Lion King Signer Says He Was Pushed Out For Being White, Director's Emails Expose Woke Agenda
The only great surprise in the New York Post’s Saturday report of the racial turmoil on the set of “The Lion King” on Broadway is that they didn’t come up with a better title for their story.
I mean, this is the paper famous for the epic front-page headline, “Headless Body in Topless Bar.” Just going through the songs from “The Lion King” suggests better Post-tastic headlines: “Hate-kuna Matata.” “Can You Feel the Privilege Tonight?” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be Woke.”
Instead, the Post‘s front-page headline was “Cowardly ‘Lion.’” I’m disappointed, New York Post. I’m also disappointed in the content of the report — but, unlike the lackluster title from the “Headless Body” folks, I’m not surprised at a word of it.
Keith Wann, 53, was one of the American Sign Language interpreters for the mega-hit Broadway show, adapted from the Disney animated movie. Note the past tense: was an interpreter. According to a federal discrimination lawsuit filed last Tuesday by Wann, the nonprofit group that staffs Broadway shows forced him off the production because he is white.
The Post reported that the Theatre Development Fund felt it was “no longer appropriate to have white interpreters represent black characters for ASL Broadway shows.”
According to the suit, Theatre Development Fund director of accessibility programs Lisa Carling and interpreter Christina Mosleh had told him to “back out” of the show. Emails obtained by the Post seem to confirm this.
The suit alleges that Wann, who has been working in New York for over 10 years, was initially offered the gig back in March. He accepted.
Days later, however, he received an email from Carling, asking him and another white interpreter to back out of “The Lion King” due to “the current social climate.”
“With great embarrassment and apologies, I’m asking you both to please back out of interpreting the show for us on Sunday, April 24,” Carling wrote, the Post reported.
“I don’t see any other way out of this. It seems like the best solution.”
Another email from “Lion King” ASL director Shelly Guy to Carling, obtained via the lawsuit, indicates it was Guy who set the firings in motion, asking Carling to ditch all non-black ASL interpreters, the Post reported.
“The majority of the characters in the Lion King are black actors and the content takes place in Africa,” Guy wrote Carling in an April 1 email.
“Remember that those kings will always be there to guide you. And so will I.” pic.twitter.com/Pn1nog8k80
— The Lion King – Musical (@TheLionKing) November 7, 2022
“Keith Wann, though an amazing ASL performer, is not a black person and therefore should not be representing Lion King,” Carling wrote, according to the report.
Wann was booted from the gig, losing $1,000 in the process. Now, he’s suing.
After mulling over Carling’s emails and phone calls — which he never responded to — he filed suit in Manhattan Federal Court last week.
“To me, just seeing that discrimination, it doesn’t matter if I’m white or black,” Wann said.
“This is blatant and I would just hope that other people who have also experienced this would step forward.”
Wann added that he had previously done sign language interpretation for what the Post described as “a diverse array of performers including black actors.” Case in point: He’d previously done ASL for Donkey from “Shrek,” the character initially voiced by Eddie Murphy in the movies.
“I lost sleep over it,” Wann said. “Wrong is wrong.”
That it is, and a federal court has the opportunity to set it right. This strident wokeness is discrimination, plain and simple. Even in dark-blue New York City, it’s being challenged — and rightly so.
In the meantime, the Post also has a chance to rectify things by going with “Hate-kuna Matata” as a headline next time they report on the case. Just send the check my way, Rupert. That’s all I ask.
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