The title role in the performing arts is the performance part that gives the title to the piece, as in Aida, Giselle, Michael Collins or Othello. The actor, singer or dancer who performs that part is also said to have the title role.
The actor playing the title role is not always the lead; the title role may or may not be the protagonist. In the television miniseries Shogun, for example, Toshiro Mifune had the title role, but the lead was played by Richard Chamberlain.
Sometimes the name of the title character is not the name of the piece, as in The French Lieutenant's Woman. The title may also be deliberately ambiguous for literary effect; in An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde is the 'ideal husband' (the title role) the apparently-perfect Sir Robert Chiltern, or is it the enigmatic Lord Goring, supposedly a confirmed bachelor? In this case, which of the acting co-leads has the title role?
See also
