These comedies tried to wrestle with gender identity in the 80s-90s

Early in Blake Edwards’ dizzying musical farce “Victor/Victoria,” would-be superstar Victoria (Julie Andrews) attempts to explain to faded nightclub mainstay Toddy (Robert Preston) just why their scheme is doomed.

Toddy has proposed that Victoria make a splash in Paris’s nightclub scene by pretending to be a man who performs as a woman, creating a truly head-spinning amount of drag for Victoria to navigate. Toddy insists it will not be difficult. “I am personally acquainted with at least a dozen men who act exactly like women ...