Giving Poppins a trans twist would be a ‘gimmick’, says Mackintosh
Theatre impresario calls on young writers to craft stories with LGBT heroes instead of ‘forcing the issue’
‘I’m thrilled with the amount of people I have been able to bring, from all walks of life and all colours of the rainbow, to my shows’
CLASSIC West End musicals should not be rewritten to make leading ladies transgender as it would damage the integrity of the original storylines, one of Britain’s leading theatre impresarios has said.
Sir Cameron Mackintosh said producers should resist calls to change established pieces with “gimmick” casting, and added it was up to younger writers and composers to create work with transgender lead roles.
“You can’t implant something that is not inherently there in the story or character, that’s what I think,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “Just to do that, that becomes gimmick casting. It’s trying to force something that isn’t natural.
“The thing that matters is that you’ve got to have a strong story and a good score.
“But you’ve also got to assume not everybody knows it, even if it’s a famous story, and that somebody coming to the show can understand it and make sense of it.
“I try to make sure that whatever talent we have, the story should always shine through.”
The producer of The Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins and Les Miserables supports diversifying casting and would welcome a non-white nanny or Jean Valjean.
Discussing whether Mary Poppins, which returned to the stage at the Prince Edward Theatre last night, could have a transgender twist, Sir Cameron explained that PL Travers’ tale “was not about that, that was not the story of that family”.
But he said that casting can match the subject matter, saying: “There are a number of shows that deal with that, like [ Everybody’s Talking About] Jamie and things, not quite transgender, but people finding their true selves. “I think if the material for the piece requires it, and it’s well done, that will be popularly embraced.”
Sir Cameron said he was proud of the diversity he had helped bring to the stage through his many musicals, from Cats to Hamilton, but the producer believes it will be for others to define the future of West End shows.
“I’m about to be 75, so I don’t think it will be me doing that,” said the longtime collaborator of Andrew Lloyd Webber. “I’ve brought forward a lot of new voices into theatre.
“As far as creating the new genre of musicals, it isn’t going to be my generation that’s doing it, because I know what I know from my generation.
“The lucky thing for me is that my tastes in the shows that I’ve done in my 50 years are timeless tales that will continue to be done in the same way as Shakespeare is done. They are not out of date. How the modern generation will write that for what is the emerging sexual culture – as the boundaries get blurred, thrown upside down – is going to be for that generation to write.”
The veteran producer has warned that shows written in and of a particular cultural moment tend not to stand the test of time, but admitted that he never thought his own productions would endure through the decades.
He is confident that stage shows will become increasingly diverse in future, with producers now able to access a pipeline of talent from different communities that was unavailable when he began his career.
He said: “There has been so much awareness, and so much new talent coming up through the drama schools.
“What you want is someone, of whatever colour, coming up and saying ‘I think I can do that’.”
Sir Cameron, a fan of Mary Poppins author PL Travers’ work, sees no reason why this new talent cannot be incorporated into his production about the magical nanny, which has finally been brought to the stage again after a difficult lockdown.
He said: “I can’t wait for a black or Asian or Indian Bert to come up, or a Mary Poppins, because there’s no reason why they can’t play that.
“It’s our job to tell the story with the best talent. I’m thrilled with the amount of people I have been able to bring, from all walks of life and all colours of the rainbow, to my shows.”
Sir Cameron added that creative casting like this could be done while still honouring the original storylines of hit shows, including the longest-running musical ever, Les Mis. Due to the racial diversity of the French empire, he said, there is “nothing in the story that inherently says you can’t”.
He said: “There is no reason why somebody can’t be this colour or that colour. It is historically true, you just have to be creative in that way.”