Characters played by the opposite sex

If you could, what characters would you have as either drag roles or change the character's sex completely.
I'd love to see a drag Madame Morrible and I've seen some footage of Paul O'Grady as Miss Hannigan and it works brilliantly!

I'd be interested to see Eponine changed to a boy for a production. It would add a whole new level to the unrequited love the character has for Marius.

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I want a drag witch in into the woods. I want the male actor to play a woman, but I want him dressed in drag. I also want a drag Hannigan.

Eponine as a boy is such a wonderful idea Plannietink08. I never would have thought of that. That really has my mind going. I love it!

Well, Grizabello would be one of my dream roles...

I really think a baker's husband in ITW could work amazingly.

Vera Charles. That is all.

I could honestly see Jinkx Monsoon playing all these roles. She is one of the most talented people in show business.

When I was in school, due to casting pool limitations, there were occasional gender switches. Some worked better than others. The most prominent example I remember was in ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, where one of the titular pair (lord help me if I remember which) was a woman. That change did very little to affect the text, for better or worse, since those two are deliberately such empty vessels. The more interesting change was having a female Player King, but given facial hair and a codpiece along with her own considerable attributes. Having an extremely androgynous Player King made the role very theatrically exaggerated, and I think it worked more than it would have otherwise had they not made that strong choice.

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"Maxine Bialystock, the Queen of Broadway. Played by a female AS a female... Maybe gender bend THE PRODUCERS as a whole like they did THE ODD COUPLE."

hmm sounds good at first, but raising the money from whom? -- a whole bunch of little old horny men. Sorry, but little old horny men on walkers just isn't as funny as little old horny ladies on walkers. Or are we talking about a lesbian female producer? Ooops. Who wants to think about a lesbian having sex with all those little old ladies? And then, doesn't it ruin or spoil the whole "keep it gay" thing? And would Bloom have to be a female also, or would there be a fight over Ula between a man and a gay woman? Wow. None of the original show is left intact!

I want to see a Female Bobby in "Company". Cougar or MILF it up a little. Make it SEXY! Why should the men get to have all the fun.

" The most prominent example I remember was in ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, where one of the titular pair (lord help me if I remember which) was a woman. That change did very little to affect the text, for better or worse, since those two are deliberately such empty vessels."

I've seen this several times, and it's always been a female Rosencrantz (which worked great). Love to see it the other way around.

Years ago I saw a production of Nine at NYU in which the character of Liliane La Fleur was played as an outrageously flamboyant gay man, replete with beads and large feather boa during Folies Bergère. It worked fine.

If I remember correctly, this production incorporated ideas from early drafts of the script before Tommy Tune became involved and decided that Guido would be the sole male character in the show. Arthur Kopit gave special permission for this and the other book changes; this version of the show isn't commercially licensed.

I also tremendously enjoyed Lea DeLaria playing Marryin' Sam in drag as a man in Encores! Li'l Abner, although I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm for that performance.

Whose Life Is It Anyway was slightly rewritten to change the lead from a male character to female so that Mary Tyler Moore could play the part on Broadway. I can't remember if it was a revival or if she was a replacement for Tom Conti in the original.

I believe Jerry Herman has refused requests to have Dolly portrayed by a female impressionist with the exception of Danny LaRue in London many years ago. I heard that there was a production in San Francisco in the 1970's that used a popular local impressionist as Dolly but it was done without permission.

Likewise Edward Albee has flatly refused numerous requests to allow Virginia Woolf to be performed by four men.

There have been several female Hamlets, including Sandra Bernhardt in the 19th century and a silent film wherein Asta Nielsen played Hamlet as a woman forced to disguise herself as a man. And of course all of Shakespeare's women were originally played by boys.

And then there's Lady Bracknell....

Updated On: 8/2/13 at 05:15 PM

For selfish reasons, I want Cinderella, the Baker's Wife, and the Witch to be played by men.

I saw an ITW where Cinderella's mother was played by a man in drag. It worked beautifully! The guy looked like Christine Baranksi when he was in make-up and wig.

In High School I was Bert Cates in Inherit the Wind and as such I was defended by Henrietta Drummond

A legit answer to this question is Mary Sunshine in CHICAGO and Edwin Drood in DROOD. Not to mention opera's legit pants roles such as Cherubino and Count Orlofsky.

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