Minnesota Theater cancels Cinderella production because cast is “too white”
- Chanhassen Dinner Theaters was scheduled to host a Cinderella production later this year.
- However, the show was abandoned when its artistic director noticed that the cast was overwhelmingly white.
- Chanhassen Dinner Theaters recently hired a diversity consultant and established new “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” protocols
- A production of Footloose, which will have a more diverse distribution from a racial point of view, is now planned for 2022
A local theater in Minnesota canceled a production of Roger & Hammerstein’s Cinderella because its cast was “too white.”
Chanhassen Dinner Theaters was scheduled to host the show later this year, before its artistic director stepped in to address its lack of diversity.
“It was 98% white,” artistic director Michael Brindisi told Pioneer Press on Wednesday after analyzing who was distributed.
However, Chanhassen – located southwest of Minneapolis – has an overwhelming white population, and the racial demographics of the distribution were not strikingly different from the city as a whole.
According to the latest census, 92.5% of the people in Chanhassen are white. Less than 3% of residents are Hispanic, while 1.1% are black.
No photo of the Cinderella cast was officially released before the show was abandoned.
Chanhassen Dinner Theaters canceled a production of Roger & Hammerstein’s Cinderella because its cast was “too white”
Dinner and show! Chanhassen – located southwest of Minneapolis – has an overwhelming white population, and the racial demographics of the distribution were not strikingly different from the city as a whole.
Cinderella has been performed around the world for decades and usually has a majority white cast. Pictured: a Cinderella show on Broadway in New York in 2013
In a statement released on Monday, the theater said: “After careful analysis and our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, we have decided to cancel our future production.
“In addition to changing future programming, we are establishing new pre-production protocols. We will invite (and pay) BIPOC artists to analyze the production together with our creative teams through a new objective Diversity, Equity and Inclusion … This conversation will take place before the design and casting process begins. ‘
Chanhassen Dinner Theaters has hired a diversity consultant and promised a commitment to “consciously casting identity and becoming a more deliberate anti-racist theater.”
Meanwhile, the organization is current[ly putting together a production of The Music Man and has a ‘strong priority placed on casting BIPOC artists’.
Many of the productions put on by Chanhassen Dinner Theatre in recent years have featured a majority-white cast (pictured). They have now instituted new diversity protocols
The cast of Chanhassen Dinner Theatre’s Mamma Mia are pictured
Meanwhile, Brindisi told the Pioneer Press that the theater considered recasting the Cinderella.
However, they decided to scrap the show and start from scratch with a separate production.
While some cast members were upset by the news, Brinidisi says that most ‘respected the very hard decision we had to make.’
Chanhassen Dinner Theatres will replace Cinderella with a more diverse adaptation of Footloose, now scheduled for 2022.
Artistic director Michael Brindisi called out the fact that Cinderella’s cast was 98 percent white. The production has now been scrapped