I'd do anything

[kleinboet]

Now I have to be very careful how I say this without sounding racist. The musical OLIVER was written about life in London a long time before we had immigrants.

Having watched the show, I think personally that it would be extremely silly to cast a coloured girl as Nancy! She would stick out like a sore thumb as the show was in the time when there were NO coloured girls walking the streets. It would be worse than casting a coloured girl as Snow White, as this story is supposed to be about life in London a looooong time ago!

 

What do you honestly think?

Edited April 12, 2008 by kleinboet

[captain cojones]

im not so sure about there being no africans etc in london years ago.

the british were bringing slaves from , i belive the 1600´s,and only abolished slavery in the early 1800´s.

so there must have been a few knocking about.

[Huge_Vitae]

Watch who you are calling a Nancy.

[kleinboet]

CC - I know about the slaves - they were just that! They weren't walking the streets of London, let alone being the girl-friend of Bill Sykes!

[medwaygreen]

use your imagination.

[Sportsman]

London probably had about the same proportion of immigrants then as they do now. Having said that, it's a musical, not a documentary.

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Gentlemen I think you will find that slaves coming to the UK was stamped out before the total abolition of slavery. It was not considered the done thing in the UK.

 

My very early days were spent in Croydon and seeing any coloured person was a rarity which made kids like me stare and get told off for doing so. There were certainly no coloured children in our classes back then.

 

I am therefore inclined to agree with KB on this issue from the point of view of correct portrayal, but from the artistic side of things it honestly does not matter one way or the other.

[hembo]

i had a similar conversation about this with my wife about this very thing.but the show is a based on natural talent so colour should have little to do with it.

 

however if mark lester played the role of kunta kinte (in roots when he was a young boy) i can see your point of view.

[captain cojones]

CC - I know about the slaves - they were just that! They weren't walking the streets of London, let alone being the girl-friend of Bill Sykes!

they proberly were though,walking the streets,some of them.

when in increasing numbers,over the years, they became free,culminating in the early 1800´s with all of them, the streets are where, i should imagine 99.9% of them ended up.

as for the colour of his girlfriend,what did dickens say?

(genuine question)

[kleinboet]

I am not trying to be argumentative on this issue. IMHO this was fiction based on fact (people really DID live like that!) so why fiddle with the facts as they were written!! If you want entertainment, so be it. I like a bit of truth in a 'historic' musical!