When Color-Blind Casting Get Complicated

Songwriters

A black theatre fan argues that certain white roles shouldn’t be played by actors of color

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However, sometimes I find that color-blind casting can be a little too blind. Take the current revival of Carousel starring Joshua Henry, who’s black, as Billy Bigelow. Jessie Mueller, who’s white, plays Billy’s wife Julie Jordan. I’ve enjoyed Henry’s work since I saw him in The Scottsboro Boys. He’s a tremendous talent, and his performance in Carousel was rightly recognized with a Tony nomination (his third). But Billy is a problematic character: He’s a chronically unemployed ne’er-do-well who takes out his frustrations with life by hitting Julie.

Despite how wonderfully Henry acts and sings the role, he can’t escape the unfortunate racial stereotypes his casting inadvertently promotes. Ask yourself if a new work would get produced today about a jobless, sometime criminal black man who abuses his white wife? Plus this show is set at the turn of the 20th century, a period when interracial marriage was illegal in most of the United States. Without any foundation, simply presenting the black Billy as a handsome rogue who lures Julie away from respectable life has uncomfortable, if unintentional, implications. If the intent is for the audience not to see Henry’s Billy as black, I don’t think that’s possible. Despite the name of the casting practice, none of us are truly color-blind when it comes to race.

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I felt the same way about the all-black revival of A Streetcar Named Desire in 2012. Blair Underwood’s Stanley lacked an appropriate context to avoid coming across as a brutish, violent stereotype. When white actors play Billy Bigelow and Stanley Kowalski, they don’t perform under the shadow of a loaded cultural history that black actors invariably do.

I still applaud Carousel for expanding its casting horizons and providing a superb black actor with such a prominent role in a classic work. Promoting diversity in theatre is a worthwhile goal, but I hope it also drives valuable and difficult conversations about the way minorities are presented on stage, especially when the roles aren’t specifically for people of color.

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Stephen Robinson is a Seattle-based writer who contributes to Wonkette and spends a lot of time in Portland for theatre-related work. Follow him at SER1897. Follow TDF at @TDFNYC.

Top image: Joshua Henry in Carousel. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

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STEPHEN ROBINSON