Actors’ Equity Says White Can Portray Eurasian : Theater: The canceled ‘Miss Saigon’ may play on Broadway after all. The reversal on the casting of Briton Jonathan Pryce meets with mixed reaction.

Actors’ Equity on Thursday reversed its controversial decision to bar British actor Jonathan Pryce from playing a Eurasian on Broadway in the hit London musical “Miss Saigon.”

The move leaves the door open for producer Cameron Mackintosh to bring the $10-million musical to New York. Last week, he canceled the show rather than let Equity dictate his choice of star.

In a statement released through a publicist, Mackintosh said he was encouraged by Thursday’s decision. “Over the next few days, I will confer with members of the creative team and with Jonathan Pryce to determine if it will be possible for the production to be reinstated for Broadway,” the statement said.

“Miss Saigon,” which had a $25-million advance ticket sale, the largest in Broadway history, had been scheduled to open in March.

The new Equity ruling, reached after a six-hour session of the union’s council, met with mixed reaction on both coasts.

Alan Eisenberg, Equity executive secretary, apologized for the rancor that has colored the debate, saying the union never intended the dispute to become “one of personalities and innuendo.”

Equity’s original decision to bar Pryce in order to promote minority casting opportunities met with a storm of protest from union members who petitioned Equity to reconsider its ruling.

Members of the Asian-American theater community had applauded the original decision, which set off a national debate.

Eisenberg said Thursday that the Equity council had determined that Pryce qualifies as a “star” under the union’s agreement with the League of American Theatres and Producers and, therefore, that his casting was not subject to Equity approval.

“I think a lot of people would have been happier had it been an Asian (playing the role),” Eisenberg said, when asked to characterize the meeting at a press conference at Equity’s New York headquarters. “But we deferred to the contract; we deferred to Mr. Pryce’s talent, and we deferred to Mr. Mackintosh’s wishes to have Mr. Pryce play the role.”

“M. Butterfly” playwright David Henry Hwang, whose protest of Pryce’s casting helped trigger the controversy, used a moderate tone in a written statement Thursday: “I have stated my intention to support whatever decision Actors’ Equity feels best reflects the interest of its membership, and I stand by that today. I do hope that the complex issues of opportunities for minority actors and artistic freedom will continue to be discussed, albeit in a less polarized environment.”

Colleen Dewhurst, the president of Actors’ Equity who had likened “Miss Saigon” to a “minstrel show,” did not appear at Thursday’s press conference because she was filming in Toronto.

In a prepared statement, Eisenberg delineated Equity’s policy toward non-traditional casting, which, he said, was “distorted and misconstrued” in the dispute.

According to the contract between Equity and the Theatre League, non-traditional casting is “the casting of ethnic actors in roles where race or gender is not germane to the character,” the statement said.

Sharon Jensen, executive director of the Non-Traditional Casting Project, a nonprofit arts organization that lobbies for the hiring of minority actors, lauded the new ruling. She said the 50-member cast of “Miss Saigon” includes parts for 34 minority actors. “Assuming this show’s a success, it can mean literally hundreds of jobs for ethnic actors” as touring companies are later formed, Jensen said.

Actor Sab Shimono, who auditioned for Pryce’s role last January in Los Angeles and was a member of the original cast of “Pacific Overtures” on Broadway, was bitter over the decision to allow Pryce to perform on Broadway. “I suppose we’re still part of the colony . . . . The good thing is that the discussion is out in the open,” he said.

“Why did they (Actors’ Equity) collapse?” asked Dom Magwili, who resigned his post as director of the AsianAmerican Theatre Project at Los Angeles Theatre Center because he disagreed with an LATC official’s statement condemning Equity’s original decision. “Because $25 million in advance sales is a tough argument. Jobs are valued more than principle. In the end,” Magwili said, “it’s the money that talks.”

“It’s a bad decision. It’ll set us back 20 years,” said actor Robert Hooks, a star of the 1988 ABC series “Supercarrier” and co-founder of the Negro Ensemble Company in New York and the now-defunct D. C. Black Repertory Theatre. “Only the minorities are crying. They’re a small voice--or that’s how they’re viewed on the Great White Way. To make this decision and then retract it is a real kick in the behind.”

Hooks said he had heard “a lot of intellectual arguments about artistic integrity.” Although some jobs for minorities may be restored if the show now goes on, Hooks said: “There’s a tremendous principle here that goes far beyond ‘Miss Saigon.’ ”

Charlton Heston, who resigned his active membership in Equity in protest of the original decision to bar Pryce, said he would not change his mind. “I objected to what they did. Now they have stopped doing it. But they still did it. The reason they gave in was because there was a firestorm.

“My central concern is not Jonathan Pryce or the numbers of fine Asian actors who are underemployed. We’re talking about artistic freedom here.”

Playwright Velina Hasu Houston, president of the Amerasian League in Santa Monica, said that despite its reversal on the issue, “Equity has accomplished some important things. The Asian-American community has spoken up and said yellowface has to go the way of blackface, and Equity has shown support for that voice, despite this decision. Producers have shown their true colors . . . . Neither side heard the other side.” “That has been the most unfortunate thing in this situation.

Granville reported from New York and Shirley from Los Angeles.