BBC’s West Side Story race row ‘PC to the point of ridiculous’

‘Accused of whitewashing’

AFTER finding itself hit by a race row, the BBC was forced to recast a Latina actress in its production of West Side Story.

But the show’s composer Leonard Bernstein would likely have seen the furore as ‘political correctness to the point of ridiculous’, his daughter has claimed.

The highly-anticipated Proms performance was marred by controversy after a white woman was cast in the lead role of Puerto Rican Maria.

After she was accused of ‘whitewashing’, Broadway star Sierra Boggess dramatically quit the show in April.

Last week the BBC announced she has been replaced by Canadian-born actress Mikaela Ben- nett. But Bernstein’s daughter Jamie said its agonies over the role risked ‘overcompensating’ for ‘political correctness’.

Discussing her famous father, Miss Bernstein, 66, told Radio Times: ‘He’d have respected the cast member who withdrew for the reasons she withdrew, but at the same time I wonder whether he would feel that everybody was overcompensating with their political correctness to the point where it could become ridiculous.’

Announcing her decision following a huge social media backlash, Miss Boggess said: ‘I’ve realised that if I were to do this concert, it would once again deny Latinas the opportunity to sing this score…That would be a huge mistake.’