Actors' Equity has charged the producers of "The Will Rogers Follies" with racial discrimination in casting - the first such action by the union in 10 years, a union spokesman said.
The union filed a formal grievance last week with the League of American Theaters and Producers, an umbrella organization.It charges the producers of the Tony Award-winning musical with violating contract provisions against discrimination when the original cast was assembled. The show opened on Broadway May 1.
"It is difficult to believe that qualified minority members were not available for a production which has been described by one observer as celebrating democratic values," Equity's executive secretary Alan Eisenberg said.
New York Times critic Frank Rich wrote in his May 2 review that the show, "which so strenuously wraps itself in Will Rogers's democratic values, does not have a single black performer."
According to published reports, two black actresses recently joined the cast, one as a chorus member and the other as a "swing" performer who fills in for absentees.