haven't seen any non-professional productions yet, but some of my favorite performers from professional productions have not been white: Norm Lewis as Javert, Lea Salonga and Nikki Ren�e Daniels as Fantine, Felicia Curry as Eponine, etc. It's never been really distracting for me. Likewise, I don't mind colorblind casting in straight plays: my favorite King Lear is James Earl Jones and I have seen plenty of Black, Asian, Latino, etc. actors in period dress give perfectly compelling performances. Heck, it's been done in opera for years. Leontyne Price (an African American soprano) portrayed a sixteen-year old Japanese geisha (Cio-Cio San in Madame Butterfly) as far back as the 1970s.

Theatre is representational - you're not portraying actual people, but archetypal, symbolic figures that transcend race divisions and historical accuracy.

Orestes Fasting

There are logical reasons to do it either way--there's the "Les Mis is set in 19th century France and the cast should reflect that" argument, but there's also the "Race isn't explicitly addressed in the show, so the racial makeup of the cast is irrelevant" argument. I lean towards the second, both because it's not like there were no black people in France, and because if Les Mis were subject to whitewashed casting I would never have seen Nikki Ren�e Daniels as Fantine and that would be just criminal.

A certain sense of fairness also cries out against all-white casting, because while there are loads of period shows set in Europe and America, there aren't a whole lot of shows that demand an entirely non-white cast. (And if there were, there would probably be loads of all-white productions anyway because "it's not fair that we be denied the right to do such an amazing show just because we don't have enough token Asians!")

And I do find it interesting that there's never been a black Jean Valjean, even though the rest of the roles have more-or-less been opened to colorblind casting... maybe it would strike too many nerves in the audience to see a black guy locked up unfairly for twenty years for a trifling offense?

Quique

I've always wanted to see a black Valjean. It would definitely be an interesting change.

Brian Stokes Mitchell would be amazing in the role.

TheHappySandMan

Pannic

curlyhairedsoprano91

KristinT

I could have sworn I'd heard of a black Valjean on either Broadway or the West End. But now I come to think of it, maybe it was the Phantom. I think Brian Stokes Mitchell would be an amazing Javert, or has he done it already?

I can completely understand the "Having non-white people would look weird" or "Having child Eponine played by a white kid and then suddenly turning into an Asian woman could totally confuse the audience" arguments. However, and I'm not sure how to articulate this properly, I just feel that colour-blind casting should be less of an issue in non-professional theatre because the cast is being drawn from, you know, the community and a non-professional musical theatre company is far more likely to do a Euro-centric show than an "ethnic" show specifically because casting could become more difficult. I'd be interested to know how companies go with "Miss Saigon" when the amateur rights come out - or are they out already? I know there are School Editions being performed left, right and centre.

curlyhairedsoprano91

Pannic

Yeah. Brian Stokes Mitchell is perfect for Javert, but Valjean needs to be played by a strong tenor.

Disney-Bway27

Hmm. Well, it's certainly not as important in The Sound of Music (let's never revisit that thread again, like...ever, mmkay?) and if they can sing the part better, I see no problem.

The Very Angry Woman

mastachen

jackrussell

Miss Saigon (by the same writing team, of course) is an interesting comparison.

If you can have black actors playing Valjean, can you have white Europeans playing Kim? Again, I think it's putting too much disbelief in the audience. For the same reason I wasn't too keen on Jonathan Pryce being the Engineer, excellent as his performance was.

I think colour-blind casting should only be done if the producers can't find an actor of the same ethnicity as the character who is good enough to play the part.

It's better than sex-blind casting, though...

Mademoiselle Lanoire

jackrussell

OK then, what I meant was should you have white Europeans playing Kim?

I'd still prefer that, when the musical is staged and in costume, the part be played by, if not a Vietnamese girl, then at least somebody from that part of the world or that ethnic background, if at all possible.

Jaym

I agree. If possible you should go for an actor who has the same/a similar ethnic background as the character who's part they're playing. Though I don't think someone who has another skin colour or something should be refused even though they are way better than the one with the fitting ethnic background.
I just think they should think of that and all, but it's definitely not the most important point when casting.

curlyhairedsoprano91

I strongly disagree with the whole "cast white when possible" thing. It's neither feasible nor fair with the minority populations in theatre growing. Most shows are set in times and places where it's assumed that the actual characters were white; if we went by the "well, considering the background it's unlikely that any of these characters weren't white, so we'll only cast white," we would relegate all non-white actors to playing only the few parts that were specifically written for their race, in shows where race is an issue.

The Miss Saigon analogy doesn't hold up, because Miss Saigon is a show where certain parts are expressly written for specific races. Les Mis is not one of those shows... there's no racial tension, nothing where the color of the character's skin is even mentioned (I'm only talking about the musical here, because if we're going to say that we should only cast based on the book, we should only consider blond guys for Enjolras, only brunettes for Cosette, and only raggedy toothless uglies for Eponine).

There are instances in shows where colorblind casting is ... strange ... for example, I'm a little skeptical of Mitchell and Norm Lewis having both played Sweeney Todd ("his skin was pale and his eye was odd" ... I think not). But there's nothing that even goes that far in Les Mis ... no lyric denoting skin color, hair color, anything. So, yeah, if Audra McDonald had done Les Mis in 1994 instead of Carousel, I wouldn't think twice about having a black Cosette, because characterization in a show like Les Mis doesn't involve skin color.

So, um, bottom line: You should cast in a color-conscious fashion when the part directly calls for or implies someone of a certain race. Otherwise, color-conscious casting is simply a form of discrimination.

I might want to step off my soapbox now, and I might want to apologize for having stepped on in the first place.

Orestes Fasting

Jaym

Yeah, I do agree with you there. It does depend on the part of course. For many parts it doesn't matter at all, including most/all in Les Mis. Though having a blond young-Cosette and a black teenage-Cosette would be weird, I think. So would a black Th�nardier and a blonde Eponine.

Orestes Fasting

jackrussell

Jaym

Ulkis

I think color-blind casting works in a play like Les Mis, which as other people pointed out, already requires some suspention of disbelief, as it's on the stage and a musical. That's the nice thing about theater. However, if the movie does actually come about I don't think they'll have color-blind casting.

The Very Angry Woman

mezzogeek

I agree with most people on here. Granted, the characters would have most likely have been Caucasian European, but if a non-white actor is right for the part in their acting/vocal ability, why shouldn't they play it? You could have an actor who almost perfectly matches Hugo's description of Javert, but if they can't act the part, the audience will never be able to suspend their disbelief enough to accept the actor as the character.

I go to a largely all-girls school (there are only boys in the final two years), and we put on Les Mis about five years ago. Our Valjean was a sixteen year old Asian girl, but her acting was excellent. She was easily able to convince us for a few hours that she was a middle-aged man from 19th Century France.

KristinT

And that's more what I was talking about, casting of non-professional productions where I do think that different and less strict rules should apply, because the cast is being drawn from the community and not many non-professional musical theatre companies do shows outside the "standard" repertoire meaning that nobody's exactly doing "Porgy & Bess", "Miss Saigon" and "Ragtime" every season and casting to colour consistently.

What I mean about how I just feel the principles of casting in non-professional shows should be different is, for example, if a company was doing "Les Miserables" and nobody was really standing out as Jean Valjean and then an Asian or a black actor came along and blew everyone else out of the water, then I would much prefer to see someone awesome in those departments, than a white guy who looked "correct" but was only adequate. In the city where I live, "Rent" has been the only "ethnically diverse" big musical produced lately by a non-professional company and even then everyone was white apart from two people.

The actual most ethnically diverse production that's been put on in my city in the last few years was a production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" that was extremely awesome but shamelessly plagiarised the Gale Edwards production (you know, the one that was on DVD where everything is modern), so I have a feeling that was more to do with emulating that production, or the director decided that because it was contemporary it was okay to use non-white performers.

There are rumours of "Miss Saigon" being mounted but I suspect that will only happen if they're able to fix a particular big name, who happens to be of the correct ethnicity, to play either the Engineer or Kim. Nobody's even done "The King and I" for years, and in the latest "West Side Story" it didn't look like from what I could see from where I was sitting (didn't buy a program so I can't be 100% sure) that there were that many authentic Hispanic actors playing the Jets.

Actually, "West Side Story" is probably a terrific example of a very popular and good show that has racism as a theme where most companies would be perfectly comfortable casting white actors and giving them dye jobs, fake tans and working on their accents, whereas casting a non-white Valjean or even a non-white chorus member - i repeat, I've seen a lot of non-professional productions - would be absolutely out of the question.

Pannic

I generally don't see anything wrong with color-blind casting in general. If race is a central theme, then if the person can still act and sing the part, just give the person a make-up job like in that case of West Side Story mentioned above. Of course, a large part of this is I want to someday play Joe in Showboat or the title role in Porgy and Bess...

However, with Les Mis, it really isn't an issue at all. Just a matter of who's best for the part. Race isn't an issue.

The Very Angry Woman

Gargamel

Well, to me, when casting someone for one part, the color of the skin should be one physical aspects like any other one. important, but not mandatory. Especially in an amateur production! In amateur production, it is always difficult to find someone with the right voice for every character. Taking too many physical considerations for a role can be the best way to get a weak cast.

Physical aspects can be important for a character in a professionnal production. For example, I think I couldn't cast a small skinny Jean Valjean or a fat bad looking Cosette. I couldn't cast a Javert that has no presence, no natural dignity.

Then again, to me, a black Cosette with a white blonde Fantine could distract the audience from what's really important. The same for Eponine and the Thenardiers.
I personally wouldn't mind a black or arab Valjean or Javert. But I can understand that some people could think it's a odd casting... The same or about every main character in the show.

On the contrary, plenty of ABC guys or thenardier's gang could be black without anyone noticing anything odd...

I clearly understand the point that black or asian artists can have some more important difficulties for their careers. That's true...
But I think it is not a reason to cast them just because of that. casting a 50 year old lady to sing Cosette in front of a 30 year old Valjean would be quite silly. Does that mean that there is anything against old people? Of course not... and nobody would cast an "old" Cosette just to prove that there's nothing against old people... Why should it be for black, asian, arabs or latinos?

I am not colorblind. I can see that someone is black or white. Just the same that I can see that someone is tall or fat, or blond. I have no negative opinion about that, but it's obviously impossible to ignore such visible physical aspects...

I've always had the feeling that ignoring the color of someone is as racist as mentionning it as often as possible.

Mistress

You know, this thread broght back memories of the Brandi Cinderella movie...you know, the (white) stepmother has one white daughter and one black daughter, and the Asian prince is the son of Victor Garber and Whoopi Goldberg...I always found that very amusing.

For Les Mis, I'm fine with clour-blind casting.

mastachen

Gargamel's post sounds pretty racist to me, but that may just be my mind working against me. I'd point it out but I have to leave for class in 6 minutes.

Orestes Fasting

Yeah, I have to run to class too, but I have time for a couple quick points:

1. The 50-year-old lady was 20 once, and the 30-year-old Valjean will eventually be closer to the 'right' age. Non-white actors get the short end of the stick their whole lives.

2. Actors get cast against type all the time in Les Mis. Jeff Kready was 25 when he understudied Valjean; Judy Kuhn was pushing 50 when she played Fantine; Tracy Lynn Olivera is a much bigger lady than one would ordinarily cast as Fantine. But the casting directors knew what they were doing in all three cases.

3. Color-blind casting is not about "proving" the director doesn't have anything against people of color, it's about not disqualifying talented people from the show just because they're not lily-white enough.

Quique

Couldn't have said it better. Bravo.

I used to have a stubborn perception of what the characters needed to look like. That has changed after seeing so many wonderful performances by minority actors. What a shame had they never had the opportunity to be in it.

Pannic

KristinT

I can understand that, but at the same time there are plenty of amazing "white" roles that are constantly on offer, because, alas, "white" is still the norm. Ethnic actors have to jump at every chance they get and are entitled to be, well, a bit offended at the thought of a white actor playing, say, Coalhouse in 'Ragtime' and I still have a sneaking suspicion that in non-professional theatre they get excluded when there mightn't be that good an excuse.

I am so not a singer or a dancer so I've never auditioned for a musical and would know better than to, but I am Asian and there are some plays, companies and directors that I know there would be no point auditioning for unless the part is specifically Oriental, in order to avoid awkwardness all round. My rule of thumb is that unless the play is contemporary and the character not a member of a biological family unit it's best to check with the director in advance of making an appointment to audition at all. I've had some very sympathetic directors explain to me their theories that it's more to do with audience prejudice than anything else - and in "small town" communities with non-professional theatre that could well be the case - and just as I don't agree that the "fat girl" can never be right as or cast as the "love interest" in a show, nor do I agree that an "ethnic actor" should be forced to subsist on "ethnic characters" or that roles should be assumed to be "white" unless stated otherwise.

I'm kind of sorry I brought this up, I didn't realise it was flogging a dead horse but I do think it's interesting to talk about just in terms of this specific musical.

Gargamel

Well...

I can see that some (many?) of you think that my post was racist. If so, then I apologies. I never was racist. I probably wasn't clear enough. Please forgive me.

All I wanted to say, is that question of color (I don't say "race": I think there's one and only one human race) should be considered just the same that any other physical consideration.
As I said in the first sentence, physical aspects are not the most important point. Nobody should be excluded from a role just because of the color of their skin just like that persorn shouldn't be excluded just because he is tall or short.
But these physical aspects can be considered when casting for a show just like any other aspect of that person (voice, ability to sing that part, acting, physical aspects...)

Please understand that I am abolutly not racist, but pretending not to see someone's color is to me as racist as seeing only that color in that person.
It is not because I see that color as part of his physical aspect that I have any problem with that color.

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Colour-blind casting in 'Les Miserables'