THE MIKADO and Musical Theatre's Troublesome Time With Racism

"I know there is nothing a white person can say to a black person about race which is not both incorrect and offensive," says a white lawyer to his black associate in David Mamet's 2009 drama, RACE.

But take a look at the history of musical theatre performed in America and you'll find plenty of cases where white writers and composers have approached the subject of racism and, in their attempts to be progressive, have prompted accusations of racial insensitivity. Sometimes they would come immediately and sometimes, as is the case with American productions of Gilbert and Sullivan's THE MIKADO, they would come as attitudes changed, non-white voices were more apt to be heard and our theatre artists and audiences became a more diverse population.

Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's SHOW BOAT, opening in 1927, was the first major Broadway musical to seriously explore America's racial divide, but its opening lyric has continuously been a subject of controversy.

"N- all work on the Mississippi," were the first words heard in Florenz Ziegfeld's original production but many subsequent mountings and film versions used variations like "Colored folks work on the Mississippi," "Here we all work on the Mississippi," and another that won't be mentioned here. Even so, the musical's depiction of African-Americans and the language they use is frequently found objectionable.

In 1947 FINIAN'S RAINBOW condemned racial intolerance by having a bigoted white man magically transformed into a black man so that he can experience racism first-hand. It was done by having the white actor apply makeup to his face, a practice that eventually led to difficulties whenever it was attempted to be produced. The 2009 Broadway revival seemed to solve the problem by simply double-casting the role.

More recently, BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON was critical of the title character's treatment of this continent's native population, but its portrayal of Native American characters by non-Native actors has drawn criticism. When THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS ran on Broadway, ticketholders frequently walked past protesters who objected to having the tragic story of racism against African-Americans performed by African-Americans as a minstrel show. PORGY AND BESS received major revisions before opening on Broadway in 2012, addressing the original's depiction of both African-Americans and women.

Perhaps the most high-profile instance took place in 1991 when MISS SAIGON came to Broadway with Jonathan Pryce repeating his highly acclaimed West End performance as a character with a white father and an Asian mother. American Actors Equity had recently put into place a program encouraging producers to make more roles available to non-white actors and a movement that included playwright David Henry Hwang as its most vocal spokesperson insisted that the union refuse to allow the British actor to work here so that the role may be cast with an American actor of Asian descent.

Two years later, Hwang's FACE VALUE, a comedy about a white actor cast as Fu Manchu in a Broadway musical, closed in previews, but his 2007 approach to the subject, YELLOWFACE, proved very successful Off-Broadway.

As covered in BroadwayWorld, last week the New York Gilbert & Sullivan players cancelled their upcoming performances of THE MIKADO after numerous complaints about white actors in yellowface and an acting style seen in their previous mountings of the piece that some felt mocked Japanese heritage.

Gilbert & Sullivan's 1885 entertainment is a slightly different matter from the above examples because it comes from the world of operetta and, like MISS SAIGON, from another country. Both the genre and the nation have different traditions and attitudes.

Gilbert's intention to spoof his 1880s countrymen's obsession with appropriating Japanese culture would be lost on contemporary audiences, but for 130 years THE MIKADO has traditionally been done in a manner that attempts to be clear that the subjects of ridicule are the British and not the Japanese. This 1966 film of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's production shows the way the operetta has been traditionally performed.

The version of THE MIKADO that might be best known to Americans is this 1960 telecast starring Groucho Marx, here shown with Helen Traubel. The style is very American and very Groucho.

But despite the acting style, the presence of white actors dressed in Japanese costumes, wearing yellowface or not, is objectionable to many. Director Jonathan Miller's 1987 staging for the English National Opera set the piece in a luxurious 1930s English hotel with a design that made the production look like an elegant black and white RKO movie musical of the period. The actors did not try to look or act Japanese, but the text's references to the Japanese setting were left unchanged. Still there are moments in the staging of the opening song, most likely intended to be a satirical comentary, that might certainly offend some viewers.

More and more we hear of theatre companies seeking the assistance of cultural dramaturgs when addressing older theatre pieces that deal with racial issues, but no one person can speak for an entire people and in this nation of immigrants there will most likely always be at least some friction when the subject of race is addressed. What happened with the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players is not censorship, but simply a matter of voices being heard. As more voices are heard perhaps our performing arts will grow closer to reflecting that diverse chorus.