9 Times Broadway Replacements Led to Gender-Bending Roles | Playbill

Lists 9 Times Broadway Replacements Led to Gender-Bending Roles

Going from Cole Escola to Betty Gilpin to Tituss Burgess in Broadway's Oh, Mary! isn’t the first time a show has thrown gender norms to the wind with replacement casting.

Lillias White in Hadestown, Tituss Burgess in Oh, Mary!, and Whoopi Goldberg in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum

In the past decade, it's become the norm to have a role that was traditionally cast as one gender to be played in a revival by another gender. Think of the times there's been a female actor playing Prospero in The Tempest or the bachelor Bobby from Company becoming the bachelorette Bobbie in the 2021 revival. But it's especially exciting when one role is played by multiple genders in the same production.

With the title role in Broadway's Oh, Mary! going from gender non-conforming Cole Escola to cis woman Betty Gilpin and, soon, cis man Tituss Burgess, Playbill has been wondering: how often does Broadway mix up gender when recasting roles? After digging through the annals of the Playbill Vault and other resources, we can say the answer is a lot!

Here are nine other times actors brought a gender-bending twist during a show’s run on Broadway. 

Ryann Redmond Marc J. Franklin


1. Ryann Redmond in Frozen

Disney's smash hit animated film Frozen coming to the stage meant finding a live performer to take on the role of sidekick Olaf the snowman. The Book of Mormon and Gutenberg! star Josh Gad voiced the fan favorite role in the animated film, and the Broadway version originally starred Greg Hildreth in the part, which he performed visibly onstage while operating an adorable Olaf puppet. But despite the needlessly gendered name, clearly Disney wondered if snowmen had to be played by men, because when Hildreth left the show, he was succeeded by Ryann Redmond in the role, though the character continued to use he/him pronouns. Redmond stayed with the production for about a year before herself being succeeded by Chad Burris, proving that Disney was willing to go in any direction with the role as long as the performer was up to the challenge.

Lillias White as Missus Hermes in Hadestown Matthew Murphy


2. Lillias White in Hadestown

André De Shields won a Tony Award creating the role of mischievous Hermes in Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown, but the production has since decided to prioritize flair over gender with the role, casting both men and women when finding replacements. That trend kicked off with Lillias White in 2022, who has since played multiple runs in the part. Other replacements have included Daniel Breaker, original The Wiz star Stephanie Mills, Jon Jon Briones, and T. Oliver Reid. But Hermes isn't the only area where Hadestown is comfortable shaking things up with the gender of its cast. When the wrong combo of actors were unable to perform one night in 2022 leaving the production without a full set of Fates, then-swing and dance captain Reid jumped into action to save the day, playing one of the usually-female Fates. When he told us about it at the time, he called his take on the character "Auntie Fate."

June Squibb Marc J. Franklin


3. June Squibb in Waitress

June Squibb was no stranger to Broadway when she joined the original run of Sara Bareilles' Waitress in 2018. Her storied career—most of which has been on screen, including her Oscar nominated turn in 2014's Nebraska—includes stage performances in the original production of GypsyThe Happy TimeGorey Stories, and Sacrilege. But what was notable about her star turn in Waitress was the role she played. Kindly diner owner Joe, somewhat the heart at the center of the Tony nominated musical, was first played by Dakin Matthews. When Squibb joined, the role became Josie, with the character going from a curmudgeonly man to a woman. As of the time of publication, the performance is still Squibb's most recent on the Main Stem.

Mary Tyler Moore and James Naughton in Whose Life Is It Anyway? Martha Swope/New York Public Library


4. Mary Tyler Moore and James Naughton in Whose Life Is It Anyway?

When TV star Mary Tyler Moore opened on Broadway in Whose Life is it Anyway?, the production was technically considered a new revival, but given that it began performances three months following the original Broadway production’s closing night, it was really just a replacement cast after a brief hiatus. The physical design and direction didn’t change between these openings, but the stars—and their genders—did. The original production, which opened in April 1979, starred Tom Conti (in a Tony-winning performance) as paralyzed sculptor Ken Harrison and Jean Marsh as his doctor. When it re-opened in February 1980, Mary Tyler Moore was Claire Harrison, with James Naughton co-starring as her male doctor. The play went on to run for an additional 96 performances with Moore and Naughton, closing in May 1980.

Carlos Lopez, Jason Opsahl, Jessica Stone, Sam Harris, Ricky Paull Goldin, Megan Mullally, Hunter Foster, Heather Stokes, Rosie O'Donnell in the 1994 Broadway revival of Grease. Stan Schnier / Carmen Schiavone


5. Jennifer Holliday, Darlene Love, and Mary Bond Davis in Grease

Kinky Boots Tony winner Billy Porter made a big splash early in his career playing Teen Angel in a 1994 Broadway revival of Grease. Teen Angel is, essentially, a specialty spot within Grease, singing “Beauty School Drop-Out” and appearing briefly in the show’s finale. This made the role perfect for big-name star replacements, which included Chubby Checker and Al Jarreau. However, the show’s producers also turned to female talent when casting Teen Angel replacements, giving Dreamgirls Tony winner Jennifer Holliday a stint in the role, as well as legendary studio singer Darlene Love and Mary Bond Davis, who would go on to create the role of Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray.

Ross Lehman and Whoopi Goldberg


6. Whoopi Goldberg in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Nathan Lane won his first Tony Award playing Pseudolus in the 1996 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove, and Larry Gelbart’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, leaving giant shoes to fill when he completed his run. In stepped Whoopi Goldberg, at the peak of her fame—she was already an Oscar winner for Ghost and had starred in such box office winners as Sister Act and The Lion King—to play Pseudolus, originally cast as male. Goldberg played the role as a woman, and was also noted for adding some of her own ad-libbed lines throughout. As she told Playbill last year: "Stephen Sondheim okayed it, so I felt pretty good. He understood that it’s not always the voice—it’s the intention.”

Rosie O'Donnell as The Cat in the Hat in Seussical Aubrey Reuben


7. Rosie O’Donnell and Cathy Rigby in Seussical

When Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens’ ode to beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss struggled to find an audience early in its run in 2000, producers decided to try a starry replacement. They cast comedian and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, who had become a noted Broadway fan and cheerleader after she welcomed an unprecedented amount of productions to perform on her popular daytime talk show. O’Donnell replaced David Shiner as The Cat in the Hat about a month into the run, and she was succeeded by Cathy Rigby, who then played the role in the show’s national tour. This particular gender-switch has lived on with the show; theatre companies producing Seussical today have the option of licensing versions of the show with keys chosen for a male or female Cat in the Hat.

Melissa Etheridge, Van Hughes and company


8. Melissa Etheridge in American Idiot

When Grammy-winning band Green Day teamed with director Michael Mayer to adapt their 2004 album American Idiot into a stage musical in 2010, the role of St. Jimmy was created as a force of nature, a rock star-like drug dealer who turns out to later be the manifestation of another character’s inner demons. That rock star quality made it the perfect slot to insert Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong, who replaced original star Tony Vincent in the role. Armstrong’s prior engagements meant he could only perform in the show off and on, so producers brought in another rock star, Melissa Etheridge, to fill in for one of Armstrong’s off weeks. Etheridge sang Green Day songs like “Last Night on Earth,” “Know Your Enemy,” and “Last of the American Girls.”

Cast of Once on This Island Joan Marcus


9. Rodrick Covington in Once On This Island

Tony-nominated director Michael Arden switched the genders of two of Once On This Island’s gods when first casting his 2017 revival production at the Circle in the Square Theatre. Non-binary and gender fluid Alex Newell played Asaka, a role created in the 1990 original production by Kecia Lewis. Merle Dandridge opened the production as Papa Ge, a role created by Eric Riley in the original production. When Dandridge left the production, replacements have included other cis female actors, such as American Idol star Tamyra Gray, and cis male actors, including Rodrick Covington who took over the role full-time after serving as an understudy in the original company.

Lena Hall Rudy Archuleta

Bonus: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which centers on a transgender rockstar, originally starred the show’s book writer John Cameron Mitchell when it opened Off-Broadway. Mitchell is a cis male actor, and most replacements in the role have also been cis men, but not always. Former Brat Pack member Ally Sheedy replaced in the role during the original Off-Broadway run, and Lena Hall, a Tony winner for her performance as Yitzhak in the first Broadway production of Hedwig, played Hedwig during that production’s national tour.

 
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