Loads and Loads of Roles: Difference between revisions

** A [[The BBC|BBC]] [[Radio]] remake had Harry Enfield reprising all of Guinness's roles.

* A good many [[Peter Sellers]] films, especially ''[[Doctor Strangelove]]'', where Sellers plays the title character, Gen. Ripper's British adjutant and the US president. He was originally intended to play the bomber pilot as well, but he A) allegedly had a dubious time with the accent and/or B) sprained an ankle and could not work in the cramped cockpit set, so the role went to Slim Pickens. Columbia Pictures only agreed to finance the film on condition that Sellers play multiple roles.

** The biopic ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'' has Geoffrey Rush not only playing Sellers and his characters, but also suggests Sellers is directing it and playing everyone else in the film by sometimes stopping the action and revealing, say, [[Blake Edwards]] ([[John Lithgow]]) to be played by Rush-as-Sellers, and commenting to the viewer on Sellers' behavior. This may be a confusing attempt at a [[Deconstruction]] of Sellers, given the film's overall attitude towards him as a person and errors that can be seen as [[They Just Didn't Care]] for those familiar with his life and work.

* Any ''[[Monty Python]]'' film, for all six of the Pythons involved--although [[Straight Gay|Graham Chapman]] usually had relatively few roles, due to being the relative [[Straight Man]] and thus usually playing the central characters.

* [[Mike Myers]] playing the role of several key characters in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' franchise.

* ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'', in which, as the ads put it, "three guys don the shoes and dresses of an entire town."

* [[Jack Black]]'s character from ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'' made a career out of this.

* In the short film ''Ghosts'', [[Michael Jackson]] plays two main roles (the Maestro and the Mayor) and three transformed versions of them (Skeleton, Superghoul and Ghoul Mayor).

* In ''[[Clerks]]'', several actors play multiple small roles. Given the late hours and low pay, many of those cast simply failed to show up, so Smith would have anyone who happened to be around step in. David Klein (the cinematographer) and Walter Flanagan get hit the hardest with this, with five and four roles respectively.

* [[Buster Keaton]]'s silent comedy ''[[The Playhouse]]'' (1921) opens with a scene in which ''every character'' at a theatrical performance - actors, stagehands, musicians, audience members , a twelve-man minstrel show - is played by Keaton, impressive both for Keaton's skill and for the technical aspects of pulling something like this off so early in film history. It's even lampshaded when one of the Keatons remarks to another, "This fellow Keaton seems to be the whole show."

* The 1971 adaptation of [[Neil Simon]]'s ''Plaza Suite'' had Walter Matthau playing a different character in each of the film's three acts.

** The original Broadway production had George C. Scott and Maureen Stapleton appearing as different characters in all three acts, while a 1987 made-for-TV version had Carol Burnett playing three different roles.

* Peter Kay in ''[[Phoenix Nights]]''

* ''[[Mega 64]]''. The six main characters are played by three actors (two characters each), and there are a few regular recurring actors who almost always play different characters in each appearance.

* In [[Jul Paa Vesterbro|Jul På Vesterbro]], [[Anders Matthesen]] plays every single character who has talking roles in more than one episode. In other words, he plays 11 main and recurring characters, 3 one/two episode characters as well a cameo [[As Himself]].

 

== Theatre ==

 

{{quote| '''[[Big Bad]]:''' *is shot, with Hannay, a police officer and the girl looking on* There was only supposed to be a cast of ''four!''}}

** The lead man plays one role, the lead woman plays four, and the remaining two actors play ''all of the other roles'' between the two of them. [[Hilarity Ensues]], as does much switching of hats, when four or five of these characters are in the same scene. It prides itself in [[Lampshading]] everything about this trope.

* The Broadway musical ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]'' has only nine actors in its entirety. The nine actors each have a main role, and double for 13 others. Often, the actors assume their other roles by unzipping vests, moving their hair, or merely changing their voices.

* ''[[The Mystery of Irma Vep]]'' (not to be confused with the film ''[[Irma Vep]]''): two actors (who are contractually obligated to be the same sex to insure that there ''will be crossdressing''), 8 characters, 60 quick costume changes ''each'' in the course of a show that only runs 100 minutes. Anyone who has worked on this show will freely admit that the dressers for the actors are as vital to success as the actors themselves.

* A recent US tour of ''[[Chicago]]'' had a full ensemble, and the entire cast did one role apiece - except for one guy who played all twelve members of the jury. By taking little things out of his jacket, changing his posture, and ''not saying a word,'' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|he completely stole the climactic trial scene.]]

* The Canadian classic ''Billy Bishop Goes To War''. One actor, eight characters, not including the "narrator" who also provides musical accompaniment.

* Another Neil Simon play, the musical adaptation of the Patrick Dennis novel ''Little Me'', was produced on Broadway in 1962 with [[Sid Caesar]] playing numerous characters.

* Subverted in [[Seussical]]. [[The Narrator|The Cat in the Hat]] appears as different roles throughout the show, but he's still The Cat in the Hat.

 

== Web Original ==

** [[The Chestnut Hill Improv Group]] is only three people, two of whom do a lot of voices between them.