Musical smash hit Hamilton risks importing a race storm when it transfers to London next year, Heat Street can reveal.
The show, which conquered Broadway this year, has opened itself to charges of racial discrimination by segregating its job adverts by skin colour.
Adverts for prominent roles in the show, circulated to London’s acting community in the past week, demand that some applicants be “non-white” to apply for roles, and others be “white”.
It could even put production company Cameron Mackintosh on the wrong side of UK law, which bans employers from discriminating according to race.
Ads seen by Heat Street – and reproduced here – list race as the second most important characteristic – after age, but before accent, voice type and musical ability. Solicitors speaking to Heat Street said this could open them to a lawsuit.
Leading roles including Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and James Madison must all be “non-white”.
King George, meanwhile, must be white. Ensemble actors can be “all ethnicities”, but casting bosses say there will be an “emphasis on non-white”.
According to the Equality Act 2010, discrimination based on race is, by default, illegal.
Official guidance mentions that there can be exceptions to the law in showbiz if there is a “need for authenticity or realism”.
But Hamilton’s casting is deliberately inauthentic and unrealistic – the Founding Fathers were white – raising possible questions about their rationale.
The wording of casting calls over Hamilton‘s casting also sparked a row in the US, and led to a U-turn and re-wording of their ads.
Juliette Franklin, an employment solicitor for Slater and Gordon, told Heat Street there was potential for an actor excluded because of their race to take it to court.
She said: “It’s unlawful unless you rely on one of the exceptions – and it’s only a [valid] defence if an occupational requirement genuinely existed. They do need to be able to show that being of a particular race or color is genuinely an occupational requirement.”
Heat Street has contacted Cameron Mackintosh for comment.
It is not the first time casting choices in London’s West End have become racially charged.
Earlier this year there were objections over a black actress, Noma Dumezweni, being chosen to play Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,
Fans complained that the choice was untrue to the books – which, while falling short of specifying a race – seem to operate under the assumption that Hermione is white.
But the complaints subsided after JK Rowling and Emma Watson, who played Hermione in the Potter films, sprang to Dumezweni’s defence.