[Mollysmom]

how often/ likely is a girl cast for the role of oliver? if you are a director especially, what is your opinion on this? I have a 10 year old girl who wants to go for the role, but since it is a boy's role i don't know if i should set her up if she doesn't have a chance to begin with. I am just not sure how common it is to take a girl for the part.

[Nettik]

In the production I was in last summer, both our Oliver and understudy were female.

It can be difficult to find a young boy with the ability to play Oliver. I would definitely suggest having your daughter audition for Oliver unless the audition notice says only boys can audition.

My personal opinion is that a boy really should play Oliver, but if you have an outstanding female and a very weak male, the female should take the role.

[Vichysois]

I was in a production last fall and we had a young girl play the role. At auditions, there were a few males who could have passed, but this girl had stronger performance abilities. The director commented that he wasn't intending to cast a girl but that's the way it went. And it ending up working really well.

'Course, the dynamic between the 5'9" male Dodger and 4'7" female Oliver might have been a little iffy. The director said he thought of Dodger as a "Fagin in training" and justified it that way. *shrug*.

[momsterv]

My daughter played Oliver when she was 10, it was a community theater, adult production. There were several boys who auditioned. She wore a wig for the performances.
Later that year she played Colin in a professional production of The Secret Garden, and had a male understudy. So you just never know.

The director of Oliver really wanted to use a boy, but she ended up choosing a girl.

[ActingDude17]

I personally would not cast a girl as Oliver, but it really depends on the director.

[Adie]

If it helps, when I was 11 I played the Artful Dodger and I'm a girl.
Quite a few girls auditioned for the role (dodger), I don't recall any auditioning for Oliver and the understudy for Fagin was a woman.
There is no harm in auditioning- so go for it!

[Remme]

I, too, would encourage you to let your little girl audition if it hasn't been stated that only boys can audition.

After all, what's the harm in trying?

[Gwen]

There have been three cases that I know of where a girl has taken a guys part- it was tradition to cast the role of Peter in Peter Pan to a girl. (Mary Martn!! WOOT!!)

The other two cases were at my old high school- the role of Moon Face Martin was given to a girl and she pulled it off brilliantly--and, when they did Oliver, Oliver went to a girl also and it worked! ^ ^

I'm not a director, but if I were I think that if it's possible for a girl to pull off the role that it should at least be considered instead of just "no we're using a boy!!"

[ActingDude17]

When you saw those roles played by girls did you truly believe you were watching a male character? If you didn't, the girl did not pull it off. I am so skeptical about cross-gender casting because I've never seen a girl properly pull off a male role.

[kiwitechgirl]

I've seen a production of Oliver with a girl in the lead role - if you hadn't known, you wouldn't have known. I've seen A Christmas Carol twice with girls as Tiny Tim as well and it worked perfectly. If she wants to audition, let her go for it!

[ActingDude17]