Frozen musical star Obi Ugoala hits out at ‘racist’ audience members for walking out over ‘woke’ casting
A star of the Frozenmusical has called out a group of audience members for racism after they walked out over his casting.
Obioma Ugoala, who plays Kristoff in the Disney musical, hit out at “four audience members in their fifties who left the show, bemoaning my casting as ‘woke culture silliness’”.
The actor has trained at London’s Drama Centre and acted in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Henry V and The Mouse and his Child.
Under a Twitter thread, titled #RepresentationMatters, the Nigerian-Irish Londoner recounted the incident which left him “with sadness” after Wednesday night’s (24 March) performance in London’s West End.
Ugoala prefaced his post by calling the opportunity to play Kristoff the “stuff of dreams for this little brown boy” before addressing the group.
He wrote: “ I feel sorry for you that this Nigerian-Irish Londoner selling ice with a reindeer as a BFF in a fictional land is a step too far for you.
“I am sorry that in a world of Ice Queens and magic strikes, this “d*****” as you referred to me was outside of your imagination.
“Perhaps you presumed you were safe to speak of me that way, not feeling you’d be overheard,” he continued.
However, Ugoala wrote that his experience paled in comparison with the feeling of watching “hundreds of children… escape into a magical world for two hours” every night.
“I wish you had their eyes,” the actor said, saying that the “world is changing”.
Ending his post on a hopeful note, Ugoala said: “I am glad a new generation will watch our show and feel invited to dream of bigger, better and brighter.
“I am glad they will dream kindly and imagine worlds where we are all included.”
Twitter followers and fans of Frozen shared their support of Ugoala, condemning the “horrible” incident.
One person tweeted: “I showed a photo of the West End cast to my class (ages five and six). Nothing will compare to the faces of the black and mixed race children when they realised Kristoff looks like them.
“Diversity on stage MATTERS. Diversity in Disney MATTERS.”
In recent weeks, Disney has faced mounting criticism over its inaction against Florida’s proposed legislation, the Don’t Say Gay bill – which would prohibit state schools from teaching students about sexual orientation and gender issues.
