As an actor, I’ve seen instances where colorblind casting works and where it does not. There was an interesting article about it in the CalShakes magazine. One director related how he chose not to cast a black actor in a particular Shakespearean role because the text referred to the character, a grown man, as “boy.” He said it would be distracting and send false signals because calling a black man “boy” comes with baggage. CalShakes frequently casts actors of color in traditionally white roles, so it wasn’t a lame excuse. I think he had a good point.

Doing The King and I with an all white cast would be unacceptable in the San Francisco Bay Area since there are plenty of great Asian actors available. But in Utah it would be next to impossible to cast all Asians. I knew a Canadian actor who played the King all over North America in multiple community theater productions. It’s a hard role to cast as it is, but if your community is 99% white, better do Sound of Music.