Opinion: Standing at the Sky’s Edge erases Sheffield’s Asian population

Standing at the Sky’s Edge producers and casting directors declined to comment when asked by City A.M. why their show featured no Asian representation. Sheffield‘s largest ethnic population is Asian

The issue of representation in musicals remains an ongoing battle. Despite a thriving and richly diverse talent pool, producers seem to be casting only black and white actors in musicals. Where is everyone else? Pantomime remains one of the main culprits. In 2022, national press headlines revealed a production in Liverpool casting an ‘all white’ production of Aladdin at the M&S Arena.

According to the Office for National Statistics (2021), Sheffield’s ‘largest ethnic’ population is ‘Asian’ at 9.6%. Within the cast of Standing at the Sky’s Edge, out of 26 cast members, 39% were black and 61% were white.

Many suggested that the decision to cast an all-white production was the result of no one from ethnic backgrounds auditioning for roles. The producers of Aladdin (Shone Productions) said: “we advertise all our casting breakdowns on the online casting platform spotlight”. The producers seem to have not looked at alternative methods of attracting diverse talent, lazily confining themselves to only one outlet.

More recently, Leicester Curve’s production of Evita failed to have any Latinx representation in the entire production. Actress Flavia Fazenda criticised the production stating: “Authentic representation and equal opportunity in the entertainment industry are key to create a more inclusive and tolerant society; they can help shift narratives, break stigmas, and highlight systemic challenges.”

In 2024, major casting disappointment came with the Olivier award winning musical ‘Standing at the Sky’s Edge’ transfer to the West End. A musical story based in Sheffield, taking us through a generation of immigrants living on a council estate.

According to the Office for National Statistics (2021), Sheffield’s ‘largest ethnic’ population is ‘Asian’ at 9.6%. Within the cast of Standing at the Sky’s Edge, out of 26 cast members, 39% were black and 61% were white. So where are all the Asian actors?

As an actor growing up in Manchester and having worked in Sheffield, I feel the erasure of Asian actors in the musical failed to truly represent the Asian community of Sheffield. With so many actors available and represented in other musicals, the producers were incapable of casting Asian actors especially when the city of Sheffield was specific to the story! When opportunities are scarce, other ethnic groups always seem get bypassed or ignored.

Daniel York Loh (Chair of Equity Race Equality Committee) states: “Performers of all ‘Asian’ heritages are locked into the same 4 or 5 ‘niche’ musicals. If you restrict opportunities to those ‘niche’ musicals then you create an environment where choice is severely curtailed, particularly in the way we’re represented”. Isolating and confining groups only marginalises others; especially when the talent pool has plentiful picking. If we don’t see our communities represented on stage, how do we expect to attract those communities who live within the cities and towns who don’t see themselves represented on a stage?

Theatres actively celebrate how good they are at introducing diversity policies to reflect representation in their workforce; so why can’t they adopt the same principle in their own productions? Shouldn’t a production also reflect its community, especially when its story is specific to working class life on a Sheffield council estate?

This resonates with children watching theatre too. In the production of The Boy in a Dress at the RSC, a teacher wrote to me stating how she observed a child (who had never been to theatre before) reacting to a South Asian character and how this character made the boy jump out of his seat. The teacher informed me later this particular child was so happy to see characters which shared his cultural background and the boy became totally immersed in the production.

A major paradigm shift saw the deserved success of The Little Big Things, a new musical at The Soho Palace showcasing disabled and wheelchair using lead actors as central characters to the story. Strange this didn’t happen sooner, or will we need to wait for the majority of theatres to improve disabled access? Another positive step is an upcoming bilingual reinterpretation of the award-winning musical Rent which will showcase BSL (British Sign Language) performers at The Curve Theatre.

This is why representation is so important and why producers have a duty of care to ensure fair representation across the whole spectrum. Whether this involves a child or a deaf adult; as a community of storytellers, our faces and personas provide a unique perspective to our audiences who have never seen themselves represented on a stage before.

Producers need to work harder at sustaining casting performers from all diverse backgrounds, so that communities can enjoy theatrical stories that are inclusive for everyone. Otherwise, what’s the point? We don’t live in some utopian world where everyone is the same colour and unblemished. Or will producers continue to fool themselves this is the world we live in today?

Standing at the Sky’s Edge is playing at the Gillian Lynne Theatre until August 2024.

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