★ The Empire State ★

Empire State Dispatch

New York's daily record — from the Bronx to the Battery

Arts & Culture

Broadway's Push for Inclusive Casting Reshapes Who Tells the Stories

A new generation of producers and performers is broadening the range of stories and faces on the city's biggest stages.

1 min read
Broadway's Push for Inclusive Casting Reshapes Who Tells the Stories
Photo: Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums / Wikimedia Commons, No restrictions

Broadway is changing who gets to stand in its spotlights. A concerted push for inclusive casting and new voices is broadening the range of stories told on the city's biggest stages and the faces telling them.

The shift extends beyond casting to the writers, directors, and producers shaping productions. The fictional playwright Marcus Bell's debut, centering a family rarely seen on a Broadway stage, became one of the season's most acclaimed plays.

Advocates say the change is overdue and still incomplete, with power behind the scenes slower to shift than the faces onstage. But the season's playbills reflect a Broadway working, however unevenly, to look more like the city that surrounds it.

More in Arts & Culture