A wry smile passed across my face after reading that the Bexhill Light Operatic and Dramatic Society had been refused permission to stage Kern and Hammerstein's musical masterpiece Showboat in the town's De La Warr Pavilion (January 11).

The BBC screened an updated version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's adaptation (for television) of Cinderella over Christmas where the fairy godmother was played by Whitney Houston and Cinderella by a young black actress.

So it's okay for black actresses to play white parts (I suppose political-correctness freaks would argue this is acceptable because they did not "whiten up"), but not for white actors to play black parts?

I think not performing Showboat is counter-productive because Oscar Hammerstein cared about injustice and that, surely, is what the show is about.

Incidentally, Hammerstein could use big words when he chose to (listen to those from: I'm in love with ... A Wonderful Guy from South Pacific).

Rather appropriate for the Place To Be.

-Anthony R. Andrews, Lower Bevendean Avenue, Brighton