Purity signalling - musical authors withdraw from Graham Norton's show to promote their musical, because JK Rowling was also being interviewed about her new children's book

[StandWitch]

twitter.com/marlowandmoss/status/1327594966814748673

theversion.co/2020/11/03/j-k-rowling-to-discuss-the-ickabog-with-graham-norton-on-radio-2/

J.K. Rowling is to guest on Graham Norton’s Radio 2 show, to talk about her new book The Ickabog, a new fairy tale about a mythical monster, a kingdom in peril and an adventure that will test two children’s bravery.

The author will join Graham on this Saturday morning show from 10am on 14 November, 2020.

Also on the programme...

Lastly, Graham talks to the writers of SIX The Musical, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, which is scheduled to reopen in the West End with a series of socially distanced performances at The Lyric Theatre soon.

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what is wrong with these people?

What did they think she was going to do, do a thought crime next to them? Say terrible words they disagree with?
Exactly. It's like the Amanda Craig debacle all over again. None of these people seem to think they could actually just turn up and put forward their own point of view. It's just empty virtue signalling. And probably they don't want to admit that they haven't read what JKR actually says.

Also bought a couple of Ickabogs for Xmas pressies. Thanks for the reminder Marlow and Moss!

Shame they decided not to go on - Graham could have given them the opportunity to explain how Anne Boleyn could have avoided execution by identifying as a man.

Really interested in SIX now.

I just can't interact with anything JK has done at the moment, its affected me and my partner too much. It will be a long time before I can even watch the movies and finally finish them.

I might just watch A Very Potter Musical again though.

Six as a musical is about how badly the wives were treated, the Howard song is about abuse. They have an all female band, and cast. You can disagree with their stance re GN - but saying that the musical is flawed because Henry VIII was a misogynist is not right, that's the whole point. It's about female empowerment.

Six has been a massive success. It was a student production just 3 years ago and has been on the West End, international and national tours and was opening on Broadway the night it went dark because of COVID.

How could they have brought themselves to appear at the Olivier awards?

Don’t they know that Olivier blacked up to play Othello? And then refused to either apologise or stop doing it, even when people pointed out how unacceptable it was?

Sad. Maybe they should be cancelled. Or apologise profusely and donate to BLM in reparation?

What an awful person she is, promoting her book that gave children the opportunity to have their pictures published and when a the royalties are going to charity.

Why don't they just boycott the West End and Broadway rather than share space with The Cursed Child?

Absolutely no respect for these people.

Have any TW appeared as one of the wives does anyone know? I'm aware of the musical but had no intention to see it anyway.

Six as a musical is about how badly the wives were treated, the Howard song is about abuse. They have an all female band, and cast. You can disagree with their stance re GN - but saying that the musical is flawed because Henry VIII was a misogynist is not right, that's the whole point. It's about female empowerment.

No, I think it is you that has missed the point here.

I'm fascinated by whether this will work out for them, sales-wise, or whether it's really about keeping their friends.

Radio 2 listeners must, in the majority, be UK residents.

The tweet annuncing they won't be appearing on GN has got 15k+ likes (approximately double their official account's number of followers, so that's positive), but how many of them live in the UK?

In fact, what is the typical age range for musical theatre audiences? Is there much point in chasing the approval of even the UK-based 18-23 year olds?

I don't think a TW has been cast to date but Marlow played one of the parts one night when sickness hit the cast/understudies. I think some people in the student/ other casts identify as non-binary.

@SunsetBeetch

Six as a musical is about how badly the wives were treated, the Howard song is about abuse. They have an all female band, and cast. You can disagree with their stance re GN - but saying that the musical is flawed because Henry VIII was a misogynist is not right, that's the whole point. It's about female empowerment.

No, I think it is you that has missed the point here.

Have you seen it?

@SophocIestheFox

How could they have brought themselves to appear at the Olivier awards?

Don’t they know that Olivier blacked up to play Othello? And then refused to either apologise or stop doing it, even when people pointed out how unacceptable it was?

Sad. Maybe they should be cancelled. Or apologise profusely and donate to BLM in reparation?

Completely irrelevant to the thread but Olivier is one of these people that the more I find out about him, the less I like him. There's a piece in yesterday's Guardian media guide about famous falling outs and it compares his vindictive sniping about Marilyn Monroe with her quiet dignity over their difficulties on the set of The Misfits

And he was a terrible actor. If you want to put children off Shakespeare for life make them watch his version of Hamlet

I agree dido!

@SophocIestheFox

How could they have brought themselves to appear at the Olivier awards?

Don’t they know that Olivier blacked up to play Othello? And then refused to either apologise or stop doing it, even when people pointed out how unacceptable it was?

Sad. Maybe they should be cancelled. Or apologise profusely and donate to BLM in reparation?

I think they’d be fine with this tbh. Didn’t they cast the Anne of Cleves part; you know, the ugly wife, with a black actress? Seems a bit off if they’ve differentiated her from the other wives by having a black woman play her.

Many of the Queens are black, I think half of the original west-end cast not just Anna of Cleves. Anna is noticeably beautiful and acknowledged as such in the show.

SIX is great and their followers will all be woke 20 year olds. So I get their decision but why were they going on graham n anyway?! And then to pull out making it a bigger deal than it should have been. Own goal.

Not of the musical, of what people i this thread are saying, cathyandclare

I guess it's one way to indicate just how wokey-woke you are and reaffirm your virtue-signalling priorities in the Twittersphere. It reinforces the level of ignorance maintained by those who are quick to label JKR as transphobic but haven't bothered ever reading or listening to her. Am part way through the Strike novels and have been struck by the sensitivity she showed when including a transgender character. Those who haven't even got the reading stamina to get through her essay haven't got a clue.

An outsider may question why this pair have such a problem with a writer talking about a book written through lockdown to support children, especially given that all the profits are going to charity. It really does come across as some immature foot-stamping and a failure to accept people can hold different opinions. They won't last long in the entertainment industry if they can't have any association with anyone who thinks differently to them.

@RufustheSniggeringReindeer

And I don’t want to labour a point but just because I haven’t heard of the sodding thing doesn’t mean that I haven’t watched musicals at the west end or indeed dislike musicals

And i know the song taylor the latte boy! Which is the most random musical number i can think of at this point in time

Oh god, how many times have I heard that sung by MS students who are far too young. Just leave it to Kristen Chenoweth.

SIX is great and their followers will all be woke 20 year olds. So I get their decision but why were they going on graham n anyway?!

The wallets of 20 yr olds will not be sufficiently stuffed to sustain a long running West End musical. Of course it would be of benefit to appear on a mainstream radio programme with millions of viewers. It's PR gold. Plus they're planning to take it on tour (post restrictions easing) to places like Eastbourne and Southampton so of course you'd want to let a national audience of millions know about it.

Listeners

We don't want to appear on a show where she is promoting her work until she has made significant efforts to make amends with the trans community

As if she gives a fuck 😂

Modern science has proved that SIX is a social construct anyway.
It's GINDER that is innate and all-defining.

@HecatesCats

SIX is great and their followers will all be woke 20 year olds. So I get their decision but why were they going on graham n anyway?!

The wallets of 20 yr olds will not be sufficiently stuffed to sustain a long running West End musical. Of course it would be of benefit to appear on a mainstream radio programme with millions of viewers. It's PR gold. Plus they're planning to take it on tour (post restrictions easing) to places like Eastbourne and Southampton so of course you'd want to let a national audience of millions know about it.

I think you're underestimating just how successful it has already been. It started as an Edinburgh Fringe production in 2017, was a roaring success and came back in 2018. I don't remember it in either year but it's the type of show I would have skipped over as of no interest to me.

It's already had a West End season and a 2 national tours and international tours.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_%28musical%29?wprov=sfla1

god, how many times have I heard that sung by MS students who are far too young. Just leave it to Kristen Chenoweth

Dammit, its one of dds...

How young is too young shes not doing MT though