Dylan Mulvaney cast as Anne Boleyn

[dementedpixie]

Came up on fb and thought it was satire to start with! Would put me off going to see it tbh

Oh sorry @porridgecake it wasn't you who claims you have to be trained to be able to tell a counter tenor from a soprano, that was someone else.

This is what is annoying, the hypocrisy and double standards.

You haven't made a point to counter though? Your "point" seemed to be that people love the musical. They do - including many on this thread. Noone is denying that the musical is popular.

Or perhaps your point was that the "hysterical, knee-jerking responses" are "hilarious. First, "hysterical" has horrible, sexist roots so that's ironic, but secondly, that's also an opinion not an argument so nothing to "counter".

Would you like to try again with an argument about why Dylan Mulvany is, or is not, a suitable person to play Anne Bolyn?

Dames are very different to this.
The whole joke behind the dame is that everyone knows it’s a man.

With DM playing AB, it’s because we’re supposed to believe he’s actually a woman.

I took my DD to see it and she loved the female empowerment of it. What a shame they can't see that. Maybe I'll take my ds to reaffirm to him that he owns the world.

It's supposed to stick up a middle finger to us.

Agree @Thedevilhasfinallycaughtupwithhim - totally distinguishable. Theres also the technical element in that I understand the AB role often sings the higher harmonies: how’s that to be squared with a man playing the role? Rewriting the score? Just shoving it down an octave regardless of the loss of pitch?

Far cleverer? The writers shows themselves as the clueless men they are.

Anne Boleyn was extremely clever and one of the main drivers behind the rise of protestant ideas in England at that time. But in the end all her intelligence couldn't save her from being beheaded because Henry didn't like an intelligent wife and she wasn't able to carry a son to term. Basically she was beheaded because she was female and didn't live up to stereotypes and expectations by men.

To then cast a man in her role is just a f*ck you by the patriarchy.

Can you imagine a woman being cast who couldn’t sing the part required?
We’re supposed to simultaneously believe they’re women, just like us, but also, they’re not and because of that require special treatment.
It’s such an insidious misogyny. It enrages me how many women don’t see it.

@OneGreyKoalaas an aside: you write well, which is one indicator of intelligence. However, were I you, I’d lay off the intellectual superiority before you come a cropper. Unless you’re new here, you’ll know a sizeable proportion of Mumsnet users is highly educated and intelligent - particularly those on this board.

We are women who have worked long and hard to get to where we’ve got to and we’re not delighted about the trans agenda for a whole host of reasons (only one of which is men muscling into women’s stuff). And we are not afraid to say so.

With DM playing AB, it’s because we’re supposed to believe he’s actually a woman.

This is where the whole ideology just implodes. Nobody, including Mulvaney, thinks he's a woman, they don't even think he's pretending to be one.

It's a parody. A gay man parodying women.

The misogyny just drips off him.

If the writers of Six are maintaining it's a show to empower women, this is going to blow a hole through it.

if It's just another regular drag queen type sexist show, then that's a completely different audience.

Him. Dylan is a man.

This ☝️. This show is absolutely girl-nip. Every time I’ve seen it the theatre is packed out with girls, teenage girls and women from about age 7 upwards (Heathers is the equivalent for teenage girls and up). There’s usually a token man in each corner looking very uncomfortable. I love the fact it’s females watching and listening to females. Such a shame it’s reverted to the standard theatre thing of females watching males.

You read my mind.

Have you actually read the lyrics to Anne Boleyn's song in the musical?

It certainly does not emphasise her intelligence or power.

This musical is not a paragon of historical accuracy and feminism. I wouldn't say it's a "fuck you" to anyone, but the casting of DM (or indeed the casting of black actresses for white historical figures) is hardly ruining some bastion of solemn historical recreation.

To be honest I detested this show when I was taken to it in any case - cringed through the whole thing.

I appreciate the premise, and the idea of getting children interested in history, but the execution (no pun intended) was essentially panto and felt ultimately cheapening to me.

This casting decision feels entirely inkeeping with that impression to me. Somebody thinks they're being terribly enlightened and clever whilst actually demeaning what those women went through and completely failing to understand the reasons why.

I enjoyed six because some of the lyrics are genuinely funny. Although they rely on chariacatures of modern women. The humour for me comes from the use of the modern language "chill, its totes God's will' etc.
The message is very feminism 'lite', girl power spice girls style, which tends to be the type that sees no conflict in including men, so I'm not surprised at this. Thankfully I saw it with an all female cast.

Exactly this

Pretty much. This is a musical designed to appeal to the masses. It's not a wonderful piece of feminism.

This is bubblegum feminism at best.

DMs presence doesn't ruin it.

Oh Dylan and his massive plates of meat are on Broadway! ☺️

Mulvaney is a creep with the charisma of a wet sock, who also can’t sing, which is kind of an essential skill for musical theatre.
I’d wager bookings are down so it’s either shock casting for headlines or the person doing the casting knows DM will be a car crash and people will hate book to watch how bad it is. Either way, it isn’t a win for DM and probably signals the end of Six’s Broadway run.

Saw this last year and like others, loved it far more than I expected to.

My main gripe with the show was actually the portrayal of Anne Boleyn: an intelligent, witty, educated, fiercely ambitious champion of the 'new religion' turned into a vapid Valley Girl. It's at odds with the 'we'll give these women the voices they were denied by history' patter.

I don't know whether the casting of a man to play her, when she was brought down simply and solely because her female body didn't produce the required male child, is more disrespectful than what they've already done to her TBH. But 'vapid Valley Girl' does fit the DM persona perfectly.

Rather surprised he's still going with all this schtick.

That’s what I enjoyed too (not looking into it deeply or doing a contextual analysis on the script) but just a wholly female cast and a pretty much entirely female audience having a whale of a time. It just doesn’t happen often (ever?). Hence why this is disappointing. If you’ve watched DM videos he doesn’t want to quietly get on with being a TW. He wants to cosplay and poke fun at women. And here he goes again.

And I never got the point of panto dames and principal boys either. Always thought it would be better if they just played their own sex. But that’s just me.

The writers of six have been on the trans train for years. They said something like they didn’t want TERFs to come to their show. So I haven’t.

To be honest, a bunch of randoms trying to turn Anne Boleyn's story into one of morals and lessons is more bizarre to me than who plays who.

Actors usually reflect the worst in society which is very apt because Boleyn's story, whilst sad, is a world of complex characters, deception, betrayal and deviancy. The royal courts and those who sought to hold influence in them makes modern Parliament look like a collection of Angels.

So I don't really care if DM is playing Anne or Henry. Enjoy the show, or ignore it. I choose the latter because I've no desire to watch a bunch of actors blowing smoke up each other's backsides, whatever letter, pronoun or sexual preference they hide their self-serving personalities behind.