LEGALLY LATINA

Master of Music – Musictheatre

Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten

Artistic Research by Josy Gruijters

Research Coach: Sanne Thierens

Table of Context

1. Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………03
2. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….04
3. Main Research Question…………………………………………………………………..06
4. A new lens: Critical Race Theory………………..……………………………………….07
5. The difference between color-blind and color-conscious casting…………………08
6. Disney and Fantasy Musical-theatre…………………………………………………….12
7. Contemporary Musical-theatre………………………………..………………………….15
8. Exceptional Cases…………………………………………………………………………..20
9. Zooming in: Legally Blonde……………………………………………………………….22
10. Critical Race Theory meets Legally Blonde…………………………………………….23
11. Analysing the Material: Creating My Own, Non-Traditional Elle…………………….25
12. Reflection and Conclusion…………………………………………………………………28
13. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………..30
14. Attachments…………………………………………………………………………………..31

 Abstract

This research is about ethnicity and diversity in theatre, Critical Race Theory, color-conscious and color-
blind casting, and the different dramaturgical outcomes that come with them when looking at certain
musicals. Specifically, I’ll be zooming in on Legally Blonde the musical, exploring if and how the
storylines would change if we were to switch the main character’s ethnicity. I chose these subjects
because it’s something I’m greatly passionate about, since as a non-white young woman, diversity (or
the lack thereof) in the dutch musical-theatre work field is something I find myself worrying about. I
didn’t see how all my hard work during 7 years of studying Music Theatre would ever pay off if I was
only going to be cast as “Tan Side Character #3”.
I quickly went on the search for sources about race and diversity within theatre, as well as looking into
many different musical-theatre performances by actors of all shapes, sizes and colors.
After a lot of discussions with my coach the main research question I ended up with is: “What
dramaturgical layers arise when an actor of color portrays a role that is traditionally performed by white
actors?” I plunged myself into Critical Race Theory, and used it as a lens through which I could look at
musical-theatre in a different way.
After some brainstorming sessions with my coach, we ended up with the following main research
question: “What dramaturgical layers arise when an actor of color portrays a role that is traditionally
performed by white actors?”
By analysing different genres of musical theatre, as well as focussing on one musical and analysing it’s
script, song material, and main characters, I was able to establish what happens to a show when we
play around with the diversity in it’s cast. I find that in some cases it leads to cultural appropriation, while
in others it can lead to not only diversity and representation on stage, but also to a new layer of
empowerment given to people of color. Legally Blonde is, in my opinion, a good example of that.
What I found is that there is not one right answer to my research question. I actually found that for me,
there are two possible answers. If you choose to really look for an extra layer, you will find one, but one
that is quite “in your face” about racism. But interestingly enough, I found that, in my opinion, even
without really trying to achieve this extra layer, it still creeps up on you anyhow.

 Introduction

As a young half Dutch, half Mexican girl, I would visit the theatre quite allot. My mother would take me to
see all sorts of musicals. I remember seeing Mary Poppins in Het Circustheater in The Hague, and
falling head over heels in love with the role of Mary Poppins. During intermission, as I was quietly
singing Chim Chim Cher-ee to myself, a woman seated next to me smiled and asked me: “Would you
like to be up on that stage someday? I bet you would!” I eagerly nodded, because of course, she was
right. It was my absolute dream. But, I remember thinking to myself, silly woman, I could never be Mary.
I don’t look like her at all. I don’t have her fair skin. I could perhaps play Mrs. Corry one day, the sweet
shop owner, since she was the only character played by a person of color.

I had a similar experience when my mom and me went to see Wicked in the same theatre only a year
later. The second Galinda pranced on stage, I became obsessed. How I would absolutely adore to play
such a fun, crazy, beautiful role one day. But alas, I came to the same disappointing realisation yet
again. This part just wasn’t for me. Galinda was the complete opposite of me. Fair skin, light blonde hair,
blue eyes, thin and light eyebrows. It dawned on me that if I wanted to pursue this career, which I did, I
had to limit my dreams. That this was just the way things were going to work for me.

When I was a teenager I was in a local amateur theatre group. It was announced that they were doing
Legally Blonde next year. I was thrilled, I knew all the words to all the songs, and in my mind I was
already going through the ensemble roles who were played by people of color. But I couldn’t help myself
when I turned to my friend and said: “Ugh. I wish I could play Elle Woods. I love her so much.” Elle
Woods is the female lead. She’s energetic, driven, funny, and… blonde. So for me, she wasn’t even
considered an option. “Awww, yeah, I know.” my friend replied. “Maybe if we called it ‘Legally Latina’”, I
joked. He laughed.

At the start of the process of writing my research, in order to find a subject, I was asked what problems I
ran into in my practice. My answer was that I was afraid that allot of dream roles which would be a good
fit for me vocally and which I have been studying for two years, also because my teachers have
recommended them to me (such as a Christine Daaé, Galinda, etc.), I would never actually get to play
because the reality is that our current work field is still quite traditional. Whenever a production comes
along of which the lead roles are traditionally portrayed by white actors, it often stays that way. Casting
directors very, very rarely take “the risk” of casting an untraditional actor for the part (usually these
untraditional actors are given the part of the understudy or alternate). They fear the negative responses
of their audiences. “This isn’t my Mary Poppins!!!”, read the Instagram comments. A person of color in a
lead role of a big production that isn’t the Lion King, Aida or Aladdin, isn’t something that happens allot.
Not in The Netherlands, at least. I am hopeful, though, because things have been starting to change
slowly in theatres all around the world. Black actors have been cast for roles such as Galinda
(“Wicked”), Christine Daaé (“Phantom of the Opera”), Elsa (“Frozen”) and even Elle Woods (“Legally
Blonde”) on some of the biggest stages in the world; in New York and London, for example. The
audiences responses have been good as well as bad. But what an absolute joy it is to see hopeful
actors, all over the world, rethink and reshape their career and its possibilities.

The first thing I did was do research on color-conscious and color-blind casting and how it has been
realised in the past up until recently. I had some great sources recommended to me, such as the books
“Reframing the Musical” and “Theatre and Race” from which I gained allot of useful information. I then
also found an E-book called “Critical Race Theory: An Introduction” which helped me understand the
term, which I was intending to use in my research, very clearly.

Since I wanted to discover what would happen if a POC actress were to portray a traditionally ‘white’
role, I decided to take the material of one of my many dream roles, Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, and
work on it with my teachers. The first thing that came to mind was Elle’s song “So Much Better”, so I
took it with me and worked on it with my acting coach. However, I quickly realised after working on the
song and reflecting on the outcome that these weren’t the results or answers I was looking for. I now
wasn’t sure which was the right path to the answer to my research question.

After meeting with my research coach, I was left with a new plan. I made Critcal Race Theory and
musical theatre intertwine with one another: I further zoomed into Legally Blonde the Musical, it’s
characters and their relationships with the views of Critical Race Theory in mind. Finally, I took those
outcomes and applied them to my practice by working on a scene from the show and attempting to
create my own version of Elle with all the information I had gained thus far. My drama teacher and I
agreed to try different ways of directing the scene, to see if perhaps something dramaturgically new
and different would happen if Elle weren’t white. To my surprise, I found that there wasn’t just one true
answer to my question. Maybe this new dramaturgical layer I was looking for didn’t necessarily just
“happen”, but instead was a choice, an option.

 Main Research Question

Seeing all of these big steps being taken for POC actors on such big stages had (and still has) me very
hopeful and optimistic for the future. For my future. It made me ask myself: Do I dare to start working
roles I have always secretly dreamed of, but never thought I could? Maybe I’ll actually be taken
seriously when I apply to audition for these roles. Maybe, in the future, casting directors will give me an
actual chance and invite me to audition. If that would be the case, I would have to be prepared. I would
have to start working on the material with my voice- and acting teachers right away. So I did.

There were quite some roles on my ‘secret bucket list’, but one role came to mind right away. A role that
has always been high on that list is the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde the musical. This role is
known for its difficulty: It requires high energy for 2 hours non-stop, great comedic timing and a strong
voice that can handle the show’s challenging score. It’s basically an extreme workout, physically ánd
vocally, 8 times a week. She’s most certainly a challenge for any actress that takes on the role.
Of course, as the title of the show may give away, Elle is also known for another thing; being blonde.
Which explains why, traditionally, Elle Woods has always been portrayed by white women.
Around the same time me and my coach were discussing the topic of diversity in musical theatre for my
research, it was announced that there would be a Legally Blonde revival in London at the Regent’s Park
Open Air Theatre. As if that weren’t exciting enough already, when the names of the performers who
would lead the show were shared with the public, it quickly became clear that we were speaking of a
fresh, diverse, untraditional cast. To my absolute delight, for the first time in my life, I was pleasantly
surprised seeing a woman of color with a blonde wig playing Elle Woods, and she looked beautiful.
Courtney Bowman, a black actress, was to portray the female lead. Finally, I thought. This is the stuff of
dreams. My coach and I immediately started connecting this to my research: What changes now that
Elle Woods is black? Does it change the story, or her mutual relationships? Does it add something new
to this show?
These thoughts soon lead to my main research question: “What dramaturgical layers arise when an
actor of color portrays a role that is traditionally performed by white actors?”

But before I dove into that particular question, I had to research a couple of terms, to make sure I knew
what I was talking about. The difference between color blind and color-conscious casting, the
consequences (good ánd bad) they each have, the recent history of people of color on stage, the do’s
and don’ts of untraditional casting, Critical Race Theory, Cultural Materialism, etc. In the next couple of
chapters I would like to introduce these terms to you and illustrate them by using some helpful
examples.

 A new lens: Critical Race Theory

In the next few chapters I’ll be analysing different musicals and roles focusing on ethnicity and race. It
is, however, of importance that before I do so, I am aware of Critical Race Theory (CRT for short), what
it means and how it forms a new perspective to look at these musicals. Considering Critical Race
Theory is like looking through a different lens, a pair of glasses, to bring us to new thoughts and ideas
about the thing we are taking under the lens.
Richard Delgado (American legal scholar considered to be one the founders of CRT) and Jean
Stefancic (American legal academic, Professor and Clement Research Affiliate at the University of
Alabama) state the following in their primer “Critical Race Theory - An Introduction”:

“The critical race theory (CRT) movement is a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying
and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power. The movement considers many of the
same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies discourses take up, but places them in a
broader perspective that includes economics, history, context, group- and self-interest, and even
feelings and the unconscious. Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-
by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including
equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.
… What do critical race theorists believe? Probably not every member would subscribe to every tenet
set out in this book, but many would agree on the following propositions.

• First, that racism is ordinary, not aberrational—“normal science,” the usual way society does
business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country.
• Second, most would agree that our system of white-over-color ascendancy serves important
purposes, both psychic and material. The first feature, ordinariness, means that racism is
difficult to cure or address. Color-blind, or “formal,” conceptions of equality, expressed in rules
that insist only on treatment that is the same across the board, can thus remedy only the most
blatant forms of discrimination, such as mortgage redlining or the refusal to hire a black Ph.D.
rather than a white high school dropout, that do stand out and attract our attention. The second
feature, sometimes called “interest convergence” or material determinism, adds a further
dimension. Because racism advances the interests of both white elites (materially) and working-
class people (psychically), large segments of society have little incentive to eradicate it.
• A third theme of critical race theory, the “social construction” thesis, holds that race and races
are products of social thought and relations. Not objective, inherent, or fixed, they correspond to
no biological or genetic reality; rather, races are categories that society invents, manipulates, or
retires when convenient. People with common origins share certain physical traits, of course,
such as skin color, physique, and hair texture. But these constitute only an extremely small
portion of their genetic endowment, are dwarfed by that which we have in common, and have
little or nothing to do with distinctly human, higher-order traits, such as personality, intelligence,
and moral behaviour. That society frequently chooses to ignore these scientific facts, creates
races, and endows them with pseudo-permanent characteristics is of great interest to critical
race theory.
• Another, somewhat more recent, development concerns differential racialization and its many
consequences. Critical writers in law, as well as social science, have drawn attention to the
ways the dominant society racializes different minority groups at different times, in response to
shifting needs such as the labor market. At one period, for example, society may have had little
use for blacks, but much need for Mexican or Japanese agricultural workers. … Popular images
and stereotypes of various minority groups shift over time, as well. In one era, a group of color
may be depicted as happy-go-lucky, simpleminded, and content to serve white folks. A little
later, when conditions change, that very same group may appear in cartoons, movies, and other
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 cultural scripts as menacing, brutish, and out of control, requiring close monitoring and
repression.
• A final element concerns the notion of a unique voice of color. Coexisting in somewhat uneasy
tension with anti-essentialism, the voice-of-color thesis holds that because of their different
histories and experiences with oppression, black, Indian, Asian, and Latino/a writers and
thinkers may be able to communicate to their white counterparts matters that the whites are
unlikely to know. Minority status, in other words, brings with it a presumed competence to speak
about race and racism1.”

With these ideas in mind, we can ask ourselves a new set of questions when looking at musicals, roles,
and untraditional casting choices. If we take Legally Blonde the musical as an example, we can look at
some of the characters, their relationships to one another and what their significance is in the storyline.

The difference between color-blind and color-conscious casting

You may have heard of the term ‘color-blind casting’, or ‘color-conscious casting’, or both. Now you may
also be under the impression that both these terms mean the same thing, when in reality they mean
quite the opposite.

Harvey Young, African-American cultural historian, theorist, scholar, and Associate Professor of Theatre
and Performance Studies at Northwestern University in the USA, writes the following in his book
“Theatre and Race”: “Should the theatre be colorblind or color-conscious? Colorblind casting ignores
the appearance of an actor, her “color”, and hires the most skilled performer for each part. It is a
practice anchored in the belief that talented actors can play any role and, more specifically, can
quickly convince spectators to overlook whatever gaps exist between themselves and the
character whom they play. Typically, “blindness” pertains only to color. In realistic stagings, directors
and casting agents usually cast actors whose sex aligns with the character as written. Colorblind casting
assumes that color is the least consequential or least significant element when evaluated alongside
age, physical ability and gender and that, as a result, it can be ignored or overlooked. … The appeal of
colorblind casting is that it treats the theatre as a place where universal stories that can be embodied by
any person are told. It offers a glimpse of a utopian future in which no only racial assumptions but also
the prejudices and discriminatory beliefs that can serve as social obstacles no longer exist. For the
actor, the draw of colorblind casting practices is that hiring decisions are premised on talent and not
whether a person possesses the “right look”. The benefits of a colorblind theatre are difficult to ignore.
The argument against colorblind casting practices, as articulated by August Wilson, is anchored in the
fat that most currently produced plays in major professional theatre houses, particularly in Europe and
the United States, are by white male authors and often feature characters originally imagined (by the
playwright) to be white and heterosexual. Although the colorblind push appears to be a move toward
diversifying the theatre, it fails to accomplish this aim in a truly transformative way because it merely
encourages a rethinking of how to present existing “white” plays rather than promoting the development
of new plays by authors of color. … Although he did not invoke the phrase in his TCG address, August
Wilson advocated for color-conscious casting practices in addition to the expansion of
opportunities for minoritized authos. The difference between blindness and consciousness is

1Delgado, Richard; Stefancic, Jean. “Basic Tenets of Critical Race Theory” in Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (New
York University Press, 2001), 6-9.

 that the latter spotlights diversity as providing added value to the performance. Color-
consciousness responds to Wilson’s most biting critique of colorblindness:
We reject any attempt to blot us out, to reinvent history and ignore our presence or to maim our spiritual
product. We must not continue to meet on this path. We will not deny our history, and we will not allow it
to be made to be of little consequence, to be ignored or misinterpreted. (“The Ground on Which I
Stand,” p.497)2”

So, in short: color-blind casting is the practice of casting without taking into consideration the actor’s
ethnicity, skin color, body shape, sex, and/or gender, and color-conscious casting is the practice of
casting while taking into consideration the actor’s skin color, body shape, and other characteristics. And
though it may seem that color-blind casting would be beneficial for POC (short for Person of Color)
actors, it can actually be very harmful by causing some highly inappropriate and problematic casting
choices.

A good example of how color-blind casting would be harmful is the Leonard Bernstein musical West
Side Story: it tells the story of the rivalry between two teenage street gangs of different ethnic
backgrounds in Manhattan, New York. The Jets, a gang of white teenagers, are enemies to the Sharks,
a gang of Puerto Rican immigrant teenagers. When Tony, popular Jet member, falls in love with Maria,
younger sister of Shark leader Bernardo, all hell breaks loose. If this plot line sounds a bit familiar, that
is because it is a modern day telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette.
When casting actors for West Side Story, it is actually very important to look at people’s ethnicities.
Actor’s skin color and ethnicity should be considered when casting them for specific roles, because in
this musical, we speak of Puerto Rican characters. Puerto Rico is a real place, Puerto Ricans are real
people; this doesn’t take place in some made up universe that doesn’t actually exist. If we were to color-
blind cast West Side Story, it would mean that Maria, Bernardo, Anita, and all of the Sharks could
potentially be portrayed by non-Latin actors, while it is of great importance that these people are of Latin
American ethnicity, considering the plot of the musical. It would be very odd to see a bunch of white
actors sing about their “home” in Puerto Rico and how they’ve always dreamt of leaving for America. I
am referring to the song “America” from the first act of West Side Story, in which the following lyrics are
sung:

1961 FILM LYRICS “AMERICA”

ANITA
Puerto Rico,
My heart's devotion—
Let it sink back in the ocean.
Always the hurricanes blowing,
Always the population growing,
And the money owing,
And the sunlight streaming,
And the natives steaming.

I like the island Manhattan

Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

2 Young, Harvey. “Colorblind and color-conscious casting” in Theatre and Race (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), 56-60.




















 GIRLS (chorus)
I like to be in America,
O.K. by me in America,
Everything free in America—

BERNARDO
For a small fee in America.

ANITA
Buying on credit is so nice.

BERNARDO
One look at us and they charge twice.

ROSALIA
I'll have my own washing machine.

JUANO
What will you have, though, to keep clean?

ANITA
Skyscrapers bloom in America.

ANOTHER GIRL
Cadillacs zoom in America.

ANOTHER GIRL
Industry boom in America.

BOYS
Twelve in a room in America.

The character of Bernardo even sings about the racism he and his fellow Puerto Rican gang members
have to deal with now that they’re living in America (“One look at us and they charge twice”). This
musical, apart from telling a love story, also tells the story of Latin American immigrants in mid-1950’s
America. Considering the libretto and song lyrics, it would be inappropriate not having Latin Americans
portray the Latin American characters. Also, think of all the POC actors that could lose work
opportunities if casting directors would choose to color-blind cast this show. It would simply be a great
miss to not use this show to represent more POC performers on the big stage. Now, West Side Story is
of course a good example when it comes to Latino/a representation, but there are many more shows
that demand the presence of other minorities as well. Shows written specifically for the Asian- or the
black community.

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 Another example of a musical in which color-blind casting would not be acceptable is Claude-Michel
Schönberg’s Miss Saigon.
Set in Vietnam, this musical tells the love story of a young Vietnamese prostitute and an American
soldier after they meet during the Vietnam War (1955 – 1975).
The characters may not be real, they may not have ever existed, but the events of which we speak in
this musical are very much real.
Imagine if Kim was played by a white, blonde woman. It would be highly inappropriate; Kim’s story is
that of a young Vietnamese girl who lost everything she had in a war, who had to do whatever she
needed to in order to survive, even if that meant being used and abused. This sadly is a real thing that
happened to so many Vietnamese girls and women. This is their story and they should be the ones to
tell it.
This show is rich in Vietnamese culture. It shows traditional costumes, décor and even traditional music,
all influenced by Eastern culture. When a wedding ceremony is held for Chris and Kim, Kim’s fellow bar-
girls sing them a song in Vietnamese.

BROADWAY LYRICS 2017 “THE WEDDING CEREMONY”

BAR-GIRLS
Chúc vui vẻ ("Wishing you happiness")
Yêu đời mãi ("Love forever")
Vào ngày mớ ("On a new day")

Finally I’d like to discuss The Color Purple, a musical by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray.
The musical is based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker. The show follows the
journey of a young African-American girl named Celie Harris and shows the problems African-American
women experienced during the early 20th century, including domestic violence, incest, pedophilia,
poverty, racism, and sexism. Race and ethnicity is obviously of importance in this plot, making color-
blind casting highly inappropriate and not an option.
Color-conscious casting, instead of color-blind casting, is very important when wanting to tell a story
about a certain ethnicity, because it is their story to tell, not of others. Color-blind casting means seeing
white actors playing Sharks in West Side Story, play Kim in Miss Saigon, play Celie in The Color Purple,
the list goes on. We have to be careful when casting the right people for certain shows or movies, we
mustn’t simply be “color-blind”, for that would allow very poor choices to be made. But, luckily, there are
many other shows in which race and ethnicity play no important part and thus allow for certain roles to
be portrayed by different actors with different skin colors.

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Disney and Fantasy Musical-theatre

Slowly but surely more and more POC actors are finally getting more work opportunities on stage – not
just in The Lion King – playing lead roles they so well deserve for their amazing talents. While I feel all
talents should be celebrated, many other people tend to raise their eyebrow when they see a, for
example, POC Elsa, Anna, Kristoff (Frozen), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), or Snow White (Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs) up on the stage or on the big screen. They feel like it is “not realistic”, “not
authentic”, and “not true to the story”. When asked why, they will often base their arguments on the
origin and/or setting of the story. “The story takes places in x and people from there are white, so it
makes no sense”, they argue. This argument is weak for a couple of reasons I would like to discuss.
Let’s look at Frozen as an example.
A quick introduction to Frozen on stage: When Frozen The Musical finally came to Broadway in March
of 2018 its leading ladies were the incredibly talented Caissie Levy as Elsa and Patti Murin as Anna.
They looked identical to the popular Disney animation released in 2013. A notable difference from the
animation, however, was the actor who played Kristoff (the white, blonde male love interest in the
movie): Jelani Aladdin, who is a black actor. Next to him were also for example Aisha Jackson, a black
actress, who was Standby Anna (by definition of backstage.com: “a standby is an off-stage performer
whose sole responsibility is to cover the lead in a production”, which means that standby’s do not have
a role in the ensemble), and the young Anna’s and Elsa’s, who all had different ethnicities. So
sometimes, there would be a young black Anna and a white adult Anna on stage in the same show. In
February of 2020 a couple of replacements occurred within the Frozen cast; Ciara Renee, a black
actress was cast as Elsa, alongside McKenzie Kurtz as Anna.

(Pictured above we see, from left to right, Ciara Renee (Elsa) and McKenzie Kurtz (Anna) on Broadway)

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 (Pictured above we see, from left to right, the original Broadway Cast of Frozen; John Riddle (Hans), Caissie Levy (Elsa),
Patti Murin (Anna), Jelani Aladdin (Kristoff).)

(Pictured above we see, from left to right, the original animated characters of the 2013 Disney movie “Frozen”; Kristoff, Elsa,
Anna, and Hans.)

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 The story of Frozen takes place in Arendelle. Yes indeed, Disney has based Arendelle on the beautiful
landscapes of Norway. Norway is a country in which the majority of its population is white. But what we
as an audience mustn’t forget, is that Frozen is a fictional story, and that Arendelle is a fictional place.
There is no real information or statistics on which we could base the most common ethnicity in Arendelle
and/or surroundings. Therefore, the people living in Arendelle could have any skin color. White, brown,
black, pink, blue, purple. Arendelle is not a real place, making the argument “But people from Norway/
Scandinavia/that region of the world are white” deficient.
Another reason why this argument is faulty is because being from a certain country doesn’t define your
skin tone. I myself, alongside many, many others, am a living example of this: I was born in Eindhoven,
the Netherlands. As of 2018 the majority of the Dutch population – 76,8%, in fact - is white. But,
surprisingly, I am not, even though I was born here. I am half Mexican, and thus not white. You can’t
base someone’s skin tone or ethnicity on the place they were born.

(Pictured to our left, we see Aisha Jackson as Standby Anna on

Broadway)

Whenever people come with these silly arguments as to why POC performers should not portray
traditionally or originally white characters, those who believe a POC Elsa (or most other fictional
characters, for that matter) is “unbelievable” or “unconvincing”, I like to ask them the following question:
How is it that it is completely believable and convincing to you that the lady on stage is using her
magical ice powers to make it snow eternally, bring a snowman to life, and build herself a giant ice
castle, yet her not being white is the thing that makes you raise your eyebrow?
“But her sister is white! Her parents are white!” First of all, mixed race families are quite common in
today’s society, it is totally possible for two parents to have one white and one black daughter one way
or another. Second and most important of all, we must remind these audiences again that what we are
watching on stage is a performance. The people we are seeing on stage are actors. They are not
actually related, even if they do all share the same ethnicity.

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 Contemporary Musical-theatre

Like I mentioned before, there are many other musicals that tell a story which allows main characters to
have different ethnicities. Ethnicity does not always play an important part in a plot. They do not focus
on a particular ethnic group, a particular skin tone. It is simply of no importance to the story being told,
unlike Miss Saigon, The Color Purple, West Side Story or In The Heights: their plots do focus on
different ethnic groups and their stories, their struggles. So when speaking of musicals in which race is
of no important matter, the better question is; Why not?
Two examples of these sort of musicals I’d like to analyse are Mean Girls and Legally Blonde.

Mean Girls is a musical by Jeff Richmond and Nell

Benjamin and is based on the 2004 movie “Mean
Girls” written by Tina Fey. The plot of Mean Girls
focuses on teenager Cady Heron after she and
her parents move to Chicago, from Kenya. Once
there, Cady discovers the social hierarchy of an
American high school. She makes friends with
outsiders Damian Leigh and Janice Ian, but
eventually joins the clique of popular mean girls –
named “The Plastics” by Damian and Janice –
where she “befriends” Gretchen Wieners, Karen
Smith and their “leader” Regina George.
There aren’t any reasons why Cady Heron,
Regina George or any other character from Mean
Girls couldn’t be black, Asian, Latin American, or
any other ethnicity besides white. The story of
Mean Girls is set in an American high school in
Illinois. America, especially in today’s day and age,
is a big melting pot of different people with
different origins. Their high schools are no
different. It is very realistic to have many diverse
actors up on that stage. Back when the world-famous chick-flick movie of “Mean Girls” was released in
2004, Hollywood was way less diverse than it is nowadays.

(Pictured to our right, we see from left to right, Morgan Bryant (Karen), Nadina Hassan (Regina) and Jasmine Rogers
(Gretchen) in the American Tour of Mean Girls)

All of the lead roles were given to very talented actors, all of which were white.
When Mean Girls premiered on Broadway in April of 2018, the only POC actress to have a lead role
was Ashley Park, who is an Korean-American actress. There were several POC actors with understudy
positions for Cady, Damian, and the three Plastics, however. More POC actors were added to the cast
later on. Examples are Ashley de la Rosa, who was an understudy for Regina George on Broadway and
Krystina Alabado, who was the Broadway Replacement for Gretchen Wieners.
Mean Girls is currently touring across America, with all three of The Plastics played by POC actresses.
These casting choices show a lot of progress to more diversity on stage.

15

 Let us look at Legally Blonde next.

Legally Blonde the musical, written by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, is based on the movie
“Legally Blonde” which released in 2001 with Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Coolidge and Luke Wilson in
its leading roles. It tells the story of Elle Woods, a sorority girl who enrols at Harvard Law School to win
back her ex-boyfriend Warner. She discovers how her knowledge of the law can help others, and
successfully defends exercise queen Brooke Wyndham in a murder trial. Throughout the show, no one
has faith in Elle Woods, but she manages to surprise them when she defies expectations while staying
true to herself.
In April 2007 the musical premiered on Broadway, with Laura Bell Bundy as Elle Woods. Bundy was
later replaced by Bailey Hanks after Hanks won the MTV program “The Search for Elle Woods”. When
the show premiered in London, the role of Elle was given to Sheridan Smith. All of the leads in the casts
of the movie as well as of the musical theatre productions named above were white. Same as with
Mean Girls, the story of Legally Blonde is not focused on a particular race, so it easily allows for
characters of all kinds of origins. Very seldom have there been professional productions in with a non-
white Elle Woods, or any other leading roles for that matter, up until very recently.
In 2022, however, a big step for diversity on stage was made. A Legally Blonde revival in London’s
Regent Park Open Air theatre was announced, with a refreshing, inclusive cast. Courtney Bowman has
taken on the role of Elle Woods, alongside Michael Ahomka-Lindsay as Emmett, Lauren Drew as
Brooke, Vanessa Fisher as Vivienne, Isaac Hesketh as Margot, Nadine Higgin as Paulette, Alžbeta
Matyšáková as Enid, Eugene McCoy as Callahan, Grace Mouat as Pilar, Alistair Toovey as Warner and
Hannah Yun Chamberlain as Serena3.

(Pictured above, we see, from left to right, Orfeh as Paulette and Laura Bell Bundy as Elle Woods. They were in the original
Broadway cast of Legally Blonde)

3 Hughes, Harriet. “Principal Cast Announced For Legally Blonde The Musical” in Official London Theatre, 2022,
https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/legally-blonde/

16

 (Pictured above, we see, from left to right, Bailey Hanks (Bundy’s replacement) as Elle Woods in the Broadway production of
Legally Blonde and Sheridan Smith as Elle Woods in the London production of Legally Blonde)

(Pictured above, we see Reese Witherspoon (middle) as Elle Woods in the 2001 movie Legally Blonde)

17

 (Pictured above, we see the cast of the 2022 London Revival of Legally Blonde the Musical)

(Pictured above, we see Courtney Bowman (middle) as Elle Woods in the 2022 London Revival of Legally Blonde)

18


(Pictured above, we see Nadine Higgins as Paulette (in orange) in the 2022 London Revival of Legally Blonde)

When casting actors for shows (or movies) such as The Color Purple, Porgy and Bess, Miss Saigon,
West Side Story, and In The Heights, color-conscious casting is needed in order to avoid white washing.
By definition of the Cambridge Dictionary, white washing means the following:
“The practice of using only white actors, models, or performers, especially the practice of using a white
actor to play a character who is not white: “Her casting to play a Native American character led to
accusations of whitewashing4.””

White washing is considered racist by many. As an example, we can look at the 2017 Dutch production
of the musical ‘On Your Feet!’. It got some negative response due to it’s “white washed” cast. This
jukebox musical tells the real life story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, both musicians of Cuban origin.
However, when the Dutch cast was announced, many were displeased to see a majority of the lead
roles were given to (very talented, not to be misunderstood) white actors.
When On Your Feet! premiered on Broadway in 2015, two years before its premier in The Netherlands,
the lead roles and ensemble were given to Latin-American actors, which in my humble opinion isn’t
anything but logical.

4 “Whitewashing” in The Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/whitewashing

19

 Exceptional Cases

Like I have mentioned before, within fictional fantasy plot lines there usually is no valid argument as to
why we should not cast non-traditional (read: non-white) actors to star in the lead roles, because since
we are speaking of a fictional world in which there exist magical superpowers, speaking animals, fairies,
monsters, and other supernatural phenomenon’s, one’s skin tone doesn’t make any difference in the
story being “believable” or not. There are, however, a few important exceptional cases. One of those is
the award winning Disney musical The Lion King.

The Lion King is set in Africa. This, of course, is no fictional place, however ‘The Pride Lands’ and ‘Pride
Rock’, home of the main characters and where a majority of the events in the show take place, very
much are fictional places.
The show is heavily influenced by African culture. The music (for which a South African composer was
included to write new music for the show - apart from the its familiar tunes kept from the animated film,
written by the main white composer - to give its true, authentic African sound), which contains many
songs sung in African languages such as IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, KiSwahili, SeSotho, SetSwana and
Congolese, the costume design, and the face paint are all inspired by African ways. Despite the
creative team behind the show being mostly white, The Lion King is considered a ‘black musical’. In
Sarah Whitfields (Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre at the University of Wolverhampton) book
“Reframing the Musical” Dr. Brian Granger (playwright/theatre scholar) states the following: “If a musical
theatre performance requires the presence of a black body to communicate its central meaning, then
that show can and should be understood as a black musical. My argument is that The Lion King on
Broadway is a ‘black musical’, in that it is, like the larger ‘black culture’ it relies on and participates in, an
imagined and imaginative construction; felt and perceived as real because it is performed; existing in
some kind of relationship to the geographic space that is the African continent; made of an array of
intercultural elements but dependent on African diaspora musical/rhythmic expressions; and requiring
the (real or imagined) presence of performing black bodies in a communal/public space5.”
I fully agree with Dr. Granger that when a show is this thickly influenced by a certain culture, it needs
performers of that (or a similar) culture to carry said show. I think it would be odd and offensive to do
otherwise.
Dr. Granger writes: “Again, I want to emphasize the reality that The Lion King on Broadway can be both
figuratively ‘universal’ and culturally ‘black’, but it can never be not-black. The presence of these prideful
lyrics, even if not clearly heard or understood by the audience unfamiliar with Zulu, only naturalizes the
presence of dark people and their dark language (in this case, the beautiful, but intelligible to most
Broadway audience members, Zulu language) within the space.”
I feel the Disney musical Aladdin can be looked at in the same way. Agrabah, the city in which the story
takes place, is indeed fictional, as are all the events in the story (Magical lamps, genies, flying carpets,
and other such things). But Arabia, the region in the Middle-East in which Agrabah is set, is not. It is a
real place with its own cultures, which very much so influenced the 1992 animated Disney film as well
as the stage adaptation. Maybe not to the same degree as Africa influenced The Lion King, since there
is no songs sung in an Arabian language or an Arabian composer who added new music to the already
existing score, but the music (including big opening number called “Arabian Nights”), choreographies
and costumes definitely ask for a culturally appropriate cast to be present. Simply casting a black actor
to play Genie in each professional production is not enough.

5Granger, Brian. “Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway (1997) as a Vital Sign for Understanding Civic and Racialized
Presence in the Early Twenty-First Century” in Reframing The Musical, ed. Sarah Whitfield (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC,
2020), 40-46.

20

 That might as well be the theatre equivalent of saying “I am not racist, I have a black friend!”
Sadly, many professional productions continue to cast white men and women to play the dark skinned
inhabitants of Agrabah.

1992 FILM LYRICS “ARABIAN NIGHTS”

GENIE
Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense
And the heat is intense
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home
When the wind's from the east and the sun's from
the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night
Arabian nights, like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways
Arabian nights, 'neath Arabian moons
A fool off his guard
Could fall and fall hard
Out there on the dunes

(Pictured above, we see the Broadway set design and cast of Aladdin the Musical in their opening number “Arabian Nights”)

2019 FILM LYRICS “ARABIAN NIGHTS”

GENIE
As you wind through the streets
At the fabled bazaars
With the cardamom-cluttered stalls
You can smell every spice
While you haggle the price
Of the silks and the satin shawls
Oh, the music that plays as you move through a maze
In the haze of your pure delight
You are caught in a dance
You are lost in the trance
Of another Arabian night

21

 Zooming in: Legally Blonde

Elle Woods, our leading lady, is a very lovable, sociable character, so naturally she has many different
relations with many other characters. For my research I made a selection of the most relevant ones:

• Warner Huntington III: Elle’s (very soon ex-) boyfriend early on in the musical. They have been
together since high school. At the beginning of Act I Warner breaks up with Elle because he
plans on going to Harvard to become a lawyer, and he isn’t convinced Elle, coming off as a
stereotypical “dumb blonde” at first, is “serious” enough for him, referring to her as a “Marylin”
(Marylin Monroe), while he prefers a “Jackie” (Jackie Kennedy). This of course breaks Elle’s
heart, and makes him the bad guy at the very beginning of this show.

• Emmett Forrest: One of the first people Elle meets at Harvard, and he is the first and only one
there to show her kindness, to believe in her, and to take her seriously. He helps her get started
in this, at least for Elle, new and strange environment of very hardworking and dedicated
scholars. Later on in the musical, they become love interests of one another, and at the very
end of the musical, Elle proposes to Emmett and he accepts. Throughout the entire show he is
seen as the good guy we’re all rooting for.

• Paulette Bonafanté: Elle’s first friend on the East coast. Paulette runs a hair salon, and
encourages Elle to continue to fight for Warner. They support one another and Elle helps her
out by legally getting her dog back after her ex-boyfriend took it from her when they separated.
Paulette is Elle’s side-kick and best friend throughout the storyline, offering her advice in love
and haircare.

• Professor Callahan: The professor in Criminal Law 101 at Harvard. A stern, ruthless, cruel
middle-aged man. He, too, doesn’t take Elle seriously at first, but soon Elle proves herself and
her capabilities, and he slowly warms up to her. Callahan runs a billion dollar law firm, for which
he hires four interns every year. Callahan offers Elle the internship, which she (and everyone
else) believes is because he thinks she is fit for the job, but in Act II it turns out that she was
only offered the internship because Callahan is romantically interested in her. This plot-twist
makes him the ultimate bad guy in the story, demoting Warner to his evil side-kick.

• Vivienne Kensington: Elle’s and Warner’s classmate and also Warner’s new girlfriend at
Harvard. She bullies Elle from the moment they meet, but after seeing professor Callahan hit on
Elle, feeling sorry for her, Vivienne changes her ways, decides that women need to stick
together and encourages Elle to keep going when she wants to give everything up. Even
though near the end of the story Vivienne becomes a likeable character, she is seen as a bully,
Elle’s enemy and competition (academically as well as romantically, since they are competing
for Warner’s love) throughout most of the story.

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Critical Race Theory meets Legally Blonde

Now that we’ve met the main characters, we can ask ourselves what would happen if we would change
their ethnicity, if their relationships would change and how so. I chose to focus on Elle Woods and what
would happen if her ethnicity alone would change, as it would best recreate the scenario of me joining
the traditional Broadway cast as we know it in the role of Elle Woods.

If we were to change Elle’s ethnicity, it could change some of her personal relationships. However,
before we explore those possibilities, I want to make something very clear. In my opinion, yes, Elle
being a POC could change her personal relationships. But that doesn’t mean that they should. It could
be an interesting and conscious decision for the musical’s director to make, for it could highlight the
struggle of being a minority in a white-dominant environment. But as I was looking into these possible
changes, I asked myself; is highlighting a difference in race and/or ethnicity the goal here? In this
particular story? Sure, it’s interesting to explore if and how things would change. But at the same time,
Elle’s (or anyone’s) skin color changing shouldn’t matter at all, because we are all equal. Segregation
because of one’s race and/or ethnicity is something of the past - at least, that is what we’re desperately
working towards. So yes, exploring if and how Elle’s close relationships would change is very
interesting; It could add to the story as we know it a new layer of a woman of color overcoming the
struggles that come with being a minority, and succeeding. But I’m also really fond of the idea that if Elle
were to have a dark skin tone, no one would care. Nothing would change. Because we would live in a
world where no one cares about racial differences anymore.
Having said that, for the sake of this research I did look into what would happen if the people around her
were affected by an untraditional ethnicity:

• Warner Huntington III: My personal opinion is that if Elle were to be a POC character, in this
day and age, it could change their relationship by potentially confirming Warners vision of a ‘not
so serious’ girl even more; immediately the stereotypical image of a black young woman getting
her hair and nails done comes to mind. Instead of seeing her as a typical dumb blonde Marylin
busy shopping all day, he could think of her as a “ratchet” girl: an urbanised term in hip hop to
refer to someone who lacks refinement and grace, may be a Louisianan dialect form of
“wretched”, stereotypically used to describe women of color. Author Philip Houston writes:
“Ratchet is basically a lack of home training - being out in public and acting like you don’t have
ay sense”. When discussing how the term can be traced back to a neighbourhood is Louisiana
Dr. Brittney Cooper, co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective, adds: “You talk to working
class black people [down there]. Ratchedness comes out of that6.” So, for example, a girl
whose biggest concern is what new nail color she’s getting and won’t accomplish anything big
in life, other than maybe owning a hair- or nail-salon of her own one day. Critical Race Theory
tells us that racism is ordinary. It wouldn’t be different in the world where Legally Blonde is set;
the majority of people of color, especially in America, are generally considered to come from
poorer families and have a disadvantage in upbringing, so the likeliness of them getting a high
quality education and then being able to go to high quality universities is lower than the
likeliness of white people going to university, and I’m sure Warner would be aware of that. I
think he is very likely to believe in stereotypes and thus not think very high of a POC Elle and
her possibilities to go far in life.

6 Houston, Philip; Cooper, Brittney. “Ratchet: The Rap Insult That Became a Compliment” in The Cut, 2013.

23

• Emmett Forrest: Considering Emmett is the good guy in this story, I do not think his
relationship with Elle would change if her ethnicity would be different than white. To me, Emmett
seems like the guy who is bright enough to look farther than appearance. I think Emmett loves
Elle for her ambition, intelligence, quirkiness and kind heart, and he doesn’t believe in
stereotypes; he would for sure agree with Critical Race theorists that race was only invented by
society for (white) beneficial purposes. He see that race is merely something that can be seen
on the outside, but that that’s the only thing that separates us, for other than these physical
traits we are all the same.

• Paulette Bonafanté: Since Paulette is written to be Elle’s companion throughout this storyline,
naturally, she’ll always treat Elle with kindness and love. There’s not a trace of meanness or
judgement in the script when it comes to Paulette. I am quite certain that her relationship with
Elle wouldn’t change depending on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or anything else.

• Professor Callahan: When Callahan first meets Elle in his Criminal Law 101 class, of course
he, like everyone else in the room, questions her capabilities and her admission into Harvard
Law. However, I feel that if Elle were a POC, her relationship with Callahan wouldn’t necessarily
change. He remains her professor and she remains his student, that doesn’t (and shouldn’t)
change depending on race, ethnicity, gender, or anything else. If Elle were to be played by a
POC, by a Latina for example, I could see Callahan seeing her through the white male gaze;
sexualising her race, finding her ‘exotic’, ‘promiscuous’ and ‘sensual’. Nevertheless, I’m sure
Elle being a ‘dumb blonde’ comes with it’s own sexual fantasies as well. Like CRT mentions,
racism is very difficult to address, unless we unmistakably ‘see it happen’, by for example not
admitting Elle into Harvard because she isn’t white. But if Callahan were to believe in all the
stereotypes surrounding different POC, and act on them towards Elle, it wouldn’t make him any
different than any other blatant racist person.

• Vivienne Kensington: I think, similar to Warner, Vivienne would be quick to judge a POC-Elle
and quickly assume the ‘ratchet’ stereotype applies to her. Still, even in the traditional version of
the story as we know it, Vivienne is horrible and degrading towards Elle from their first meeting
on. So anyway you choose to slice it, Vivienne is written as the “mean girl” and rival in this
storyline, so whichever ethnicity we decide to give Elle, Vivienne will treat her poorly. In my
opinion, their relationship would remain the same.

24

Analysing the Material: Creating My Own, Non-Traditional Elle

In order to get closer to answering my main research question, I decided, as a non-white person, to dive
into the material of Legally Blonde myself and see what my own - and more importantly, tan - Elle would
look like. Something that came to mind right away was Elle’s big number at the end of act one, So Much
Better. It’s Legally Blonde’s very own Defying Gravity: It’s big, fast, belty, has a great deal of
modulations; the perfect “victory song” to end the first act with a bang. In this song, Elle starts very low
as Warner and Vivienne have just gotten engaged right in front of her. Her mood, however, soon makes
a 180 degrees turn, when Emmett calls to her attention that she is one of the very few that got selected
for Callahan’s precious internship. After everyone doubting her, and starting to feel like she was a lost
cause herself, she proved everyone wrong, and so expresses her ecstasy through this song.
I worked on this song with actor, singer and drama teacher Ad Knippels. We started to work on the song
as I would have any other song; how I could best improve my acting. The first piece of feedback Ad
gave me was to make my acting choices bolder. He told me to really go for it more, exaggerate a little:
this would also make the beat changes cleaner and clearer. As I mentioned before, this song is a beast
to sing and having to go over the top acting-wise (which this song definitely needs) while still
maintaining a solid singing technique, requires allot of stamina. Daring to go for over-the-top-acting and
to let go of maintaining steady vocals was something I struggled with, so for the rest of the work session
we continued fine tuning the beat changes and allowing the dynamics in the music to help me do so
(Even though that was easier said than done, since this song isn’t only a challenge for the actor, but for
the pianist as well: with its very rapid tempo and many modulations).
After working on So Much Better with Ad Knippels and watching the recording7, it quickly started
dawning on me that everything we had worked on, had been focussed on my acting choices and acting
technique. The fact that this particular portrayal of Elle was non-traditional because of my skin tone, was
only mentioned at the beginning of the session, but hadn’t been spoken of once since we actually
started working. This, of course, isn’t strange at all, because naturally a white actress prepares and
works on her acting choices in the same manner a black, brown, or purple actress would. When
comparing my own version to Laura Bell Bundy’s version, acting wise, our choices weren’t that different
at all. Don’t misunderstand me: I don’t mean that every actress makes the same choices and is an exact
copy of the other when portraying a role; it’s just that that has nothing to do with ethnicity. The color of
your skin doesn’t influence the way that you would act through song. The way a director could
potentially create a new layer to Elle’s story if she were POC, is not by changing Elle (for as I had
discovered in my work session, that simply isn’t possible. You can’t “act white” or “act brown”), it’s by
influencing the way people (the other characters as well as the audience itself) perceive Elle. I struggled
with this for quite a while, because I wasn’t sure how I was going to take the research I’ve done so far
into practice. After another meeting with my research coach, we decided that another way to possibly to
this was to not work on Elle’s solo-material, but working on a scene with the characters that surround
Elle. Ad could then become the director and together we could figure out how to specifically focus on
Elle being non-traditional. The scene I chose to work on is a scene that includes nearly every main
character in the plot. I chose this because I thought it would be interesting to see how each character
would or wouldn’t respond differently to an untraditional Elle. The scene takes place right after Elle gets
kicked out of her Criminal Law 101 class after Vivienne purposely made her look bad in front of the
entire class as well as professor Callahan. Emmet tries to comfort her, but after a small discussion with
Vivienne, Elle finds out Vivienne and Warner are together. I translated the scene from the original
Broadway production (which is free for everyone to enjoy on YouTube) to dutch, as if we were in a dutch
production of the musical, since I’ll likely be working in the dutch work field for the majority of my career.

7 Gruijters, Josy. “So Much Better - Working with Ad Knippels” March 2023, video, https://youtu.be/i3NjTPUvxfg

25

 SCENE ‘LEGALLY BLONDE8’

Emmet: Hey! Woods komma Elle. Luister, ik ben in mijn eerste jaar ook ooit de klas uit gezet, het is
vreselijk. Maar vertrouw me, je carrière in rechten is niet voorbij.

Elle: Carrière in rechten? Zó niet het probleem. Luister, ik moet gewoon terug die les in met Warner.
Kun je me helpen?

Em: Ja. Kom morgen terug, en zorg dat je je hebt ingelezen.

E: Juist. (Tegen Vivienne) Hey, pardon. Waarom zou je dat een ander meisje aandoen?

Vivienne: Wat aandoen?

E: Wij meiden moeten elkaar helpen. We kunnen niet zelf goed uit de verf proberen te komen door
elkaar omlaag te halen.

Vivienne: Ha… Ik haalde je niet omlaag, jij was gewoon niet voorbereid. Probeer volgende keer eens
een boek open te slaan. Maar ik moet je waarschuwen: er staan geen plaatjes in.

Em: Ik geef jullie dames wel even een momentje.

V: Gaan er niet ergens meisjes los zonder jou?

Warner: Hey, Elle…

E: Oh, Warner, godzijdank dat jij hier bent…

W: Ja. Hey, Elle, het spijt me heel erg, maar -

E: Wat spijt je?

V: Warner? Is er iets wat je graag wil delen met Elle?

E: Ken jij haar?

W: Ja, Elle… Vivienne en ik gingen samen naar kostschool, en nu is ze mijn vriendin.

E: …Sorry, ik hallucineerde net even. Wat zei je?

V: Hij zei dat ik zijn vriendin ben.

E: Vriendin?!

8Laurence O’Keefe, Neil Benjamin, Jerry Mitchell. “Legally Blonde The Musical (Pro-shot MTV)” April 2007, video, 32:25,
https://youtu.be/RiX-EJA8n4w

26

 The goal was to specifically direct the scene so that the focus was on Elle not being white, and what
that would mean for her relationships with the other characters, and thus what possible different layers
and/or outcomes that brings to the story. The first time we ran the scene, we just went with what came
naturally. We didn’t purposely change anything to draw the attention to Elle’s skin tone yet. This is also a
choice a director can make: To just leave the show exactly as it is, without anyone acknowledging
the fact that Elle isn’t white. But, because we were looking to specifically make it about Elle’s ethnicity,
we started implementing some new directorial choices. For example, we made Emmet jokingly put on
an ethnic accent (Surinamese, Moroccan, Turkish, or a blend of all of these) when greeting Elle.

Emmet: Hey! (With thick ethnic accent) Woods komma Elle. Luister, ik ben in mijn eerste jaar ook
ooit de klas uit gezet, het is vreselijk. Maar vertrouw me, je carrière in rechten is niet voorbij.

We also made Warner act as if he and Vivienne were superior to her for going to boarding school -
because how could someone like Elle ever get into a boarding school? - and made Vivienne treat her as
if she were dumb and is hardly capable of speaking dutch by over annunciating and speaking slowly.

W: Ja, Elle…(snobby and superior) Vivienne en ik gingen samen naar kostschool, en nu is ze mijn
vriendin.

E: …Sorry, ik hallucineerde net even. Wat zei je?

V: (Very slowly and over annunciated) Hij zei dat ik zijn vriendin ben9.

Implementing these racial microaggressions (“A microaggression is a comment or action that negatively
targets a marginalized person or group. A microaggression can be intentional or accidental. It is a form
of discrimination10.”) made this scene quite painful to watch, according to Ad and fellow classmates
watching. This, again, is a choice you could make as a director: To purposely make the story about
race and to highlight the discrimination POC-Elle has to deal with constantly while she’s at
Harvard.

9Gruijters, Josy. “Elle’s Scene - Working with Ad Knippels” Marc 2023, video, https://youtu.be/JrAU3URsqxQ

10Haghighi, Anna Smith; Johnson, Jacquelyn, PsyD. “What to know about microaggressions” in Medical News Today, 2022

27

 Reflection and Conclusion

I find that even when comparing the “untouched” first version of our POC-Elle-scene with the original
Broadway production scene, some lines make me think twice about its meaning. “Maar ik moet je
waarschuwen, er staan geen plaatjes in.” and “Gaan er niet ergens meisjes los zonder jou?” have me
wondering: Does Vivienne say this to Elle because she thinks she’s simply dumb, or because she
assumes the ‘brown/black people are dumb’ stereotype is true? When comparing the second version of
our scene with the Broadway version, the difference is needless to say way more obvious. By directing
the scene (or the entire show, for that matter) in the way that we did the second time, Legally Blonde
isn’t only about discovering your own strength anymore, it’s about racism.
At the end of our work session, Ad Knippels shared an interesting anecdote with us. He told us that
when he went to see the dutch production of Les Miserables, the understudy for Fantine, who is POC,
went on. With the original Fantine not going on that day, she was the only POC in the entire cast. Ad
told us that her being the only one, and to then get heavily abused on stage, made him feel a little
awkward, and made him see an extra unspoken layer of racism in the show. The script was original, it
hadn’t been changed, it was directed just as it had been in the past. But still, he saw something that he
hadn’t noticed before, just because Fantine was the only POC on that stage. He told us that working on
the scene in the way that we did reminded him of this.

After working on Elle’s material with my drama teacher, I found that when putting on a production of
Legally Blonde with a nontraditional, POC actress playing Elle Woods, the director has two choices:
1. To just leave the show exactly as it is, without anyone acknowledging the fact that Elle isn’t
white.
2. To purposely make the story about race and to highlight the discrimination POC-Elle has to
deal with constantly while she’s at Harvard.

I think going with the second option can definitely be a bold choice, but at first, I did have my concerns
about it: I felt like if you overdo it with the microaggressions and racist directorial choices, it might be
“laid on too thickly”, it might be “too painful to watch”, and we might lose the original story of a girl no
one, not even herself, believed in very much, but who then discovers her own power; the story would be
about racism. But then I caught myself and realised that racism in real life isn’t always subtle either. It is
very painful to watch, and it might be good to show this to the audience, to hold up a mirror in front of
them and confront them with this harsh reality. After all, that’s what theatre is all about. This option could
make for a bold, confrontational, new version of Legally Blonde, different from all the other versions
there have been.
Still, I can’t help feeling that if as a society our goal is to eliminate racism and normalise diversity, the
way to do that is to start doing exactly that, right now. Unless you chose to tell Elle’s story differently like
we mentioned above, we need simply to make our actions meet our words when putting on a production
of Legally Blonde: Whether Elle is white, Latin-American or pink from head to toe, whether Warner is
Asian, whether Vivienne is African-American, doesn’t matter. Elle is just a person, who discovers a great
power within herself. Anyone, no matter where you come from, has the ability to do so. Plus, as I also
stated at the beginning of this chapter, without even trying to emphasise Elle’s non-traditional
appearance, I’m sure a lot of people, myself included, will be touched upon seeing a POC Elle
overcoming her struggles and succeeding in an environment where she is in the minority and less likely
to succeed in the first place. Perhaps, nothing extra is needed to achieve such a ‘hidden layer’. I hope,
after seeing how it can be done, that the rest of the world takes London’s Regent Open Air Theatre’s
example in not always sticking to traditional ways, and opening doors for all kinds of actors across the
globe.

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During the process of writing this research I struggled for quite a while to find a way to connect all of the
information and knowledge I had collected into my practice. After all, I alone could not change the lack
of diversity on Dutch stages, nor “prove” to everyone that untraditional casting can be a good thing. I
took on many different paths in trying to do so, to then realise that what I was attempting had no
connection to the work I had done previously (when I first worked on Elle’s song So Much Better, for
example), until eventually the realisation came to me that I had nothing to prove. All I had was a subject
I am very interested in and passionate about, a research question, and all I had to do was to take a leap
and experiment with a bunch of ideas in order to try and find an answer to said question. I now believe
that there might be multiple answers: it all depends on what story you want to tell.
When looking at the two options I ended up with, I think that if I were to ever be cast as Elle Woods, my
preference would definitely go out to option number 1, for like I said, I believe that is the quickest way to
normalise diversity without it having to be “a thing” first; people will just see person, not a Latin-
American person. Even though I get that option 2 has a message as well, I am pretty certain that that
message will still come across, silently pass through the minds of the audience, without having to
heavily layer it on. I hope that in the near future, it never has to be “a thing” again.

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 Bibliography

Article

Haghighi, Anna Smith; Johnson, Jacquelyn, PsyD. “What to know about microaggressions” in Medical
News Today, 2022
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/microagressions

Houston, Philip; Cooper, Brittney. “Ratchet: The Rap Insult That Became a Compliment” in The Cut,
2013
https://www.thecut.com/2013/04/ratchet-the-rap-insult-that-became-a-compliment.html

Hughes, Harriet. “Principal Cast Announced For Legally Blonde The Musical” in Official London Theatre,
2022
https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/legally-blonde/

Book

Granger, Brian. Reframing The Musical, ed. Sarah Whitfield (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2020)

Young, Harvey. Theatre and Race (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013)

E-book

Delgado, Richard; Stefancic, Jean. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (New York University Press,
2001)

Video

Laurence O’Keefe, Neil Benjamin, Jerry Mitchell. “Legally Blonde The Musical (Pro-shot MTV)” April
2007, video,
https://youtu.be/RiX-EJA8n4w

Website

Ashman, Howard; Menken, Allen. “Arabian Nights”

https://aladdin-wiki.fandom.com/wiki/Arabian_Nights

Bernstein, Leonard; Sondheim, Stephen. “Song Lyrics”

https://www.westsidestory.com/america

Boublil, Alain; Maltby, JR., Richard; Schönberg, Claude-Michel. “The Wedding Ceremony”
https://misssaigon.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wedding_Ceremony

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 The Cambridge Dictionary, “Whitewashing”

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/whitewashing

Attachments

Video

Gruijters, Josy. “Elle’s Scene - Working with Ad Knippels” March 2023, video,
https://youtu.be/JrAU3URsqxQ

Gruijters, Josy. “So Much Better - Working with Ad Knippels” - March 2023, video,
https://youtu.be/i3NjTPUvxfg

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