Time for Women with Talent to Take Back Older Female Roles in Pantos

I don't think panto is for you OP!

Maybe try a bit of Shakespeare? or not

I recall seeing Una Maclean playing the Dame in panto at the McRobert Theatre in Stirling in '84. Very good she was too.

I think that many of the pantos in Scotland have moved away from having a woman playing the Principal Boy.

I believe that the most recent panto at the Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy didn't have a Principal Boy at all - the Princess was the leading character - but they did have a male Dame. The Dames up here are normally well-known comedians of either sex. The best known woman currently playing Dame roles would probably be Elaine C. Smith.

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/23821293.elaine-c-smith-says-feels-privileged-part-glasgow-panto/

It's a highly visible role and one designed for older women.

Which countries? I know there have been controversies about Russian companies doing this.

BTW, are you sure most UK panto dames now are gay men playing it drag-style?

The touring companies from other countries who perform on UK stages quite often do

Which companies in the UK would they be?

That sounds good. The Ugly Sisters could be given outlandish makeup etc, as you say

Is yellowface used? I've never seen that. Shocking ...

Panto Dames have been a thing since 1806 when a certain Mr Simmons decided to play Mother Goose as a Witch (how original) rather than as a caring grandmother figure. Nowadays panto dames are mainly played by gay men in drag.

I think it's time for talented actresses to take back elder female roles from the tired tropes played by men since the Victorian era.

I think there is an argument to be had about how generally the 'funny' parts in panto's have always gone to men whilst women were just there to be pretty but tbh in recent years I do think it's gotten better. Saw Doreen Tipton in Wolverhampton and Birmingham, she was fantastic and got to be funny.

Panto dames though? Traditionally played by men. I'm not sure about your statistic that they're 'mostly played by gay men' either.

I have tried to explain myself and you still believe you know better.
in any event, mentioning musicals with female lead roles is only the tip of the iceberg which if you work in theatre, you would know. The numbers of production roles filled by women in musical theatre and straight theatre are really bad, all of which can be evidenced by recent statistics.
musical theatre may be doing ok but straight drama, both London based and regional are in real trouble. That was the point I was making which for some reason annoyed you.

Actresses won’t care. They are playing a character the audience is responding to. It’s the character who is ugly, not them.

The Nutcracker is still performed with the ethnically incorrect Arabian and Chinese dances by some companies. Because I have actually seen that. Yes.

My cat is livid that nobody has given him the opportunity to play Puss in Boots.

I’m in an am dram group and I can guarantee that if we did Cinderella as a panto, the ugly sisters would be the most auditioned for roles! Fun and silly roles like that are always more popular than the boring parts (like Cinderella herself). Men and women would go for it, and because we have more women than men in our group they would probably be played by women. Probably women who are very attractive in real life. Their ugliness contrasted with Cinderella’s beauty would be portrayed by costume, posture, voice, mannerisms etc.

I’ve seen Cinderella performed by another am dram group with 2 women as the ugly sisters and they were fantastic. One in particular was a stand out performance. Not once did I think “this would be better if they were men”.

No-one's saying get rid of panto - just allow actresses a chance to play female roles such as the Dame Panto or the Ugly Sisters.

I think it would risk turning an otherwise good-humoured production into something quite nasty and awkward if you had an older woman playing an ugly sister - inviting the audience to laugh at how ugly she is. I can't think many actresses would truly want that part either, when it isn't about the actor skilfully portraying a villainous and wicked character: it's primarily physical-driven absurd humour.

It's not high art. The idea is that everybody laughs a lot at the people playing the ugly, grotesque sisters - and the actors play up to it, usually with lots of pathetically deluded and ridiculous lines and ad libs about how amazingly pretty they're convinced that they are; because they are clearly men and thus they are naturally going to be ugly/unattractive 'women'. Cinderella is a beautiful woman contrasted against two ugly 'women'. It would take a really unpleasant turn if you were inviting everybody to physically compare like with like: i.e. three actual women, one of whom is a beautiful woman and the other two are as ugly as she is beautiful.

The Nutcracker is still performed with the ethnically incorrect Arabian and Chinese dances by some companies. Because I have actually seen that. Yes.

No-one's saying get rid of panto - just allow actresses a chance to play female roles such as the Dame Panto or the Ugly Sisters.

I think it would risk turning an otherwise good-humoured production into something quite nasty and awkward if you had an older woman playing an ugly sister - inviting the audience to laugh at how ugly she is. I can't think many actresses would truly want that part either, when it isn't about the actor skilfully portraying a villainous and wicked character: it's primarily physical-driven absurd humour.

It's not high art. The idea is that everybody laughs a lot at the people playing the ugly, grotesque sisters - and the actors play up to it, usually with lots of pathetically deluded and ridiculous lines and ad libs about how amazingly pretty they're convinced that they are; because they are clearly men and thus they are naturally going to be ugly/unattractive 'women'. Cinderella is a beautiful woman contrasted against two ugly 'women'. It would take a really unpleasant turn if you were inviting everybody to physically compare like with like: i.e. three actual women, one of whom is a beautiful woman and the other two are as ugly as she is beautiful.

Hmmm, one female and seven men? Are all the men... on the short side?!

But most of the time, it just isn't. Where I live there are always posters for the pantos at four large venues. I always notice there is one female name/face on each poster and between four and seven men. I'm sure this doesn't represent every panto in the history of time, but I've noticed the pattern in all four venues posters for the last decade (since I started noticing).

You don't go the ballet much, do you?

Oh stop with your misogyny - they're extremely talented comedians who can bring a lot more skill to the role than the average mediocre male drag artist.