Suppose John O'Hara, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart had all been Black Americans, wrote a musical set in a black community in 1940s Chicago, called it "Pal Joey." and saw it performed on Broadway more than once and also made into a film.
Suppose then someone came along and said "let's reset this in a white community in Chicago in the 1930s" and bring it back to Broadway in that fashion.
Can't you just hear the screams of cultural misappropriation? Yet another example of white Americans ripping off Black creativity.
Well, of course (according to the Oct. 5, 2021 New York Times), the situation is the reverse. The three men mentioned in the first sentence were white, the original was performed with white actors and it was set in the 1930s. A new version, apparently headed for Broadway has remade the musical Black and set it in the 1940s.
There are apparently a host of other changes as well, including the addition of several songs that weren't in the original.
I'm tempted to say all of this has left me "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," but in fact, it has left me simply wondering when what is bad for the gander will also be bad for the goose (or vice versa).
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