Broadway, Hollywood, and the Problem with The Prom
Among all the necessary and welcome debates around identity in contemporary culture, few have been more pronounced in theatre and film than that of who should be cast to play characters of marginalised identities. From gender identity and religious beliefs to nationality and disability, this issue is occurring with increasing regularity. Eddie Redmayne has called his portrayal of Lili Elbe, who underwent sex reassignment surgery in the early 20th century, in The Danish Girl (2015) “a mistake”[i], which reflects a wider trend of studios and casting directors rightly taking more care when selecting actors for certain roles. It should be said, though, that this is not an entirely new phenomenon – over 40 years ago Vanessa Redgrave, an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Palestine, was attacked when chosen to portray musician and Holocaust survivor Fania Fénelon in Arthur Miller’s television film Playing for Time (1980)[ii]. And while this centred […]
Drama and Cinematic Adaptation: USSO Special Series
The adaptation of plays into films has been a core part of Hollywood’s output in the 95 years since the introduction of sound into cinema. In this time a huge number of the cinema’s finest and best-regarded works have begun life on the stage, Broadway or otherwise. Despite this close relationship, though, the movement of works from the stage to the screen has rarely been straightforward, and is often tinged with controversy, disappointment, and inequality. This special series has sought to examine any and all facets of this relationship, and given that we have had almost two years with minimal attendance at cinema and theatres, it will hopefully illuminate the historic, current, and possibly future challenges faced by theatre artists. Playwrights have made vast contributions to American culture, but it is often only when these works are filmed, from Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) to Grease (1971) that they attain […]
The Golden Years: Hollywood’s Fairy Tale History in the Age of Donald Trump
It is obviously not advisable to get your historical knowledge from cinema, but during the presidency of Donald Trump, this became more tempting than normal. The chance to not only escape from reality, but into a different version of it, was hard to resist, and two films served this purpose in distinct and explicit ways. Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (both 2019) allowed audiences to indulge in the fantasy of a different America. Despite few aesthetic similarities, they both presented alternate histories, representing oases of calm during the incessant media, and often real-life, spectacle of the Trump presidency. Hollywood allows us to imagine that the Sixties, with its music, sexual liberation, and good times (Tarantino is acutely aware that he is working within an established, simplified narrative) not only continued, but was able to absorb America’s reactionary elements with minimal disruption. […]