On Feb. 16, social media star Dylan Mulvaney stepped into the role of Anne Boleyn in the musical SIX.  

SIX, the musical tells the story of the six wives of King Henry VIII with an upbeat pop vibe to the whole show.  

Mulvaney’s name might sound familiar because in April 2023, she appeared in a Bud-Light commercial and it caused a boycott because Mulvaney is a transgender woman. Mulvaney’s name on a playbill has caused controversy again.  

A vanity fair article published on February 18 said,  “But when it was announced that she was stepping into the role of the Anne Boleyn in December 2025, she experienced deja vu, with conservative criticizing her casting and calling it “woke” and lamenting on social media that they “made Anne Boleyn trans.”” 

According to Vanity Fair, all this negativity made the social media team of SIX make its X, formerly twitter, account private.  

Transgender actors and actors who fall under that umbrella on a musical theater production, is not a new thing.  

According to Institute of the Arts Barcelona, some other people include Michaela Jae Rodriquez a transgender woman who stared as Audery in Little Shop of Horrors at Pasadena Playhouse in 2019, Alexandra Billings, a transgender woman, who stared in Wicked in 2020, Angelica Ross, a transgender woman, who starred in Chicago on Broadway in 2020, Jinx Monsoon who has done several off-Broadway productions as a transgender woman, Tomás Matos first openly nonbinary performer who played Fate in Hadestown on Broadway, to name a few.  

A lot of critics claim that Mulvaney’s casting is “stunt casting.” Stunt casting is the use of a gimmick or publicity stunt to fill a role in a television, film, or theater production. An example of this would be when Billy Ray Cyrus starred in Chicago in 2012 or Brendon Urie when he starred in Kinky Boots in 2017.  

“Sometimes putting a celebrity into a show will bring people to theater that wouldn’t have otherwise wanted to see the show; they only come to see the celebrity” Melissa Derechailo a professor of horn music history, music theater history and music industry at Wayne State College said in an email.  

Mulvaney ran her own off-Broadway show last year and created original music with the two of the creators who wrote the opening number for SIX, according to Broadway.com. She has extensive theater experience. Mulvaney told Broadway.com that she would audition for every show she could and was finally cast at 10 years old. She’s played Snoopy in You’re a Good, Man Charlie Brown. 

“Some people… had extensive dance, musical theater training, but then they got famous for something else.” Rusty Ruth, a communication arts and theater professor said, “So going back into musical theater isn’t necessarily a stretch for them.” 

Some critics say that she simply just does not have the range or measure up to the previous people who have played Anne Boelyn. There also has been false information that Mulvaney has no theater experience. Which begs the question should a celebrity with no musical theater training star in a production? 

“I don’t think it’s a matter of should- it’s more a matter of can they literally do it with no experience or training” Derechailo said in an email “Can they handle the rigors of performing eight shows a week? Can they keep their voice healthy and not strain it when they don’t know anything about vocal technique? Can they perform at a high enough artistic level to match the rest of the cast?”