|
Black British Musical in Westend. |
|
|
|
|
A British musical with an all black cast opens on Monday hoping to smash the glass ceiling campaigners say has confined home-grown black drama to the theatrical fringe.  Black Brit.
After eight years in gestation and rave reviews elsewhere, The Big Life starts up in London's West End as the first ever black British musical set in a black British community to enter the city's theatre heartland.
"It has been a struggle to get this play to the West End because there is a glass ceiling placed there by institutional racism in British theatre," said retired theatre director Philip Hedley who has been campaigning on behalf of the play.
"This show could help change the face of London theatre and make a breakthrough for black theatre."
But a spokesman for the Society of London Theatre -- an umbrella group representing 58 theatres in the city including all in the West End -- rejected the accusation of racism, pointing to a number of musicals by and about black Americans.
"We put a show in the West End according to what we expect the market to be."
And for theatre critic Charlie Spencer it is less a question of innate racism than the fact that black British theatre audiences tend to avoid the high priced West End.
"For theatre promoters the bottom line is vital.
Based on William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, the play examines the racism experienced by the first wave of black immigrants to arrive in Britain in search of a fresh start.
While recording the serious problems faced by the immigrant community in Britain, The Big Life never abandons its optimism or good humour. |
