The "Broadway Bodies" Conversation Moves to Center Stage

A short sentence in a recent New York Times article about Broadway actors returning to stages this fall has ignited a conversation about body expectations, fat phobia, and race in the professional acting world. The sentence, which has been reworked, referred to some of the complications of reopening after a protracted shutdown. It mentioned expired contracts, rusty choreography, cast members who have moved away...and actors who have gained weight.

Ryan Donovan is a theater scholar and a visiting lecturer of musical theater at Duke University and has a forthcoming book on casting practices within contemporary Broadway musicals called Broadway Bodies: A Critical History 1970-2020. He joined WNYC host Michael Hill for a conversation. "The theater industry is really unique in that the way that you look can determine whether you are even considered for being hired right when you walk in the door," Donovan said. "And this has been going on for over a century."