What's Going On With Hamilton's Casting Call?

By Emily Chambers | Social Media | March 31, 2016 |

We’re really into Hamilton around here. Like very much into Hamilton. I’ll ask you to note the date on Genevieve’s post introducing us to the smash musical. That’s right, folks, 2015.

But there’s been a story floating around the interwebs that some people are using to prove Hamilton is actually a little bit more Peggy. See, because Hamilton is primed for world domination via its national tour, the producers sent out a casting call earlier this month that specifically stated

looking for non-white men and women, ages 20s to 30s, for both the Broadway production and upcoming national tours. No theatre experience necessary.

And if you couldn’t guess that the issue is the “non-white” part, welcome to the internet.

One of the best parts of Hamilton has been the racial reimagining of the cast. It simultaneously draws attention to the fact that the country wasn’t founded exclusively by white men, while also diminishing the importance of the founders’ race at all. Would it make a difference if you hear you’re getting all of this good shit from a Puerto Rican Hamilton?

But the historical and artistic importance, the casting call does admittedly create a thorny situation for today’s world. Because after decades of lobbying and campaigning to create anti-discrimination laws against racial casting, some people, specifically an attorney and an actor’s union, believe the ad violates New York’s Human Right Law. Which again is a difficult issue to navigate. Inherent to Hamilton’s story is casting, which plays with our perception of race, but in a practical sense, that does mean excluding white actors from a chance at performing in what is arguably the best musical in a decade. The principle of the matter is that if this were a casting call for whites only, we would be justifiably pissed.

Wait, what’s that?



Weird that @ActorsEquity didn't speak up when this casting notice was posted. @HamiltonMusical pic.twitter.com/LmOGE3vbrI — Jamie McGonnigal (@McBenefit) March 31, 2016

Oh no, see, it’s totally different. That second one just says that the characters are white. And we all know how easily the general public accepts people of color playing “white” characters.

So what’s actually going on with the Hamilton casting call is that either some assholes want to make a name for themselves by taking on the biggest show on Broadway or some assholes are screaming “reverse racism” and not realizing that that isn’t a thing.

Sorry to bother you, Hamilton. You just keep at it.



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Source: Broadway World

Emily Chambers is a Staff Contributor for Pajiba. You can follow her retweeting other people on Twitter.