A couple weeks ago I came across a press release that struck me as ridiculously racist. The show was Classic Stage Company’s production of Brecht’s Mother Courage. The hook was that the play (by a white dude), directed by Brian Kulick (a white dude), had original music by the incomparable white dude Duncan Sheik, starring not-white-dude Tonya Pinkins, but was set in CONGO! Because contemporary!
Anyway, tonight a friend came up to me at a bar and asked, “On, have you heard the controversy?”
“No…?” I responded.
It turns out Pinkins has left this star-white-studded production of Mother Courage.
It’s a mystery as to why.