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re: Philly High School drops MILLIE after complaints of racism
Posted by: Chromolume 11:19 pm EST 12/27/15
In reply to: re: Philly High School drops MILLIE after complaints of racism - simbo 05:39 pm EST 12/26/15
Music Man is set in a conservative Iowa town in 1912. While, yes, you can cast asians as the various characters, the fact remains that in that time and that place, it's kinda improbable that an asian character would have been socially integrated a whole heap. So yes, you can do it but it tends to mean you're pretending the past was a wildly lovely place in ways it really wasn't.


So, even if we put aside the general idea of color-blind casting for a moment...

...we're talking about a cast made up of teens. But isn't it improbable that teens would have been the sole population of a town like River City, whether in 1912 or now? Would it make any sense that the Mayor would be a teen, and would have a teenage daughter? Would the school board be run by teens? Would Mrs. Paroo be that young? Marian might not be that much older than in her teens, but we have to assume Harold Hill has bene out of school for a while lol. How about Winthrop? I assume many high schools would cast a girl in the role, because most high school boys' voices would have changed already. But would such crossdressing/cross-genderism even be allowed in 1912 Iowa?

My point being, why do you see race as a special case in casting in this situation? If the cast is already going to be generally the wrong age range (in terms of look as well as actual age), why should the race of any actor be treated as a different issue? If you can accept a 17-year old boy as Harold Hill, does it really matter what race he is? yes, it's a high school production. But why decide we can accept a young cast playing adults but NOT overlook racial differences as well? That makes no sense to me whatsoever.
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