Broadway: For Whites Only?

I've been seeing a lot of Broadway plays lately and I can't help but notice the complete white makeup of the  audience.  Really, completely white.  Entire theatres!  I remember seeing John Leguizamo's Freak a few years back and thinking what a pleasure it was to see an entire theatre of mostly hispanic and/or black people laughing and enjoying themselves. 

So we can't blame the prohibitive cost alone.  They paid for Leguizamo.  They're paying for Radio Golf and I'll assume (perhaps naively) The Color Purple. But theatre is still a  separate but equal system.  "Black" shows vs. "Broadway."   I know a good black actor who doesn't want to join the union.  He knows what little opportunity he already has will dwindle to nothing.

Talk Radio:  No blacks in the audience.  Deuce: No blacks in the audience.  110 In The Shade (starring a Black woman):  No Blacks in the audience.  In the Heights: No Blacks in the audience.  Coram Boy: No Blacks in the audience.

What year is this?  Just curious.

--Jim Todd

Comments

[Nelle]

As an African-American actress, I gotta say, unfortunately:

You're right.

I'm not sure what it is...but I went to see Talk Radio today and it's definitely something you notice. As a matter of fact there was a young Hispanic man there as well and we just kind of stuck out.

It was sad.

[JimTodd]

Yup, that's about the situation.