Encores! Makes ‘La Cage aux Folles’ Seem More Timely Than Ever

My grandfather, Irving Krasner, spent whole his life working mostly in showbiz adjacent occupations: he ran restaurants, nightclubs, other venues that presented entertainment and entertainers. He had a lifelong love for music and theater, and was a very proficient amateur pianist and singer. In 1983, my uncle Frank took the whole family on a big outing for dinner and the latest hit Broadway show, “La Cage Aux Folles,” running through this weekend in a flamboyant new production at City Center. Irv loved Jerry Herman’s songs and couldn’t wait to get to a piano afterwards, but one aspect puzzled him. He would start to play and sing the big love song in act I, but he kept spontaneously interjecting his own commentary: “I heard la da da / As we walked on the sand… – Can you believe two guys singing a love song to each other? – I heard la da da da … I believe it was early September – two men! A love song between two men.” Grandpa Irv, who was about 75 at the time, was not a bigot nor a homophobe, and he was certainly not disapproving, but this just was more than he thought he would ever see: two people of same sex expressing love for each other, fully uncloseted and out in the open for all to see. Billy Porter and Wayne Brady in ‘La Cage aux Folles.’ Joan MarcusFor most of the 40 years since then, it’s seemed somewhat old-fashioned that this was a bold and dramatic statement at the time. (“Gay men in the musical theater! Who knew?”) Until recently, LGBT rights have been taken as a given, with marriage equality being the law of the land and openly gay individuals in positions of power. But throughout City Center’s marvelous new production, I kept thinking about the current political and social environment, and how “La Cage Aux Folles” is suddenly relevant again. It brings to mind what Ruth Bader Ginsberg said about the Voting Rights Bill. When other justices argued that we don’t need this crucial 1965 federal law any longer, she insisted that this was akin to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” RBG was correct, and we can’t take voting rights or LGBTQ rights for granted any longer. Perhaps that’s why the 2004 and 2010 Broadway revivals of “La Cage Aux Folles” ran only a fraction as long as the original. It wasn’t raining and nobody thought that they needed an umbrella. Jerry Herman (1931-2009) was an anomaly, a major musical theater composer who had a relatively small output, only seven major shows on Broadway, which, by comparison, was only a third of that of his contemporary, Stephen Sondheim. Herman’s career was also somewhat donut-shaped, in that it consisted of two major classics, “Hello, Dolly” (1964) and “Mame” (1965) followed by a big gap of almost 20 years in which he seemed unable to land another hit. Then, with the help of librettist Harvey Fierstein and original director Arthur Laurents, “La Cage” gave Herman one of the longest-running shows of the decade and a triumphant last hurrah.The basic property, “La Cage aux Folles” was a landmark LGBTQ play that ran for roughly five years in Paris starting in 1973. It led to three French-Italian movies and one well-remembered American entry, “The Birdcage” (1996), directed by Mike Nichols, with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. The City Center production, directed by Robert O’Hara, uses an all-African American cast, with the exception of Peter Francis James as the priggish politician Edouard Dindon, who seems less a heterosexual caucasian than a human manifestation of Sam, the bald eagle on “The Muppet Show.” The entire cast is excellent, especially James Jackson Jr. as a sassy, signifying maid / butler, and Tonya Pinkins, in her second memorable role in Encores! this season, as a divalicious restaurateur with an outrageous French accent. The ensemble of ‘La Cage aux Folles.’ Joan MarcusThe chorus dancers, Les Cagelles, are also a highlight. In the classic tradition, they’re all drag artists, though in the new production, they’re individually rather than uniformly costumed, and you can see spot drag representations of Janet Jackson, Billie Holiday, Mariah Carey, and one dressed like the Catwoman from the 1966 “Batman,” thereby honoring both Eartha Kitt and Julie Newmar, both gay icons. Yet another rather athletic Cagelle cheerfully splits the difference between Jesse Owens and Jessye Norman.This may be the be “Cage” cast I’ve ever heard, Wayne Brady as Georges and Billy Porter as Alban aka “Zaza” sing Herman’s score even better than any voices I’ve heard on at least three different original cast albums. They’re also among the funniest couples I’ve seen on stage. Although Jean Poiret wrote the original play, the real glory goes to the snappy dialog (“the return of the very pink panther”) and iconic lyrics and music by Mr. Fierstein and the late Jerry Herman. Mr. Porter in particular is a master of reading the crowd, and there are many moments when the laughs are so huge that he takes advantage of the moment to go off script and deliver a few ad-libbed zingers.The ensemble of ‘La Cage aux Folles.’ Joan MarcusMr. Porter gets most of the laughs and the applause, but I was equally impressed by Mr. Brady. He’s less flamboyant than the others, and spends much of his stage time playing — forgive the expression — a straight man and setting up big laughs for everybody else. But he’s at the beating heart of this production, and what’s more, he sings “Song on the Sand” better than anybody since Perry Como — even my Grandpa Irv. ,

Encores! Makes ‘La Cage aux Folles’ Seem More Timely Than Ever

Encores! Makes ‘La Cage aux Folles’ Seem More Timely Than Ever

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