The Age of Political Correctness Was: Nell Carter Blah blah blah.

[Biff McKeldin]

> From: LesT...@aol.com

<snip>

> The most ridiculous example I can think of is the cleaning up of the N
> word in "Showboat". It's taken out to make the show politically correct
> for the 90's. The show is ABOUT racism people! How are you going to show
> the ugliness of racism if you clean it up for the stage? The fact is,
> during that era, black people were PROPERTY and treated as such.
> Caucasians talked about them right in their presence, using the N word.
> People today need to be reminded of the past traditions and thinking
> the current era evolved from. Clean it up as you may, there are still
> horrible predjudices today that flourish. People in "the family" of the
> theatre community know exactly what I mean.

Les,

I disagree with your arguments against non-traditional casting.
Nevertheless I respect them, but I would like to say that it was
Hammerstein himself who "cleaned up" SHOW BOAT (re: the "N----- word" in
the lyrics to "Cotton Blossom" and "Ol' Man River"). I've read
conflicting stories that it was changed as early as the London premier
(1932?) because Paul Robeson was offended by the lyric, and that it was
changed in 1946 because Hammerstein felt that an audience in 1946 would
feel differently about the use of the word than they would in 1927.

Of course you may have been referring to the dialogue, and I confess to be
unsure where the new Prince revival (which I have some qualms about --
including the emasculated second verse to "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" --
though it was better than rewriting the lyric as somebody did for the 1966
Lincoln Center revival). It was my understanding that Prince would retain
the use of the word when it was in the mouth of a villain (like Pete), but
would change it when it was from the mouth of a sympathetic character.
Frankly, I don't have a problem with this. It may not represent
historical verisimilitude, but an audience today is sensitized sooo
differently toward the word that to keep the original would paradoxically
*change* the author's original intention -- or certainly distort it (the
audience could conceivably be so focused on the taboo word that it would
fail to pick up what else was going on in the scene).

I'd love to get hold of Miles Kreuger and find out how extensive
Hammerstein's rewrites were for the '46 production, because for all I know
Hammerstein may have removed the word from the script himself.

Anyway I would like to say I don't appreciate name-calling (and this isn't
directed at you, Les). Yelling racist or PC at people is *not* an
argument, nor does it (at least in my eyes) bolster any argument a person
is attempting to make. Furthermore it makes it harder to fight racism
when it's real if people continue to throw out the word whenever somebody
disagrees with his/her point of view. And shouting charges of "PC" only
shows an ignorance of the phrase to begin with (it was a phrase coined by
the left to mock those in their own camp who were humorless extremists).
Frankly I'm just as suspicious of people who use this phrase
indiscriminately as I am of people who shout racist when it's so obviously
not true.

Ranting again...

Biff