Actors Equity Reconsiders Veto of Pryce

Bowing to increasing pressure and a petition signed by more than 150 members, the council of Actors Equity is voting today on whether it will rescind its decision to bar a British actor from appearing in a Eurasian role on Broadway.

The results of the second vote by the 70-member council was scheduled to be released late this afternoon. The council’s Aug. 7 rejection of actor Jonathan Pryce to appear in the lead role in the New York production of London’s hit musical, “Miss Saigon,” led to cries of censorship at a time when artistic freedoms are under attack. The vote resulted in cancellation of the show’s opening next April by producer Cameron Mackintosh.

Reconsideration of the veto on Pryce, star of the London production, in favor of casting someone of Asian background in the role was forced by petitions signed by more than 150 members of Equity who believed the action constituted abridgment of Mackintosh’s artistic freedom in casting.

One prominent Equity member, Charlton Heston, resigned from the union in protest to the council’s “obscenely racist” action.

Influential New York Times drama critic Frank Rich compared the decision to the attempt by conservative politicians to cut grants by the National Endowment for the Arts.

“At a time when many people in the American arts community are rightfully worried about grave threats against freedom of artistic expression in the United States, a major organization of American artists has poisoned the atmosphere further by seeking to repress that freedom,” Rich wrote.

Opponents also brought to the union council’s attention that it had no legal right to ban Pryce, who has appeared in several Broadway shows and won the Tony Award for best featured actor in 1977, and was violating its contract with the League of American Theaters by doing so.

The union’s action also opened the way to the Shubert Organization, which owns the theater where “Miss Saigon” was booked to appear, to bring legal action to recover lost revenues.

Mackintosh pointed out that cancellation of his $10-million show, which already had collected a Broadway record of $25 million in advance ticket sales, represented a tremendous loss to the Broadway theater in employment and wages.

Equity insisted its stance was taken in order to increase non-Caucasian casting of Asian roles, but Mackintosh noted that 34 of the 50 actors cast for “Miss Saigon” were non-Caucasians.