"seeing as that is one of my favorite roles, and is FEMALE"
Actually the Narrator was written as a male and originally performed by Peter Reeves at the Abbey Theater in London.
"I HATE when they do this!!! Like Whoopie Goldberg as Pseudolis in "Forum" (Haven`t seen it but) WHAT WERE THEY THINKIG!?!?! I think after Nathan left no one really wanted to see it and they tried to rely on star power. They not only changed the sex but they also changed the race!!! "
I don't understand "Haven't seen it but..." Why would you comment with such severity if you didn't see the production? That's kind of... I don't know... it's kinda of silly and small minded. Theater history is full of performances that shouldn't have worked but did... wonderfully. Look at the Wooster Group's revival of The Emperor Jones... which by all accounts was stunning in it's original run in 1993 and it's recent revival. You shouldn't discount something just because you think it's a bad idea. Give the performer a chance to pull it off. From Ben Brantley's review of Whoopi Goldberg's performance "...her distance provides a reassuring anchor in a show that can feel gratingly overwrought. She's less fun than Mr. Lane was, but she is also more companionable."
"because it fits in with the frame of the Asylum, and with Tobias' mental state as the story is recounted"
It doesn't really. They needed a lady voice to make the ensemble work... and work it does... wonderfully. They wouldn't have had a female alienist working at an Asylum in the 1800's... and don't tell me it's supposed to be a modern Asylum... because that wouldn't really make factual sense either. These things either work or they don't. It doesn't matter the factual justification if the performer can pull it off and it doesn't detract too much... and Donna Lynne Champlin and Whoopi Goldberg pulled it off admirably in my opinion...
FIN.
kmc
Jesus saves. I spend.