Blackface in Phantom: An Update
Recently a series of photos were posted on some of the more popular Musical Blogs detailing the costumes of the production of Phantom in Japan. Among these photos was a picture of Piangi, which featured, quite prominently, an actor wearing the 'blackface balaclava' costume.
Several of us spotted this and were, to put it lightly, really disappointed to find that this costume was still in circulation.
A little digging showed that these images had originated from the production company's official twitter, and were from the current production. A screenshot of the post is below.
I decided to contact RUG to challenge them over why this costume is still on stage. Their twitter is not open to DM, and they have no public email, so I used the contact us form on their website to submit feedback, and included a link to the post, with a message about how disappointing and offensive it was to see this costume still being used today.
I sent this on 27th August, expecting to hear nothing if I am honest, as contact forms for big companies often fall into a big black hole.
This morning at 10.24 I got a message thanking me for my email and to say my complaint had been passed on to the relevant department.
At 5pm today a follow up from the Serin Kasif, Vice President of Production saying the following
Thank you for your email and for bringing this tweet to our attention. I'm equally surprised that this image was posted as these costumes have indeed been retired.
I (and the Phantom companies around the world) entirely agree that these costumes are inappropriate, racist and offensive and that productions can adapt, all of which informed the decision, made prior to the pandemic, to discontinue their use across all Phantom productions. Often actors return to roles, and old production photos are re-used.
I am sorry that the photo was posted and I acknowledge and agree it's offensive.
I don't have access to the Japanese producers' accounts and with the time difference, I may experience a time lag in communication but I have made contact with them to address the matter with great urgency.
Thank you again for contacting us. I'm sorry it was not for better reasons but I assure you we remain committed to putting the work into being better.
With kind regards.
Serin
So, officially these costumes are retired, and we should not see them anywhere in the world again, and they are looking into how and why they appeared on the recent socials (which they suggest was due to re use of old images of a returning actor, although I am not able to verify this.
Either way I thought this would be of interest to others on here who engaged in the discussion to
