Cross Sex Casting

So, we all know about female roles written for men (Edna, The Trunchbull) and male roles written for women (Peter Pan, Gary Coleman) 

But what about female roles just being played by men on Broadway specifically

The only one I can think of is Harvey Fierstein as Jeanie in that Hair benefit performance

Female playing male I can think of a few

Lillias White as Hermes, Patina Miller as The Leading Player, Whoopi Goldberg as Pseudolus 

I'm curious about this because I don't know that many examples of roles like this that have been played by both men and women

Let's not forget Neil Simon famously reworked The Odd Couple to have it star Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers as Olive and Florence, and have the Pigeon Sisters become the Costazuela Brothers.

Updated On: 12/12/23 at 10:38 AM

I guess the Company revival doesn’t STRICTLY count because the text was actually changed to switch the sex of the character, but I guess it kind of counts. 

There are not that many examples here. However, there seems to be more in the UK. Recently, Joanna Ampil as the engineer in Miss Saigon, and there have been a few Miss Hannigans played by Drag Performers as women. In emergencies here, there have been some times males have gone on in female roles. In the revival of Cats, Corey Snide went on for JennyAnyDots, and in Hadestown, males have gone on as the Fates. Titus Burgess played the Witch in Into the Woods, I believe in Florida somewhere (though I am not sure if he played it as a Witch or a Warlock).

Generally, license companies for musicals are quite protective of their shows.  For example, I know  there was a theater that wanted to have in their production of Little Shop, Mr. Mushnik become Mrs. Mushnik with a celebrity in the role. But that request was denied. 

 

Ok last one -- Lea Delaria in Rocky Horror playing Eddie and Dr. Scott. 

Kitsune said: "Didn't Waitress have a stunt cast for the role of Joe that was a woman? I remember hearing they changed the lines about losing the baby when Joe is reminiscing.

June Squibb played the role, but it was renamed "Josie," and the character was explicitly a woman.

 

This didn't actually happen because 9/11 happened first so producers became much more cautious of how they'd spend money, but if I recall correctly Billy Porter was slated to play the Witch in the 2002 Into the Woods revival.

Someone pointed out that Lena Hall played Hedwig - which is true, and it reminded me that Ally Sheedy was the first woman to play Hedwig, back in its original Off-Broadway run.

 

Updated On: 12/12/23 at 09:11 PM