Into The Woods- Witch played by a male???

So, there is a production of Into The Woods coming up, and I have a pompous male friend who is INTENT on playing the witch. He is completely convinced he will be cast as the witch, but instead a warlock... I think it is the most ridiculous, effed up thing ever and it will never happen. It couldn't work, because you would have to change the whole plot... What do you guys think about this?

There was talk of Billy Porter playing the part in the revival...

I'm pretty sure that it is illegal to change the sex of role. You might be able to cast a boy at the witch in the 1st act, and then have a girl play after the transformation. Overall though, it’s bad idea. The witch after all is a mother and the whole Rapunzel thing would be really creepy with a boy.

Billy Porter was nearly cast for the revival.

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I do not see the problem in this....
If he can do it better than any of the women then let him. This role is somewhat flexible.

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the relationship between Rapunzel and the witch would just be creepy........... I hate this idea, but it's just my opinion.

Creepy why?

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Gay male and daughter relationship? Father and daughter relationship? It could modernize the show.


Not saying that it needs to be.

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Updated On: 12/16/05 at 12:13 AM

I agree, TheatreDiva. It would be ridiculous. I firmly believe that it is a director's duty to be true to the play as written, and this would be a major violation of this honor system we have in the theater (not to mention the LEGAL system). I'm all about finding "new things," but you have to draw the line somewhere. And 98% of the time, switching the gender of a character does not work. This is one of those cases.

Theatre is suppose to be inventive. A male can play the role (in drag if you will) without changing the gender of the role. Heck I have had a friend that have played Lady Bracknell (from the 'Importance of Being Ernest') in complete drag (a black man no less) and Lady Bracknell was still a complete women. I remember he also told me he once saw Mama Rose in drag (I am just going by his word here).

Theatre needs to be inventive. If it isn't, it goes old and dies. Yes some stuff doesn't work and people quickly figure out it doesn't work and discard it. But unless one has seen The Witch as a male-in-drag, then one shouldn't say 'it sucks'. Heck, this is an Industry where for 50 Years, Peter Pan has been played by a female, an old male Rabbi in "Angels in America", Edna Turnblad... if it can work then some gender blind casting wouldn't go completely astray.

In fact the role doesn't exactly call for a female only voice, in fact it would be quiet doable for a male.

The whole "being true to the play as written" is a very fine line to walk indeed. It's not that switching the gender of a role can NEVER happen. I've often heard of Lady Bracknell being played by a man, and it could work very well with the right actor. Oscar Wilde would have been delighted I'm sure. But as I said, most of the time it doesn't work.

I think there are many roles that could be played by a man or woman. I'd love to see a female devil in Damn Yankees.

As an aside, and I'm aware that that US theatre does not have these old traditions....Because the plots of ITTW are the content of traditional British pantomime there have been productions in the UK that have reflected that. Therefore the inclusion of the Witch as a Dame part (i.e. a man who plays a female role)is not unknown and would not be a jump at all for a UK audience and has been successful, also because IITW itself neatly subverts the traditional pantomime format. However,it could get complicated because traditionally in Pantomime, Cinderella's step-sisters are also played by men and the Prince by a Principal Boy (an actress)but I haven't heard of a production going that far down the Pantomime route.

Outside of that tradition - it's up for grabs, if you can make it work. A director's role is to communicate his vision of a piece not necessarily to follow slavishly what has happened before - it sounds as though this actor needs to find a director with a bit of guts and a vision.