After being on Broadway for a month now, Disney's "Aladdin" has had astounding praise. With this praise, however, the show has received criticism because of its actors' ethnicities. It is speculated that none of the 34 actors portraying Middle Eastern citizens are actually Middle Eastern in heritage. Disney executives have explained that they cannot deny or confirm these speculations because they are legally not allowed to ask actors and actresses what their ethnic heritage is during the casting proccess. Many anti-discrimination groups are very angry at this, and they want answers.
Although I agree, sometimes you have to stick with the major themes and messages of a story by casting correctly, Aladdin is a show that can be performed different ways. Personally, I think the casting is up to the directors of the show, and whoever they think would portray the roles the best will most likely do just that. The actors do not need to be the exactly right ethnicity to play the parts. That is what makes the most talented actors. To correctly portray someone of a different race, and to do it without mocking them is the perfect balance that an actor needs and is an incredible feat when achieved. If the actors in Aladdin are doing that, it's fine by me.
Kevin Mikuls
yes, kev i agree with you over this matter. i believe that the casting does not have to be exact and that there can be some minor changes and what not to the play, in which this case is the ethnicities.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting idea about what makes one actor more fit for a role than another. For example, Christian Bale is famous for losing and gaining a ton of weight in the movies The Machinist and American Hustle, respectively. He does this so he can really experience what it's actually like to feel hungry or extremely heavy all the time, which is a feeling he couldn't get if he relied on Photoshop. However, it is not apparent that a Middle Eastern actor would have an advantage over an actor of a different ethnicity when appearing in Aladdin, so it doesn't really seem like it should be an issue.
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