From Moore v. Hadestown Broadway Ltd. Liab. Co., decided Thursday by Judge Loretta Preska (S.D.N.Y.):
Plaintiff Kim Moore is a black woman who works as an actress. Defendant is a company that produces and stages "Hadestown," a musical that runs on Broadway …. On or about January 30, 2020, Defendant hired Plaintiff to perform as an actress in its production of the Musical. Plaintiff played the role of "Worker #1" as part of the Musical's "Workers Chorus," as well as other parts in the Musical. In the Musical, the Workers Chorus consists of several actors who perform their roles as "Workers" within the Workers Chorus.
As of November 2021, the Workers Chorus consisted exclusively of black cast members, including Plaintiff. As a result, on November 23, 2021, David Neumann, a choreographer and supervisor for Defendant, emailed the entire cast of the Musical to apologize for the fact that the Musical was conveying a "white savior story" due to the exclusively black Workers Chorus.
In his email, Mr. Neumann stated that he, director Rachel Chavkin, and Liam Robinson, another Hadestown executive, were "commit[ted] to open dialogue regarding ongoing casting decisions and the ramifications of what that looks like in our particular story." Specifically, Neumann noted that "certain arrangements of actors on stage (a white Orpheus, a white Hades, and a Worker Chorus of all Black performers)" may have told "an unintended and harmful 'white savior' story." Neumann wrote that, although he, Chavkin, and Robinson did not "view Orpheus as a white savior" in the Musical and "[t]he 'text' of Hadestown may not speak about race," the particular arrangement of the Hadestown cast on stage had nonetheless expressed a "white savior story" because the actors are the Musical's "storytellers" who "become[ ] the story" on stage each performance through their selves, voices, and bodies….
On or about November 24, 2021—the day after Mr. Neumann emailed the entire cast of the Musical to apologize for the Musical's "white savior story"—Timothy Reid, a supervisor and dance caption for the Musical, informed Plaintiff that Defendant was seeking to replace her in the cast with a white woman.
If the facts were as alleged, the court concluded, that was race discrimination, but it was protected by the First Amendment; seems quite correct to me:
