I have been following closely the development of the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical in London. So far the publicity has been very limited: a vague teaser trailer, others featuring the talk of creators, some of their prep, and preview audiences, some costume sketches, and interviews.
A few weeks ago there was some negative media attention to their casting call for a non-white actor which has now been removed, but they are clearly still looking for kids with particular characteristics. (Given the four American Matildas currently on Broadway doing British accents I have no problem with this).
CHARLIE BUCKET8 – 12 yr old boy, under 4ft 8inA talented actor with innocent appearance, lean frame and natural singing voiceVERUCA SALT9 – 12 yr old girl, under 4ft 8inA charismatic actress and excellent ballet dancer (grade 4 or above)VIOLET BEAUREGARDE9 – 12 yr old girl, under 4ft 8inA skilled rapper with good rhythm and a brash attitude. Able to do an American accentMIKE TEAVEE9 – 12 yr old boy, under 4ft 8inA highly physical street dancer with lots of energy. Able to do an American accentAUGUSTUS GLOOP9 – 12 yr old boy, under 5ftA corpulent boy and a good singer. Able to do a German accent
And now, hurray, they’ve released a few photos of the production itself!
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the worrisome issue about the casting of Violet wasn’t that they were only auditioning Black actresses; it was that they seemed wedded to embracing a cheesy and damaging stereotype — mm-hmm GURL!-two-snaps-up-oh-no-she-dint! given that white kids buy as much hip-hop as black kids, it made no sense, and it would be nice if ALL the casting were colorblind, not just that one part. now that the racial descriptions have been removed, it seems that at least they know enough to HIDE it now if they’re not actually gonna go with colorblind casting.
(side note: i’m seeing The Jungle Book musical in Chicago in August! will report back!)
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The casting breakdown actually said non-white, not black. People just assumed they meant black by saying this. One of the current Violets is white anyway……..
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