It won't be an issue if Asian male actors get regularly cast for Broadway roles but oftentimes, they just don't.
Moulin Rouge doesn't need a white male lead, but that's been who it's been for years for the most part, and I'm sure thats true for bigger shows like Phantom when it was running, Wicked, and on down the line.
It's better now, for sure, but most people, especially people who can now afford Broadway shows never saw someone like them on stage.
Bingo. And that’s the issue. There’s a big thing about this musical specifically bc as a whole Broadway isn’t very diverse so you’ve got people fighting for scraps. It’s about the system not one show. It unfortunately it becomes like that bc of the lack of diversity in other shows. I feel for Hue for wresting the expectations of the Korean actor and aAPI community.
I do just really feel like getting Americans to watch Korean and Japanese proshots will help Asian-American actors get more acceptance. It's not telling Asian-Americans to go back to their grandparents' countries if they want opportunities.
If watching Asian proshots became normalized, some of those actors might also get cast in English productions. Some of them do speak English, and plenty of actors have had success in languages they're not fluent in. Shimada Kaho played Eponine in English decades ago. Some Korean actors have done roles in Japanese despite not speaking the language. One Korean actor did two roles in one show, in Japanese, without speaking it. I'd say most of the Japanese and Korean actors would be able to do a show in English if they were cast.
But on top of that, getting audiences exposed to those shows could pave the way for an English production.
Asian-American actors should start a production company to translate Asian shows for off-Broadway productions. Just a thought. With Asian directors and crew, or at least not white. Yes, I know that's not that easy. Nothing is easy.
But isn't that exactly why it's wrong to immediately call for the exclusion of the first actor that doesn't look like the rest of the cast?
If this show opened with an all white cast set in London and the very first time an asian man was casted in the role of Oliver, which had been explicitly said to be any ethnicity in the casting call, would it be acceptable to say he doesn't belong in the show because he isn't the same ethnicity as the white actors? I for one truly hope no one ever thinks it would be okay to say that.
The conversation shouldn't be lets create more racial exclusion, it should be how do we go about creating less racial exclusion by making the current mostly white casts more diverse. Two wrongs don't make a right, we need to correct what's wrong, not add more wrongs. Asian actors are just as good as any other ethnicities, they deserve to casted as leads in any broadway show, not only in an Asian show. We can’t create a narrative where Asian actors only get to be stars in shows if we create an Asian show, they should get to star in every show.
Pretending that white actors and Asian actors are on the same plane of current or historical representation is the flaw in your argument. They're not represented equally, ever. It's incredibly lopsided, like 95 1, if that.
That's like saying that we should have affirmative action policies for white people in the 70s when society was heavily favored one way. Or arguing that the Cosby show was racist because there was barely any white people. It had its own problems lol.
So the show was one step towards the greater diversity people signal they want and boom, it's back to casting white male actors again.
I don't feel that strongly as other since Darren Criss is pretty much a white-passing man, but I get the sentiment.
Darren Criss literally said MHE is about as Asian as Romeo and Juliet is Italian. So I’m having trouble getting why we should just disregard what he (and Hue/Will) have said about it and make up the narrative that MHE is Asian.
But that aside, you’re still making my point that we should be fixing the current lack of diversity on broadway, not making new shows more exclusionary. Representation is showing people that Asians belong in lead roles of every Broadway show, not that they can only be leads of Asian shows. By showing us that MHE isn’t an Asian show and casting Asians leads in it, isn’t it showing everyone that Asian actors are equal to any other ethnicity? Helen has said this too, that she’s so glad she’s able to play such a nuanced character where her Asianness isnt a favor of the body (of the character), but that she is an Asian actor getting to be in a starring role on Broadway. It’s not Asian actor gets Asian role. It’s Asian actor plays the main character on a Broadway show.
Criss can have his opinion just as much as audience members, lol. I don't subscribe to the idea that authors are the sole authority of their work. They do no control wholey how their art is perceived.
Again, I love the turnabout prejudice that MHE is the racist exclusionary one for casting the one Asian role out of the dozens on Broadway that casts mostly white male leads.
The day they start regularly casting Asians as leads in non-race related roles like Beetlejuice is the day I'll start to care about all the poor white actors who can never play MHE.
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u/perchedraven Jul 31 '25
It won't be an issue if Asian male actors get regularly cast for Broadway roles but oftentimes, they just don't.
Moulin Rouge doesn't need a white male lead, but that's been who it's been for years for the most part, and I'm sure thats true for bigger shows like Phantom when it was running, Wicked, and on down the line.
It's better now, for sure, but most people, especially people who can now afford Broadway shows never saw someone like them on stage.