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Peer Reviews "La
Cage Aux Folles" is Fabulous! Entire contents are copyright © 2008, Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.
Wonderful. Amazing. Outstanding. Fabulous! The singing, the dancing, the acting, the sets, the costumes, the choreography, the music, the songs, the libretto ... everything about CenterStage's current production of La Cage Aux Folles just took my breath away! This is by far hands-down the best piece of community theatre I have seen this year. I just don't know where to begin! Unusual to say the least, La Cage is a Broadway musical adaptation of Jean Poiret's 1973 French stage farce, which was also the basis of the 1978 French film and 1998's The Birdcage (with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane). It opened on Broadway in 1983 with Gene Barry and George Hearn in the two lead roles, and a tag line that read: "It's everything you'd want in a Broadway musical, but nothing you'd expect!" Truer words were never spoken.
The story centers on Georges (Andy Epstein), the owner of a glitzy night club on the Isle of Saint-Tropez. The club, "La Cage Aux Folles," features a nightly production headlining female impersonators. His life partner is Albin (Eddie D. Lewis), the club's flamboyant and temperamental star. The two have been together for over twenty years and have jointly raised Georges' son Jean-Michel (Michael Kirsch). Everyone's lives are thrown into chaos when Jean-Michel announces he is engaged, and has invited his future bride and in-laws to meet his parents. The trouble is his future father-in-law (Gene Dorf) is as conservative as they come, and is a politician bent on closing all the transvestite clubs on Saint-Tropez. Epstein and Lewis both turn in stellar acting performances in the lead roles. But where Epstein seems to have some pitch problems with his solo musical numbers, Lewis's performance is just flawless. As Albin, a.k.a. Zaza, his performance is a tour-de-force. Whether he is performing the ode-to-cross-dressing "A Little More Mascara" while changing from Albin to Zaza before our eyes, or breaking our hearts with the begging-for-tolerance show stopper "I Am What I Am," he never hits a false note. It's just an amazing performance. The rest of the cast is also top-notch. Kirsch is totally believable and endearing enough for us to forgive his character's self-centeredness as Jean-Michel, and Dorf provides his villain character with just enough bluster to be real. Frank Goodloe III, Matt Schuster and Kevin Swansey also shine in smaller roles as some of the more memorable other performers in the drag show. John Leffert's direction keeps things moving at a brisk pace, and Sandra Simpson's choreography nicely punctuates the 15 musical numbers. The set (designed by Leffert) is simple yet completely convincing, and the costumes (supervised by Emily Fields and Tymika Prince) are amazing. It could not have been an easy task costuming a stage full of drag performers so spectacularly! Both the original play and the musical were shows ahead of their time. Long before the concept of same-sex marriage became a polarizing political idea, the story dared to present a gay couple who were not only in a long-term committed relationship but were also good parents. So my only real complaint with the production is this: Although Georges and Albin profess their love for each other many times throughout the play, they quite conspicuously never show their affection with a kiss. Apparently, there is still room to grow. But this is not really a production about politics,
and it works so well because it is pure entertainment.
Get out to the Jewish Community Center and see
La Cage Aux Folles. You won't be disappointed!
La Cage Aux Folles Book by Harvey Fierstein. Music and Lyrics by
Jerry Herman. Featuring Jessica Adamson, Kelly Brady, Kyle Braun, Ashley Burger, Cindy Crenshaw-Smith, Carol Dines, Gene Dorf, Denzel Edmonson, Andy Epstein, Montie Fields, Frank Goodloe III, Mike Harlan, Cameron Hobbs, Eric Hoffman, Petar Mandic, Lauren Morelli, Barbara Myerson Katz, Michael Kirsch, Amanda Lahti, Eddie D. Lewis, Allen Matlin, Matt Schuster, Jill Sullivan, Kevin Swansey, Jennifer Casey Thompson, John Trueblood, and Rikita Turner. Posted January 27, 2008
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