Just sick of it all.

[CousinGregg]

Just been to take my young child to a West end show.
The main character was played by a boy (trans girl). In the book and film its a girl.

The villan was played by a man (male) dressed up as a woman. In the book and the film its a woman.

Should I explain to my GIRL FEMALE child that women are a joke, a myth, drag, a feeling and they can forget getting jobs in theatre. I am fucking SICK of it. Its everywhere now.

What show was it?

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Men are forcing their way into all and every female space. They win women's awards, scholarships, medals, scholarships etc etc. Very depressing.

I feel your pain. Erasure of women and girls.

Two trans 'TikTokers' - both with large followings/lives off their Tik Tok earnings have just been outed as sex offenders, one a rapist, one a paedophile - I actually thought these stories of men posing as women for nefarious reasons were an rarity. I feel so sad for humankind, never mind just womankind!

Not that long ago that women weren't allowed to act anyway. Looks like that's the world again. Whatever the reasons, it's always women and girls who lose out.

Proves that they do actually know who the women and girls are.

Women being eroded again Ffs 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ I’m glad I’m too old for this rubbish.

How very Shakespearean of them - no need to cast those awful female people with their dirty menstruation and what not, just put a boy/man in lady costume and Bob’s your uncle.

Oh, my mistake, Bob’s your aunt.

Matt-ilda

OP, was this the production of Matilda in the WE? Are you sure that Matilda was played by a transgirl? That information isn't in the cast biographies on the show's website (and the programmes only contain the same info as the website biogs), and there hasn't been anything in the show's promotional material about it. I have some connections with the professional children's musical theatre world and know one of the current WE Matildas personally, and haven't heard anything about a trans-identified child cast as Matilda.

Miss Trunchbull has always been played by a male actor in the musical theatre show, and imo that casting works better than having a female play the role. I don't think the casting of Emma Thompson works that well in what I've seen of the film, brilliant actress though she is.

In the current tour of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2 of the 4 children sharing the role of Charlie are girls. Not sure whether that was deliberate "sex-blind" casting (colour-blind casting is pretty well established in theatre), or whether they just couldn't find enough boys who could fulfil the role.

I'm really intrigued that Miss Trunchbull is usually played by a man. How odd.

i think this is in the minority op? Haven’t heard of this happening a lot and actually in films I see more female leads in everything now and was actually saying to dh I feel a bit sorry for men now as the fellas to solve the crime/ kill the baddy/find the whatever. Was talking to my sons about marvel films and their favourite characters now are mostly girls

I think it is partly a nod to the pantomime dame tradition, and partly practical. Miss Trunchbull is meant to look masculine but also has to physically tower over one of the female adult leads in order for some elements of the show to work, and I imagine it's easier to find male performers who are tall enough and have the right physique.

It's easier to get away with casting a shorter female in the role for the movie (can use clever camera angles, have the actor stand on a box, etc), but much harder to get the required effect on stage unless the actor really is tall and physically imposing.

We saw Matilda years ago. I thought the musical itself was amazing but the casting of Miss Trunchbull incredibly misogynistic. She's supposed to be a woman. It's not particularly difficult to cast a tall, solidly built, imposing woman. Come on theatre directors, do it.

I think it’s OK about Miss Trunchball as it is the pantomime same tradition. But bemused if the lead was played by a trans girl. It’s a shame as it’s a really inspiring story for young girls and It’s great for them to have a role model to look up to. But as PP says, there’s no publicity about it so am interested to know why you think this? Pre-puberty, there is little to distinguish boys and girls and surely Matilda is played by a fairly young girl.

But if true, poor kid, I too would be annoyed if I took my DD to something to inspire her and the female role model was male bodied.

I saw Matilda last year and I did find the man who played trunchbull was absolutely brilliant and having a man makes the character ridiculous so it adds to the whole show. I find this type of performance very different to drag queens though and I think that's because they are overly sexualized.

www.salon.com/2013/10/27/the_dangerous_transphobia_of_roald_dahls_matilda/ apparently

Matilda is played by a trans girl?

I had no idea. I obviously did about Ms Trunchbull.

Weird to have them cast in the same show, one presumably as a joke, drag act and the other not.

It would be helpful if @CousinGregg could come back to the thread and tell us how they came by this information, because I really don't think this is correct.

Theatre is very woke. If the RSC had cast a transgirl in Matilda, they would be celebrating that publicly. There was certainly plenty of positive publicity when (entirely reasonably) they introduced colour-blind casting and the first black girl played Matilda.

It's not particularly difficult to cast a tall, solidly built, imposing woman. Come on theatre directors, do it.

Actually, it is quite difficult for musical theatre. MT needs triple threat performers (trained to a high level in acting, dancing, singing). Females who train professionally as dancers tend not to have bigger physiques; there is still a lot of prejudice in the dance world about "larger" dancers, and entry to MT training courses is fiercely competitive as it is.

I thought it was inherently transphobic to find male bodies in any way intimidating or imposing or threatening just because they are male? So it's interesting that this casting of Miss Trunchbull has this assumption as its basis.

I'm pretty sure it's not correct, I went recently and read about all the girls playing Matilda, no mention of any of them being trans.

There are other female characters traditionally played by men. e.g. Tracey Turnblad's mother in Hairspray.

Similarly principal boys are played by girls in pantomime.

There is quite a strict height limit on Matilda auditions. My average height dd wouldn't qualify (she checked the minute we got home!) Obviously I know shorter boys exist but it would be hard I think to find a boy that fit the bill at the right age to belt out the songs.

I saw the same cast of Matilda in the summer. Matilda’s voice really threw me, and I ended up looking up the person playing this part, but I couldn’t find any evidence they weren’t a biological girl.
DS commented that Matilda is supposed to be a 5yo girl, but sounded like a grown man.

This is the current cast according to London Theatre...