When will Broadway and Hollywood correct their discriminatory practices and require murderers, rapists and pederasts to be authentic as well. BTW, it is shocking a girl is permitted to represent Tiny Tim.
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@No You must be consistently stunned living in SF then if you're shocked by a girl playing Tiny Tim! My sense -- having been in theater in college -- is the decision may come down not just to acting but to who auditions. In my college group and many choirs for example, the number of girls/ women simply outnumber the boys/ men.
All of this is not news to me. Even 25 years ago, going to see McBeth in Toronto and expecting a traditional version, I was treated instead to a gender-bender version. Was I shocked? Hardly - it gave the play a new twist and the actors were great.
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@ms, it's odd in a William Tell Overture - Lone Ranger Theme kind of way. I knew the Tiny Tim who tiptoed through the tulips and married Miss Vicki on the Johnny Carson show years before I REALLY knew TinyTim in this story.
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@No Thank goodness you weren't alive when Shakespeare was around. You would have been walking around in a constant state of shock since men played the roles of women.
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Should versus could. That's always a dilemma. If we go with "Should a disabled actor play ..." a lot of additional questions arise: should a non-white actor play Tiny Tim? )Or are we going with the idea that Dickens didn't define the races in the story, so yes, a non-white actor could and maybe should play Tiny Tim?) And who should play John Merrick in The Elephant Man? (Bradley Cooper might seem like an entirely politically incorrect choice, but what a performance he gave!)
Personally, I am elated that disabled actors are playing disabled characters, and that disabled actors are winning awards for playing traditionally non-disabled characters (witness the incredible Ali Stroker of Oklahoma!). But to make it a demand is too restrictive for art. Art should be provocative, and that means sometimes displeasing parts of the audience.
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I recently saw a play at Artist Repertory Theater called, "Teenage Dick" which was a contemporary take of Richard III but with high school kids. The part of Richard was played by an amazing actor with cerebral palsy. His disability added so much depth to lines about being bullied and how he feels in his own body. I can't imagine anyone else playing this part. And I get that "it is acting."
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If blackface isn't okay, than neither is, or should be, a non-disabled actor "donning" a disability (or, rather his imagination of what it is to live with a particular condition or difference).
It's really that simple.
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@Parent - regarding: actor "donning" a disability
But how about straight actors donning gay appar-
Oh, wait, even though I'm gay, that would be going too far. Back at the Studio 54 bouncer line, friends would make believe they're gay to get in, and the legend goes that sometimes, Steve Rubell himself would evaluate them kissing to make sure they weren't lying.
PS. Thinking back, the doorpeople were actually casting who got in for whatever - who knew? One time, a friend and I were both gay, but kissing each other would have been too weird, so went to the Howard Johnson's instead. Now you get into "The Sound Inside" just by buying a ticket - much more objective.
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It is ironic that the people complaining about the casting of a disabled person, a person of color or a girl seem to be missing out on the whole point of A Christmas Carol. It is a story about redemption and also about caring about others and being kind to one another. If you don't agree with it don't watch it. Go read the book.
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Unless you're Stave 1 Scrooge himself, your heart will be cheered by the notion that these brave little kids--who, no doubt, have had challenges galore in their young lives--are getting the opportunity to shine in these roles. More power to them.
You can, at the same time, hold in your head what might at first seem like a contradictory notion: that acting is the art of pretending to be someone else, and that there is nothing inherently offensive in an actor who doesn't, in real life, have that affliction, rendering it in a detailed and sympathetic way.
The day we look back on Daniel Day-Lewis's remarkable performance as Christy Brown in "My Left Foot" with woke regret is the day we make ourselves poorer as a society.
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Would you say the same about a white actor wearing blackface in order to portray an African-American character or, say, Nelson Mandela?
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@ROI You are over simplifying the history of blackface to support your argument. Blackface has a very troubled history because in addition to a white person wearing it to portray a black person, the portrayal was often extremely racist and degrading. They weren't using blackface to portray African Americans in a positive light.
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I wonder why the play Hamilton could not find a white actor for the role of Thomas Jefferson? There MUST be some white actors who can sing and dance somewhere. Oh, I see, that is not PC to question that casting choice.
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@Carlos R. Rivera - Everyone but King George being played by an actor in a protected class is a part of the work. If there are even two or three who are not, the effect the creatives wanted is just lost.
I think it's the same logic that where the authors of "Hairspray" have said Edna Turnblad will be played by a man - it will be respected because that's what the authors have decided. (Sure, it would sell easier in some segments of the country, and give a major role in the musical comedy canon to a woman rather than a man - but the authors decided to follow the source John Waters film, so if you want to cast a woman, just don't do the show.
Even in the show "Summer," they put have had a concept where all the roles were played by women, but it ended up neither here nor there with men in some key roles. What it could be was there in a moment which has stayed even in a show that could have been much better, and may be some day the director and team will come back to it: La Chanze as Donna is at a low, asking for professional business advice opposite an actress playing many parts, who (basically) says "I know the last thing you want to is get right now is advice from a middle-aged white man." With an all-female cast, with male actors not very clearly all around that stage, he power of that would have been greater.
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@Carlos R. Rivera Hamilton...didn't have any white actors in main roles? That was sort of the point?
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If there is a disabled actor who can perform the role of Tiny Tim and they were of the best of the audited during preproduction then yes, they should play that role. A good actor is a good actor and if the role also regards the actors disability great, if the role can be played regardless of the disability even better. I don’t give a fig about vehicle of the storyteller as long as the story is being told in a way that transports me to world of the story. That is why we go to the theatre,
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@Frankie - yet there never is the objective best actor who auditioned, two choosers will almost never see the same person as the mid right for the role - it's not like the way we can identify the best most qualified candidate for a job in insurance or kitchen products, or the the best most qualified person to get into that college. Theater by its nature means who is subjectively the one who interacts with everything else onstage - that's almost never the objectively best singing voice or best high kick for dancers. sometimes It's as simple as who fits the costumes or the "look" the director wants. (Would any of us ever have landed on picking a pore Jud who's as "hot-looking" as Curly - don't MeToo me, the actors are surely well aware of the physical types they are and how it shapes their careers, LOL.) But with no possible objectivity comes NO ability to prove any discrimination isn't just an artistic decision. (There was a great Big City story in 2018 on the Rockettes being disproportionately white - did that have any results un 2019?)
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Then it isn't acting. It's naturalism. It's wrong. They should play any role.
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William Dafoe would disagree with you. He recently said he didn’t mind the location of “The Lighthouse” despite its miserable conditions because and I quote; “When you’re cold you’re cold.” Discounting these young actors because of their life experience discounts what they bring to the table. An artist is an artist and will do and use whatever it takes to make art.
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Yes. That's the comment. Just yes.
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Listen up people: it’s called acting for a reason. People play roles. They do not have to have the characteristics of the character they are playing. You don’t have to have murdered someone to play a murderer, etc.
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How many blind actors get work portraying sighted people? How many deaf actors get the chance to portray a hearing character in a major production? Answer: 0-2. How many nondisabled people got paid $$$ to portray disabled characters? Countless.
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Why not?
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@Cynthia starks I agree, "why not?" But if a physically able bodied kid plays the role, I also say, "why not?"
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@Offtheclock99
If a white dude wants to portray Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr. or Barack Obama, or Japanese Americans imprisoned in Elsinor, then all they have to do is apply lots of dark brown foundation or use eye makeup to make the shape of their eyes look different, and all is ok? Some would say yes. But if it were for a major production, like a motion picture or a Broadway show, many would balk. And protest.
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My son has spina bifida and he played Tiny Tim at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Canada 2 years ago. He was 6 and he was awesome. The biggest issue by far was backstage accessibility.
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Sure. If he's a good actor.
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It’s called “acting” for a reason.
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@Lisa
I think that's what all the rich white guys in blackface might say.
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It's about time.
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yes of course tiny Tim should be played by someone who is tiny and named Tim. and the ghosts should played by corpses.
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@poins How about holograms of dead celebrities playing the Ghosts?
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“One of my bugbears with ‘Christmas Carol’ is when Tiny Tim is not played by a disabled person, because he’s supposed to be a disabled character,” said Jack Thorne ...
He's also supposed to be a white English boy. But it's okay for an actor of color, or a girl, or an American, to play the role? This is the sort of PC hypocrisy that drives me nuts.
I'm all in for actors of whatever ethnicity, gender, or ability, to play any role that they would be good at. But to pick and choose which character attributes from the original source (in this case, Dickens) must be retained, and which may be discarded, is ridiculous. If that's your artistic choice, so be it, but don't imply that the rest of us aren't "woke" enough to appreciate your so-called "improvements" over Dickens. You're no Charles Dickens, believe me.
And changing the ending of the original story -- in which Tiny Tim's lameness is cured through Scrooge's newfound generosity -- is beyond the pale. Why not add a fourth Christmas Ghost -- the Ghost of Christmas Wokeness?
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Thank you, Miss Dovey.
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@Miss Dovey Agreed re: choice of actors. I recently saw a production of a play featuring the English, monocled, aristocratic amateur sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey. A black actor played the role. He was good, but he looked so unlike the the image of the character I've seen elsewhere (and whose appearance is described in great detail in Dorothy L. Sayers' books) that it was a distraction. Plus, the actor is not a wealthy English aristocrat who solves murders. He did dress quite well, which is appropriate for the fashionable Wimsey. This is just one example when the hypocrisy of PC-ness is particularly absurd. And if I never hear the word "woke" again it will be too soon.
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@Miss Dovey
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I agree 100%.
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As a sometime theater performer WITH disability (and poverty issues because of my medical problems) who would LOVE to see the theater world be more inclusive, I'm somewhat disturbed to see Dickens Bowdlerized. Tiny Tim is NOT disabled, not in the modern understanding of what we know as disability. Putting a disabled actor on stage is inclusive, and feels good to the modern sensibility, but it's inaccurate.
Tiny Tom's "disability" is POVERTY. He can be treated by the proper application of proper medical care, if someone gave a darn about paying for it! This is something the poverty stricken Cratchits cannot provide because of the Scrooge, Bob Cratchit's hateful employer. The ghosts assure Scrooge that Tiny Tim won't die and will be well, if he gets what he needs and that is a large part of Scrooge's change of heart.
It's a massive lesson for those in power today, as they fail to legislate either private insurance that really works, or Single Payer for all. POVERTY is a killer. Disability is REAL. If we gave a darn about doing something, then there would not be so much suffering. But just think, what heavy chains Mitch McConnell is forging to carry in the next life! Where is HIS Tiny Tim?
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@Dejah - I know you know this but many get confused since the word "disabled" has two very different meaning. Maybe being too simple: For purposes of disability benefits, you're only "disabled" if you cannot work [varying degrees] and need to get money to replace your income. For the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the disability is a condition you CAN work with or function with if the boss or public business will give what are called reasonable accommodations - frankly no one really likes doing this if it costs 5 cents; that's why there's a law saying they MUST do so. (We wouldn't need laws just to get people to do what they'd willingly do anyway.)
The difference between disabilities in plots vs. disabilities in deciding who gets the employment as an actor seems different in progress. Disabled characters have been here for centuries of drama. (like Patty Duke playing Helen Keller. Could a disabled person play that role eight times a week and still accomplish what Patty Duke did in getting empathy for the disabled? Maybe, but so tough.)
Disabled people earning the paycheck and playing the part always has costs - Ali Stoker playing Ado Annie is a very rare example where a show got valuable publicity and unexpected box office value from this. This is what seems to be new. It could be unfair to expect the same show to deal with both separate issues at the same time.
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@Dejah Would that I had a hundred recommendations to give to this comment.
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terrific comment.
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I think the problem is not whether a disables actor plays Tiny Tim, but whether it is politically correct, or actually a cultural crime to present A Christmas Carol in this day and age. This play offends people of all backgrounds, religions, colors, classes and abilities. Why must we still be subjected to this? Why?
@Neo York I must have missed this memo. How is A Christmas Carol, an essentially universal fairytale of redemption, versions of which exist in practically all cultures, offensive? Are there a lot of dodgy, wobbly adaptations of it all over the place, yes. I'm not sure why that would be a good reason to invalidate the whole story.
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@Neo York
Could you please explain how performing A Christmas Carol is a cultural crime? Genuinely curious
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@Neo York, regarding "Why must we still be subjected to this? Why?"
Because it makes Dickens happy. Remember his joy as living authors turned all holiday-green with envy, when Oprah chose Dickens for her Book Club.
As Long As She Reads Me - featuring the vocal stylings of Charles Dickens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haBeWfW-tYY
1
How wonderful. Not relevant to this story but poignant - misanthropic as Scrooge was, he knows his employee and his family and is saddened at the vision of little Tim dead. Today's bosses and business owners don't know their employees and don't care what happens to them or their families.
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@Bonnie Luternow - on that subject, City Center is having its gala tonight!!!! City Center doesn't ignore the families of the disabled - when someone brings a human rights claim about one of their prized workers, Encores acts like they would have in Dickens' time. They take care of the complainer and their families, they take care of them but good - Jack Viertel and their lawyer Elliot Brown bring the disabled person's family in and gets them to fake evidence and abandon the disabled person for the rest of his life!
I can't stop crying and Bronx-cheering when I see how this amazing man, the Les Moonves of Broadway, is honored and celebrated as he will be tonight.
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