Dylan Mulvaney cast as Anne Boleyn

Women can’t have anything to themselves can they?

Hands up who thinks we’ll ever see a woman playing Hamilton..?

Oh, look! Another transphobic post on Mumsnet!
What a shocking surprise, these never happen!

Bore off and get a hobby 🙄🥱

Would certainly put a twist on history if it had been unearthed that the reason Henry VIII beheaded his second wife was because he'd been decieved into marrying a bloke in a dress. I'd be pretty pissed too.

I thought pantomime season had finished.

I’ve always seen it with Katherine of Aragorn and Anne of Cleeves as women of colour, I think I’ve also seen there have been casts with East Asian actresses (plus I believe an all Japanese cast in Tokyo)…I’m not sure if it’s a “rule “ that Cleeves is always black though…might be!

as an aside you can only get a license to perform Hairspray if you can correctly racially cast all the characters - so if you want to do it at a school that is not very racially mixed you can’t. (Ooh there’s another good topic to discuss)

It sounds like you haven’t seen it previously?! You say this would put you off seeing it, but given it’s been around for years already, if you haven’t bothered booking tickets previously, it’s not really casting this person that is putting you off seeing it?

I love this show, seen it several times. If someone has been cast in this it is due to their incredible talent. Good enough for me!

I’m also fairly certain that for every person who won’t see it ‘because of this’ there will be more people who book tickets because of the very fact that this show is diverse in its castings. So probably no loss to all involved in it.

As I said, it’s a shame for you that you are missing out on a brilliant show but that’s up to you (unless I’m mistaken and you have already seen it, it which case, please disregard my comment).

I love musicals but I looked up some of the songs of this show and thought 'what a pile of shite' how on earth is this positive for women? I don't think it could be made any worse by sticking a man in it tbh. Definitely not getting 'wildly intelligent writers' or female empowerment from this cringe fest.

Three in the bed
And the little one said
"If you wanna be wed
Make up your mind!"
Her or me, chum
Don't wanna be some
Girl in a threesome
Are you blind?

[Ensemble:]
Ooh

[Anne Boleyn:]
Don't be bitter

[Ensemble:]
Ooh

[Anne Boleyn:]
'Cause I'm fitter

[Ensemble:]
Ooh

[Anne Boleyn:]
Why hasn't it hit her?
He doesn't wanna bang you
Somebody hang you

Yes, that would have been the better choice. Instead the one Henry doesn't fancy has in both the productions I've seen, been played by the only woman of colour in the line up.

The world has gone mad.

Tudor women faced many problems in a society dominated by males. Anne Boleyn certainly did eg; being executed for not producing a male child.
Seems particularly ironic for her to be played by a male.
Females who faced male oppression being played by males seems similar to black slaves being played by white actors in black face or native americans played by white actors ...just seems insensitive at best.

It's not always. I saw a trans man play a role recently and if I hadn't been told that they used to be a woman I wouldn't have been able to tell. Maybe up close it would have been obvious, but not from the gallery. They did a good job. Similarly the brilliant woman playing Richard 3rd was playing him pretending to be a man, they hadn't changed Richard in to a woman.

I want to see someone cast who a) is capable of the acting/dancing/vocal demands of the role, and b) makes me believe that they are the person they are portraying. If they can do that I'm happy.

Of course some roles are too problematic to overcome gender/colour blind casting because it impacts the understanding or meaning of the show. But I'm not convinced that's true here - everyone knows who Anne Boleyn is, so they won't be confused, it's not historically accurate in plenty of ways, and there's basically no plot to the show anyway.

great post!

Well how ironic… the real Anne Boleyn had her head chopped off for not being able to conceive a male child. We’ll need to be careful here though, or we’ll get our heads chopped off for complaining about it.

Brilliantly put

Perhaps they want to play it in the historical customs of Shakespeare's time?

I loved the Six, but the writers haven’t had hit since.
I wouldn’t go, if a man was playing any of the characters! Especially as I’m sure part of the songs are women doing it for themselves without Henry’s need for a male heir!

In theatre dont they play different genders all the time?

@FlirtsWithRhinos said it so much better than me!

2 things - first totally agree with you about the man in legally blonde - was rubbish! But then much as I loved the actress playing Elle I wasn’t sure about her casting either - but that’s a different discussion.

the thing about having women playing Richard 3 is that they are women who they director has intentionally chosen for their skill, and either they have crossed the whole role (so female clothing/talking about her not him) or they are dressed convincingly as men. There are far fewer really meaty parts for women in Shakespeare- I totally get why female actors want a chance at them. I’ve also seen it with female Hamlet and male Ophelia (6 foot with chest hair showing over his strapless ball gown)…that was a disaster as the cognitive dissonance made it impossible to focus on the words - good Shakespeare isn’t always easy to follow at the best of times.

also saw it with Ian McKelken as hamlet (only 70 years or so too old ) - that was really bad - I don’t know if it was just hideous costuming choices (scruffy tracksuit) but all I got was senile petulant old man not angry youth. Which is a shame because his Lear was astoundingly brilliant.

but the issue with DM isn’t about cross dressing/casting - it’s about the fact that he and the writers/directors are pretending that he’s a women being cast as a woman. Cast Tom Holland and I’ll come and see it like a shot (look for him dancing to Umbrella)…because he’s not claiming to be female. (Actually still don’t think casting a man as one of the 6 is appropriate but I can see he would be amazing).

However in a slight ray of hope I am seeing fewer pronouns in bios in programs these days…

Yeah after I posted I remembered it was less satire and more counter factual I.e what if she wasn’t this cool, calculated, intelligent woman but some sassy airhead. I’m not sure it works in the context of the show but as a whole I really liked the show (although the AB song is my least favourite)

Is this casting just for Broadway? I'm booked to see it in the UK later this year and I don't want to go if there's a bloke in it. The whole point of the show is that it's all women!

I saw Six recently and it was incredible - I felt it was so empowering for women but this just completely takes the piss.

Cross sex casting can be really effective. You see the character in a new way and you also see how your own expectations are shaped by sex.

The reason it works is because the actor's sex is not the sex of the character (or the sex they are usually played as). The difference is what makes it work.

However when it comes to trans casting, the fundamental article of faith we are supposed to accept is that the trans identity is that there is no difference between a trans actor's sex and the sex of the character. We have to pretend we think trans women are just as much women as female people. And therefore the only interesting thing about trans casting is a thing we are not allowed to acknowledge and are told we are bad people to think about.

In short, cross sex casting is done for the sake of the play and the audience, trans casting is done for the sake of the trans actor and the producers' egos. It's not really surprising that the first works and the second doesn't.

The points about voices are interesting for that reason. Are both writers men?

I would go and put lovely terf-y stickers everywhere!