STAGE

A top New York drama critic has received harsh notices after suggesting that actors in a new production of Shakespeare’s “Winter’s Tale” are too Jewish and too black for the bard. Colleen Dewhurst, Actors Equity president, and the play’s producer, Joseph Papp, have both demanded that New York magazine critic John Simon be fired for his remarks. In his review of the play, which stars Christopher Reeve, Simon said that actor Mandy Patinkin looked like a cartoon Jew and that actress Alfre Woodard resembled Topsy, a character in the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has asked Simon to apologize to Woodard and to every black actor in America for the review, which it described as “dripping with racism.” Simon, whose reviews have often provoked controversy, insists Shakespearean roles not written specifically for blacks should not be performed by them.