‘Prince of Egypt’ Concert Cancelled over Lack of Diversity

The ‘Prince of Egypt’ cartoon some of us knew as kids (the one about Moses) has been turned into a musical, and a free concert reading of the new musical was cancelled after artists and fans criticized the casting, according to the New York Times.

The concert was to take place this month at the Bay Street Theater, a nonprofit in Sag Harbor, N.Y. The theater announced on Facebook on July 28 that the concert would not take place and apologized to the community.

Although the show is set in ancient Egypt, most of the cast selected for the performance was white (or so publicity led the public to believe, said the NYT), and social media was quickly up in arms about it.

One post got to the crux of the issue: “You know, this wouldn’t have to happen if you had bothered to search for actors/singers of Middle Eastern descent. #justsaying #saynotowhitewashing,” wrote Tiann Nerng Chong.

Another post from David LeMarr also jumped in to add, “Tell the story RIGHT or don’t tell it at all.#theRightWayNotTheWhiteWay.”

While the Facebook discussion soon devolved into a debate about the critically acclaimed new musical ‘Hamilton,’ the fact that the reading was cancelled due to lack of diversity (or authenticity, depending upon your view) shows us that people are paying attention to “whitewashing,” as Chong and others have called it.

It’s also led to a debate over who should have been cast: Egypt is in Africa, so should the cast have been black? After all, there were many calls for ‘POC’ to be cast (‘People of Color’), a term usually used for African Americans. Should they all have been Arab? What if Iranians had been cast?

It also brings us back to the “whitewashing” of Hollywood, which we wrote about recently. It’s worth noting, however, that all the to-do was over a one night free reading. The cast performing the reading are not necessarily the same who will/would have performed on Broadway.

WE SAID THIS: What do you think about so-called ‘whitewashing’? Should the reading have been cancelled? Tell us in the comments!