Rights to 'A Chorus Line' pulled after theatre removes Black role from show
by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder
On this Friday, Aug 4th, ‘A Chorus Line’ was supposed to open at the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT. However, the entire run has been canceled because the licensing rights were revoked by Concord Theatricals when it was discovered that the theatre had removed the character of “Richie”, which is portrayed by a Black performer, from the production.
In a statement by the community theatre over the closing notice, theatre president Tonya L. Brock stated the following(They have since closed off comments on the post):
“It is with regret that we must announce the cancellation of our production of A Chorus Line scheduled for August 4-13. Due to an unfortunate miscommunication by a hard-working and committed volunteer, the rights-holder has chosen to revoke our rights to the show. A terrible mistake was made, without malice or intent. We wish to formally apologize to Concord Theatricals for the error, and provide assurance that steps are being put into place to ensure that something like this can never happen again.
Our hearts go out to the cast and crew who have worked so hard during the last three months, and we offer our most sincere apology to our ticket-holders who were so excited to come out in support of this show.”
However, that’s only half the story and leaves out the most problematic aspects.
According to screenshots of a since-deleted Facebook post, someone on the creative team stated that they had been unable to cast the role of “Richie Walters”. The character of Richie was written as “an enthusiastic Black man who once planned to be a kindergarten teacher.” He sings the song “Gimme the Ball” during the show.
Apparently, after facing challenges casting the role, the team at the Bradley Playhouse thought the best solution was to simply remove his role from the show. Thus erasing a Black character, who was a composite of actual Black performers who were involved in the creation of the show itself.
One screenshot obtained by OnStage Blog states, that they felt it was “better than casting someone who was not Black to play the role.”
Other screenshots show comments where the theatre defended its efforts in trying to cast the role but “obviously more should have been done.”
Yes, a lot more should have been done and the solution wasn’t egregiously erasing the role from the show.
To make matters worse, it appears the theatre gave up their search as the show began rehearsals because press materials leading up to the opening night still didn't include “Richie” in the cast.
Concord Theatricals, who holds the rights to the show, assumedly were alerted to this and revoked their licensing agreement with the Bradley Playhouse, which meant the theatre had to cancel the entire run of the production.
But there are questions that remain about how this all came to be. And digging a bit further, there are things that don’t make sense to me at all.
First, according to their Facebook page, auditions for the show were back on May 9 and 10. This means they had practically the entire summer to find someone to play the role of “Richie”. But instead, when the cast was announced(which is shown below), they announced it without that role. This means the decision was made early on.
But maybe they continued the search through the summer?
Well, comments on the since-deleted Facebook post pointed out that efforts were made to find someone for the role. But they didn’t disclose what those efforts were. Did they reach out to other theatre communities? Schools? Hold more auditions? We don’t know.
But it’s important to note that they also were having issues casting the role of “Mark Anthony”, who is usually portrayed by a White performer. The president of the theatre herself, Tonya Hopcroft Brock, posted on her own FB page that they were in “urgent” need of men for this role on July 9. But, at least from what is still posted on social media, I do not see the same effort put forth to find someone for “Richie”.
Secondly, I’m hearing from sources that not everyone on the theatre’s leadership was made aware of the script changes. How this allegedly wasn’t communicated to the rest of the team is beyond me. If it had, someone could have spoken up and maybe the right solution could have been made.
Finally, sources also tell me that the cast and crew were allegedly told by the director that Concord Theatricals had approved the removal of “Richie”. It is not known if that was a fabrication from the director or if the director had been told that by someone else at the theatre. Either way, Concord would never approve something like that and they proved that by revoking the rights to the show later on.
What drives me nuts is that all of this could have been avoided if smarter people were in the room. From more recruiting efforts to cast the role correctly, to working with Concord on finding potentially alternative ways to cast the role, to not doing the show at all, more due diligence was needed.
My philosophy is that if you are casting for roles that require specific identities and abilities, you scour the earth to find the right people to play those roles. I once made that mistake with a production I was directing and I swore I would never do it again. I also once saw a community theatre cancel its production of “Kinky Boots” because they couldn’t find a Black performer to portray “Lola”. I don’t love that, but it’s far better than what the Bradley Playhouse tried to do.
This sends a terrible message to BIPOC communities that the Bradley Playhouse will willingly eliminate these roles if they can’t cast them. To put that on those communities is unacceptable.
I also don’t love the scapegoating the theatre does in its statement by placing blame on a “volunteer”. This was an institutional failure from the top. Everyone at the Bradley is to blame.
For the cast and crew who had been preparing for the past couple of months to open this weekend, my heart goes out to them. But this was a massive failure on the part of the theatre and not something that should ever be replicated.
www.onstageblog.com/editorials/2023/8/5/bradley-playhouse-apologizes-but-only-digs-deeper-hole