By Kate Martinez
Edgewood College’s fall production of “The Drowsy Chaperone” will reflect on social norms and issues in the original Broadway musical while finding ways to be culturally sensitive.
One of the larger social issues that is reflected in the musical is the use of “yellowface” in the original Broadway production. “Yellowface,” commonly used in Hollywood in the 1930s, involves Asian characters played by white actors using makeup to mimic East Asian facial characteristics based on stereotypes.
The musical is being directed by Jeanne Leep, who has been at the college since 2001. Performances of “The Drowsy Chaperone” began on Nov. 15.
“It has this sort of commentary on social norms and the history of musical theatre and things that in the past were socially acceptable that we’ve moved on from and we look back now and go ‘oh, that seems sort of wrong,’” Leep said.
In Edgewood College’s production of “The Drowsy Chaperone” producers will not be staging a controversial “Enchanted Nightingale” scene, as has been done in other productions of the show, and will only be playing the music. The scene, Leep said, “is sort of a chinoiserie, meaning a romanticized version of Chinese culture that was popular in the twenties and thirties.”
“People who were trying to be complementary but had no concept and who had never actually visited some of the Asian countries they were romanticizing, which lead to the idea of people who were not Asian playing Asian characters, which has come to be known as ‘yellowface,’” she said.
“That is one issue that we’re looking at and trying very hard to discuss respectfully. We had a faculty colloquium about that issue and other issues,” Leep said.
“One of the other issues that was discussed at the faculty colloquium was the use of the word ‘negro’ in one of the scenes in the production. The exact line from the musical is “I’m singing a song an old negro taught me, a Dixie remedy for wedding-day jitters.”
“In terms of that particular line, ‘negro’ is not in the same category as ‘n word,’ but it makes people uncomfortable still so we’re saying it and we’re talking about it in the program and we’ve talked about it a lot as a cast.” Leep said.
Leep acknowledges that the American past is reflected in old musicals. “Is it so vile that we can’t do those musicals anymore?” Leep said. “Do we turn a blind eye to it? Do we contextualize it in some way? How do we respond? It kind of begs all of those questions, and gives us a chance to discuss them.”
“We’re hopefully empowering the cast to be able to discuss it with friends and family if they have issues with it, and I think that’s part of what we’re supposed to do as a college is to raise these questions and have these discussions percolate throughout our community.”
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