to boycott Matilda the musical on principle because it gives one of the few great female acting roles to a man.

[Bodicea]

There are so few great female characters as it is and there especially aren’t many that aren’t the pretty young thing, token love interest role. It has really annoyed me.

Or Six

Pam Ferris made an excellent Miss Trunchbull in the film. Who said they wouldn't be able to find a woman suited to the role?

My DC's Deputy Head was dressed up as Miss Trunchbull for World Book Day once, the DC said she was in character all day and was terrifying! She had to talk to me after school about something DS2 had done, she said she felt a bit silly in costume, I was shaking!

Several years ago dd was in a touring production of George’s Marvellous Medicine playing the shrunken granny. The normal sized granny was played by a man.

Ms Trunchbull is played by a man because it works very very well. The physicality of the character adds menace.

This^ The character Ms Trunchbull needs to dominate the children with physical size too. The actor who plays her is excellent and it works.

That would put me right off.

I hate it when they do it in pantomimes. Prince Charming a woman, the ugly sisters men etc etc. Just urghh!!

Ms Trunchbull was played by a woman in the film. That worked!

Half the chorus of American revolutionaries in Hamilton are women too. And you even get an inanimate symbolic object (a bullet) played by a woman.

I loved the production of Twelfth Night where Tamsin Greig played Malvolio (avoid Shakespeare OP, you may find it not to your taste).

The musical isvery different to the film. The larger than life Wormwood family, the colours used and the acrobat and escapologist storytelling thread that runs throughout to portray Matilda’s imagination.

If you think there are only a ‘few great female acting roles’ you would be well advised to see much, much more theatre - not less!

YABU, Bertie Carvel was truly awesome as was the second man I saw in the role. I actually think it emphasises Matilda’s strength more.

Plus, the musical is brilliant so you’re missing out.

Matilda the musical is absolutely nothing like a pantomime, it’s an absolute masterpiece in theatre, comparing Miss Trunchbull to a pantomime dame is ridiculous.

Peter Pan is always a woman isn’t he?

And the wicked stepsisters are always men.

There’s a production of the ballet, swan lake, where the genders are reversed too.

I don’t find it offensive.

I must admit though, that I think if Matilda was played by a boy I might find that a bit .

Also wasn’t Michael Ball the mother in Hairspray?

In other news, the lead role of Bobby (male) in Sondheim’s Company has now been changed to Bobbie (female) in the new production that has just opened to excellent reviews at the Gielgud.

Bertie was wonderful!
I've just booked to see it for 5th time. And Avenue Q for sixth...where Gary is always played by a woman.

Sometimes overthinking means you miss out, this would be one. I saw it on Broadway; the make Miss T was HUGE and totally Dahlesque grotesque. It was a fabulous production.

I saw Tim Minchin do it - he was fantastic. Wouldn't call it one of the great roles in theatre for women though.

And it’s been done before; wasn’t Alastair Sims the Head in the St Trinians films?

Peter pan is usually a woman, although maybe not now with better equipment, because women are lighter than men.

There's your lead role that women 'stole' from men. Don't hear them complaining though do you.

Yup I'm with you. Acting is a brutal industry for all, but way more so for women. Bugger all parts compared to men and a lot more competition for them. For every high-profile gender/race blind casting there are about 500 'traditional' ones.

So giving what could be a really exciting opportunity for a woman to play a sinister, non-feminine character in a musical (not a genre well renowned for the challenging of genser stereotypes) to a man...it's problematic I think.

Best Musical ever. Not everything has to be about gender equality/a cause...

This show is brilliant, clever. Don't cut your nose off to spite your face.

Miss Truchball comes over as a very masculine figure, great physical strength. I can’t see that you can easily find a female actress playing it so convincing without loosing the whole idea behind the character.

Like Madame Morrible in Wicked? I've never heard that any theatre has trouble casting her.

The funny thing is that if a male role had been taken by a woman, it would have caused a media storm with lashings of Daily Mail outrage, as we have seen repeatedly...

I was about to say I have seen about 4 different women play Peter Pan and that is the lead!

It's a lot easier to make Pam Ferris terrifying on camera than I would imagine it is to find a woman who is over 6ft with the build of a hammer thrower, the voice talent, and the comic timing. And you don't just need one: you would need a succession of them.

HRT Gary wasn't played by a woman when I saw Avenue Q.