# Are There Any Broadway Roles That Can Be Played By Men \*OR\* Women? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249 "2014-12-03T19:40:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/21 "2014-12-04T07:16:12Z")
Does Broadway have tree roles? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/22 "2014-12-04T07:19:52Z")
Not Broadway, but _Swan Lake_ has been produced with all the swans recast as males - big, mean, aggressive male swans. ---
**Author:** ![Idilia\_Dubb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c2a13f/32.png) [@Idilia\_Dubb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idilia_Dubb)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/23 "2014-12-04T13:20:21Z")
The lead role in the play _Whose Life is It, Anyway?_ has been played by both men and women on Broadway. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/24 "2014-12-04T19:21:03Z")
The Mute in The Fantasticks. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/25 "2014-12-04T19:37:56Z")
> [@LurkerInNJ](#): > > The Mute in The Fantasticks. Mentioned in post #16. I’ve only seen the play once, but with a female playing the role. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_of\_Words](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@Jack\_of\_Words](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_of_Words)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/26 "2014-12-04T20:17:46Z")
The proper answer to the OP question is, of course, “Yes, all of them”. Then I came across the post about a female Jesus and I started arguing against myself… (I won, but I hold firm on the idea of a female Doctor (as in ‘Who’)). Any role can be played by an actor, of any race and any gender. Some people will read meanings into casting choices (especially those that buck a trend or subvert an expectation) and sometimes meanings will be intended by the director. Or they may have just cast the best actor for the role. Audiences inevitably bring relatively fixed (but infinitely mixed) views on what it means to cross-dress or imitate another gender, and if we’re talking specifically Broadway I suppose the risk of alienating a significant proportion of a potential audience is a good enough reason to cast according to the character’s stated sex. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/27 "2014-12-05T02:23:02Z")
**Hedwig and the Angry Inch**. Hedwig has been played on Broadway by Ally Sheedy and Neil Patrick Harris, among many others. ---
**Author:** ![breezman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/28 "2014-12-05T02:45:20Z")
I’ve seen two small-time productions of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Snoopy was played by a guy in one and a girl in another. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/29 "2014-12-05T04:41:03Z")
I believe the Teen Angel role in _Grease_ (who sings “Beauty School Drop Out”) has been performed by both men and women. FWIW I went to a women’s college, and the theater department there tried to put on plays that had all or mostly female roles. Male roles were usually played by guys from one of the co-ed colleges in the area, but this was sometimes difficult due to scheduling conflicts. Occasionally a professional actor was hired to play the male lead. I asked a friend who was a theater major why they didn’t just go with an all-female cast of our own students, and she said that it’s often a condition of getting the performance rights to a play that there not be any cross-casting of major roles. I do remember at least one show that did cast girls in male roles, but that was a Shakespeare play and thus in the public domain. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/30 "2014-12-05T04:44:50Z")
In the 2005 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, Pirelli was played by a woman, though he’s normally played by a man. ---
**Author:** ![Idilia\_Dubb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c2a13f/32.png) [@Idilia\_Dubb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idilia_Dubb)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/31 "2014-12-05T10:27:30Z")
Here’s a story from _Slate_ on why Peter Pan is usually played by a woman: [Peter Pan played by a woman: why? A history of casting the J.M. Barrie character.](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/01/23/peter_pan_played_by_a_woman_why_a_history_of_casting_the_j_m_barrie_character.html) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/32 "2014-12-21T16:14:10Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > FWIW I went to a women’s college, and the theater department there tried to put on plays that had all or mostly female roles. Hey **Lamia** , would you be interested in starting a “Ask The Woman Who Went To An All-Women’s College” thread? I have some questions, and I think it might generate interest from other Dopers as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/33 "2014-12-21T17:37:34Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Does Peter Pan _have to_ be portrayed by a woman? Could a small man with a high-pitched voice do the role, or does Broadway’s… union(?) or whatever it is specify that it has to be a woman? I’ve seen it played by children, although it wasn’t on Broadway (but it was a play that had been on Broadway, from what I understand). Both genders. Some roles are traditionally played in drag but could theoretically be played by someone of the same gender as the role, so long as they had the looks and the voice (or the voice got shifted accordingly). In other cases I have a strong suspicion (but can’t interview the original authors, them being dead) that the drag is an actual requirement. [Pichi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWb_BhEjKO8) isn’t a Broaway character, but he’s the most macho of all Madrid pimps c. 1930… and always, always, played by a woman - the amount of irony that would be lost by casting a man is priceless. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/34 "2014-12-21T18:04:25Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > I don’t think it’s a requirement, even by Actors’ Equity (the stage actors’ union). After all, there have been stagings of _The Odd Couple_ with two women in the main roles. Also, Peter in the Disney movie is voiced by a male. > > I seem to recall hearing that the musical was written with Mary Martin in mind, which would explain why it is expected that a woman perform the role. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought the idea was that it was easier for a small woman to play the character of a boy. Easier than casting a child actor. Perhaps the songs require a soprano voice? Even in the silent film version, a woman played the role. As far as women playing child roles, small women have played children on Broadway in countless plays-- Julie Harris played Frankie in _A Member of the Wedding_, and was the unfortunately used in the film, where it was so obvious she was an adult. It isn’t so obvious when a woman is on a stage that she is an adult in a child role. The advantage is that a play can be in rehearsal for several months before it premieres, and the the hope is that it runs for a long time. Children grow. Boys, especially ones close to puberty can suddenly grow six inches. Adult women don’t grow. A play can run for two years, and they stay the same height. Sometimes it doesn’t matter much, as a role calls for an age range, like Gloria in _Wait Until Dark_, so it seems better to use an actual child, especially since the play calls for heightened realism, but aside from being a demanding role, and one where you don’t want the actor gaining weight and having the flying harness break, you don’t want an actor whose voice changes. An adult woman works better for a lot of reasons. There are also times when you need a really young child, and an adult can’t pass: those roles usually require very little of the actor, and sometimes rotate different children in the role, so it is less demanding, and one can rotate out as he gets too big, while a newer one takes on more shows. Sometimes if times passes between acts, the child appearing in act two used to appear in act one, and will eventually appear in act three, if the show runs long enough. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/35 "2014-12-21T18:13:38Z")
The children cast in \*The King and I \*are almost always of whatever convenient genders casting calls dredge up, with the exception of Louis and the eldest son and heir Prince Chulalongkorn. Ditto the kid in _Miss Saigon_ - the character is indisputably a boy, but the actor may be any gender. Puck in _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ is about as androgynous as a character comes, and casting varies considerably without it being a Statement. ---
**Author:** ![staili](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@staili](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/staili)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/36 "2014-12-21T19:50:03Z")
In terms of whether a director can cast anybody in a role: The issue is not the actors’ union, it’s the playwright. Many performance licenses dictate that a play has to be performed as written (ie, with the roles played by people of the genders determined by the playwright). A local production can sometimes fly under the radar, but a Broadway production could never have someone cast of the opposite gender without approval by the playwright. Edward Albee has closed down several productions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf that were cast with all men, as described in the link: [http://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/03/theater/albee-seeking-to-close-an-all-male-woolf.html](http://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/03/theater/albee-seeking-to-close-an-all-male-woolf.html) Shows in the public domain have more leeway, which is why things are looser with Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/37 "2014-12-21T20:33:29Z")
Some years ago I saw a play off Broadway in which ALL of the roles could be played by men or women. Before the play got underway all of the actors introduced themselves with credits and short bio. Then the Director (actor playing the director, though it was a small production it may also have been the actual director) addressed the audience. We had multiple choice voting gadgets. The director called up four of the actors at a time and told us about a part and had us vote for the actor we wanted to play it. All of the names and descriptions were neutral. “Chris is a museum curator who plays tennis on weekends…Mel is Chris’ boss at the museum and is married to a lawyer … CJ is the lawyer married to Chris and is the plaintiff’s attorney in a huge civil suit…Leslie is a school teacher…” and so on. If memory serves there were twelve roles. The voting didn’t take terribly long. As the play went on it was intriguing to imagine what would have happened if we’d chosen that person for that role…It certainly made seeing it more than once seem worth it. My sister did see it a few different times. The settings and a skeleton of plot stayed consistent but people combined into different relationships each time. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/38 "2014-12-21T21:12:57Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > The narrator from _Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat_ is traditionally played by a woman but there’s no reason that has to be the case. In fact, the part was sung by a man on the original concept album. When I saw it on Broadway in the 1980’s, a man played the narrator. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/39 "2014-12-22T00:43:06Z")
While the character is always a woman I have seen Buttercup in HMS Pinafore sometimes played by a woman and sometimes by a guy in drag. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249/40 "2014-12-22T03:55:44Z")
I saw a live, stage production, at a university, of The Rocky Horror Show. The narrator was played by a prim female, like a librarian or old maid school teacher. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-broadway-roles-that-can-be-played-by-men-or-women/706249.md?page=3)