Into The Woods- Witch played by a male??? — Page 2

musicalsaregreat - I would love to see a female devil in "Damn Yankees"!

I think that if a production were to cast a witch, a director would be unjustified in changing the lyrics from witch to warlock. The world witch is universal and could be easily applied to a male character. "Not all witches are warlocks, but all warlocks are witches" sorta thing.

We're talkinga bout 2 different things here.
1) Casting a male to play the witch and maintaining the character as a female.
2) Casting a male to play the witch and changing the character to be male.

Without saying, Sondheim/Lapine have final say with the property as the authors of the piece and could easily pull a productions rights for changing gender of the character. Sondheim has been known for pulling rights and preventing productions where the gender of characters have been changed. (ie: 2 male production of "Marry Me a Little") Not too different from the Beckett estate preventing gender different productions of his works.

SIDE NOTE: It would be interesting to see a production cast a male as the witch and keeping the character female and having the rights pulled for casting- and seeing if a law suit followed because it would be simular to casting a person of a different race in a traditional white role ie- a non jew in Fiddler on the roof.

Personally, I think without a doubt, a male could play the witch. The director would have to justify the choice, whethere it be he was the best person for ther role or a conscious choice to cast a male to paint a picture or make a statent or to express an idea.

I think that if he put the male in full out drag- flat out it might come across as cheapening or distracting to the meaning of the show- but at the same time, if done with the right design support, could be quite effective.

The witch is- a very androgenous character to begin with. Mystical- not real. Witches obviously don't really exist so why should the play to our wordly or even cultured views on gender of what a witch is. In many societies, the mystical "witch" roles are often men who trangress their gender- both mentally and in some extremes physically through surgury. In many other cultures, transgendered individuals are considdered very magical and mysterious. Under these circumstances, a male could easily be cast a witch.

The hardest part of casting the part this way is obviously the transformation. Done correctly, the transformation would not have to be gendered in regards to dress- but could come across beautifully adrongenous.

That is all- now back to my tranny cave of an appartment. The wigs are taking over. And I think the hairspray fumes are getting to my brain.

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Updated On: 12/16/05 at 08:17 AM

A glamorous transformation like Sir Ian McKellen's as Widow Twanky in Aladdin....

All right maybe not that glamorous....
Widow Twanky

I agree with you theatrediva... in shows there are rarely enough female parts to accomadate all the talent whereas with guys parts and the lack of guys who tend to audition (for community theare and school theatre, I mean) that boys tend to be casted much easier. The witch is a female part and it should stay that way.

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"I have NO idea.... No one should mess with this.. This just infuriates me. He could easily be the baker, but noooo he wants to take away a perfectly good female role. Selfish bas****."

and what about all the shows being done lately with completely female casts playing all the male roles? if you're going to get upset about a man taking away a "perfectly good female role", you'd better look at all the women taking away perfectly good male roles.

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I dont think this is a stretch at all. In college, for my senior directing project I did "Gypsy" with a man in drag as Mama Rose and it was sensational!

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okay... well thanks for all of the replys.

yeah, well I'll bet you sit around playing Zelda too, at ease soldier at ease!

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hmmm the only reason why i wouldn't want a male to play the witch is because i think "stay with me" would sound bad. I guess i would have to hear it to judge it.


Wouldn't it be funny if rapunzel were played by a boy?

I never said you mentioned race. I was make a tongue in cheek metephor about non-traditional casting, drawing comparrisons between race and gender. The two are very linked, both policitally and in oppression concepts. This is what it all boils down to: not one of us here can say OH NO that wouldnt work until you see it done. Even thereafter, you can't rule out the idea. People can be so closeminded. There are lots of cookie ideas out there. Open your mind- be creative and inovative. Otherwise stick to c-rated conceptual knock-off of broadway community theatre.

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jimmirae..what did you say? i sit around playing zelda?
please clarify your ..cryptic message.

There are so many awesome male roles out there, much better than female roles. Jack for instance is an excellent role and so is the Baker.
The Witch is a really great part and it would be very mean of him to audition for that part

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