You Mean God Isn’t English?

The casting contretemps over Miss Saigon may have been resolved, but the reverberations continue. When American actor Ken Page was cast as God in the forthcoming London musical Children of Eden, the British actors’ union prepared to lodge an official protest. How could audiences accept a Yank as the Almighty? Director John Caird countered that he had auditioned British actors for the part, and all were, well, inadequate. British Equity backed off, but an official noted dryly that the union “welcomes talented foreign artists working in our country even when they are required to play such an obviously British part as God.” The production will begin previews with Page in December.