SOUND OFF Special Edition: 10 Classic Roles Ready For Gender-Bending

Lines are blurring. Gender-bending is seemingly everywhere these days, from high fashion ads to top news coverage to I AM CAIT and beyond. Plus, it was announced just last night that Queen Latifah will play The Wiz herself in NBC's THE WIZ LIVE! Furthermore, one of the most provocative and popular stories of last week was the news of a Canadian regional production of A CHORUS LINE casting a male actor in the leading role of Cassie, renamed Casey, as BroadwayWorld reported here. With the additional pop culture angle of Broadway currently being abuzz with the appearance of stage and screen star Taye Diggs stepping into the iconic high heels of the titular character in the recently multi-Tony Award-winning musical HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH - itself centered on a transsexual character - it seems as though now would be the ideal time to consider some other musical theatre mainstays and how they could be re-purposed and refreshed with a gender-bended twist.

Although certain roles seem tailor-made to such treatment, it is illuminating to consider the rich possibilities that could potentially be afforded in the experience of witnessing the right performer of perhaps the perceivably wrong sex tackling a role normally associated with the opposite gender - and the glories that could result. Who knows, maybe a female Phantom or a male Elphaba are not that wildly spurious or far-fetched to consider given the compelling performances that have been given by unlikely actors in roles traditionally portrayed in a certain way in the past. No risk, no reward. Plus, theatre is nothing without reinvention and so these are my top 10 picks for musicals I would like to see taken on with fresh eyes and a new outlook.

1. Cassie/Casey in A CHORUS LINE. Kingston actor Hunter Agnew just wrapped up his run in the Blue Canoe Theatrical Productions run of classic Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A CHORUS LINE this weekend, portraying the central role of Cassie as Casey, with nary a change to the script. Obviously, it is more than merely conceivable that a dancer and a director could have had a past relationship, including those of the same sex, so this seems a particularly astute directorial choice - which is also fully endorsed by Tams-Witmark in licensing the show, as a matter of fact, as this practice has been used in multiple productions before and with other characters in the piece, as well, including MIke and Richie. Point us toward tomorrow, indeed.

2. Norma Desmond in SUNSET BOULEVARD. Punch-lines aside, Norma Desmond is a titanic role of epic proportions even for musical theatre. Some would even venture to call some takes on the part in the past to be kubuki-level in their outsized scope of big, big, big dramatics and theatrics. Yet, the prospect of the right man playing Norma Desmond in drag is delectable, particularly were it to be a refined and respectful variation on the character and not a campy portrayal - perhaps making the drag routine part of the character and adding an extra level of pathos to the final scene in doing so. No? With one look, it could be a very valid and fresh new take on a terrific tuner which is ready for revival.

3. Florence in CHESS. One of the most treacherous and tricky vocal tracks of any musical ever written, the protagonist of CHESS is a hard sing. Originally penned exclusively for West End leading lady Elaine Paige, the score affords the actress portraying Florence with hard-hitting rock anthems, tender ballads, stirring duets, romantic reveries and dynamic sung-through character moments over the course of the near-three-hour evening. Surely, a dynamite devo with a big range could make a solid case for playing the character or even switching the gender outright and making the love triangle at the core of the show homosexual in lieu of the traditional heterosexual take. If nobody's on nobody's side, perhaps somebody should take a gamble and give this casting twist a try.

4. Mame in MAME. While AUNTIE MAME is forever iconic thanks to the Broadway original and the Rosalind Russell feature film adaptation, a male Mame in the role as envisioned by Jerry Herman in his musical version could be quite intriguing. Additionally, making the role an actual man instead of a drag take - which also could provide its own pleasures - would be fascinating to explore for the creative team and cast were the authors to allow it, especially given the character's close relationship to her nephew, Patrick. It's today, after all.

5. Dolly in HELLO, DOLLY! A man in drag playing the title character in HELLO, DOLLY! is not totally uncommon, though it is decidedly quite rare, yet a man reflecting on his life and his lost lifelong love as Dolly does could be heartbreaking in its own right were the character to be made a man. Nevertheless, the name would have to remain the same - although, on second thought, "Hello, Donny!" could work, though. But, as with MAME, what would Jerry Herman say? He would have to approve of the casting for it to ever become a reality - yet, what a touching and worthwhile experiment it could very well be.

6. Hedwig in HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH. Neil Patrick Harris, Andrew Rannells, Michael C. Hall, Darren Criss, Taye Diggs and the original author and star himself, John Cameron Mitchell, have all essayed the eponymous part in HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH in the smash hit revival production currently on Broadway, but what about a female playing the man with the botched sex change operation? Famously, Hollywood headliner Ally Sheedy briefly played the role in the original Off-Broadway production back at the turn of the millennium without much success, but times have changed considerably in the intervening 15 years and the right woman might be someone to give a whole new energy to the man who turns the nob on the midnight radio eight times a week on the Great White Way.

7. Victoria in VICTOR/VICTORIA. A musical based on a movie about a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman is confusing enough as it is, so to compound the equation with yet another level of meta would possibly cause the entire elaborate contraption to collapse out of sheer protest. Or, it could ultimately yield something outright genius. The right drag performer could make a solid case for playing Victoria at the outset of the show totally straight as a woman, only then to revert to their actual gender when playing Victor and make a convincing case for the role being essayed in that manner henceforth. Again, it all comes down to the perfect casting - who would you choose?!

8. Michelle Craig in THE ACT. One of the biggest star specialty showpieces ever penned for a particular performer, Kander & Ebb's THE ACT is a glistening and gob-smacking star vehicle unlike any other - as it should be, given that it was written especially for Broadway and Hollywood icon Liza Minnelli, then at the absolute height of her considerable talent and abilities coming hot on the heels of her CABARET Oscar win, and, to follow-up, a cinematic collaboration with Martin Scorsese on the movie musical NEW YORK, NEW YORK. Surely, the right man could make a case for performing the entire stupendous songstack packed with spectacular Kander & Ebb showstoppers, but the book as well? It would be dicey, but would be worth seeing, for sure - and, for those city lights, of course, too.

9. Aurora/Spider Woman in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. There is no doubt that the dizzying and dazzling spate of leading ladies to play the title character in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN during its Broadway and West End runs is spine-tingling to revisit now - Chita Rivera, Vanessa Williams, Bebe Neuwirth and Rita Moreno among them - but the casting of a man as Aurora and the Spider Woman in Kander & Ebb's Tony Award-winning Best Musical could display a stroke of inspiration, as well. After all, Aurora actually plays a man and is outfitted in male garb for a portion of the show as it was originally staged, so the meta-narrative of an actual man playing a woman playing a man would be delicious to consider and add yet another thematic level to the already dense and complex content of the masterful musical. But, who has the balls to climb over the wall and see if it could work, though?

10. The Witch in INTO THE WOODS. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine famously considered casting Billy Porter as a male version of The Witch in their beloved family-friendly fairy tale musical INTO THE WOODS when it was last revived on Broadway back in 2002, so perhaps the decade that has transgressed since then has given them further inspiration to seek out this potential casting coup for a future revival. Obviously, the role could convincingly be done by a man in drag or could be played by an actual man when considering the story of the show - Rapunzel is not the character's biological child, as we all know. To boot, Broadway breakout star Tituss Burgess recently played the part in a regional production. Children will listen and a male witch could give a whole new spin on the show for a new generation ostensibly more accepting and aware of transgender characters in their entertainment.

Now that you have considered my ideas for potential gender-bended takes on characters in musicals old and new, who would you like to see cast in these roles? Also, what shows would you like to see retrofitted with gender-bended characters in major roles? As the title of the column intones, sound off and let us know in the comments below!