Ensemblist Kimberly Moore has taken Hadestown from Broadway to lower Manhattan, having filed last month a lawsuit in federal court against the Broadway producers of the Tony Award-winning show. In the lawsuit, Moore alleges race discrimination and retaliation under federal and New York law. According to the complaint, Hadestown, a self-proclaimed "beacon of diversity," merely put on a "false front for racially discriminatory casting practices." Moore, who is African-American, performed as Worker #1 in the play's Workers Chorus and claims that the production's management, including David Neumann, a choreographer and supervisor for the production, sought to avoid having an all-Black chorus. Moore lodged HR and union complaints of discrimination and a hostile work environment against the producers based on this anti-Black sentiment, and alleges that she was fired and replaced with a white actor in retaliation.
In response to Moore's complaint, production representatives for Hadestown released a statement stating that "Out of respect for members of our company, we don't get into specific reasons around casting decisions."
My last article analyzed a bill signed into law by Mayor Eric Adams on May 26, 2023, that prohibits in New York City discrimination on the basis of someone's actual or perceived height and weight in employment, housing, and access to public accommodation. As applicable to theatrical casting, I discussed therein how the process of casting, by nature, is often...
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