review: la cage aux folles at gateway

After a long lifetime of watching musicals, my top picks would be Carousel, West Side Story, Les Miz and La Cage aux Folles. What makes a great musical? For me, the essentials are songs that are melodious, lyrics and a book that tell a story that makes you experience the whole gamut of human emotion from laughter to tears and all points in between. Jerry Herman’s La Cage aux Folles was controversial when first staged in New York in 1983, a time when stories of gay relationships, however monogamous and long lasting, were thought to be likely an anathema to many of the potential theater going audience. However, its sensitive depiction of human relationships within and outside a family ensured that it survived and to have long award winning runs in both New York and London.
The Gateway Playhouse production of La Cage that has just opened at the Patchogue Theater can really be reviewed in just a few words. It is simply brilliant. I say this after having seen both the original Broadway and London productions several times. The story is set around a gay couple in the south of France who have been together for twenty years and run a nightclub. Georges is the business and front of the house man while his partner, Albin, is the female impersonator par excellence. Georges has an adult son from a long ago liaison with a showgirl, when he was still deciding on his sexual preferences, and now the son, Jeanne-Michel, turns up with the good news that he is engaged and his in-laws are coming to visit. Good news often is followed by bad and the father of the fiancée, Anne, is a notorious political homophobe, unlikely to be pleased with the lifestyle of Albin and Georges. The ensuing confusion and misunderstandings bring all of the elements of a true French farce to play before matters come to a happy ending.
This is a show for which it is absolutely vital to get the casting right. This production has two excellent and very versatile actors and Broadway veterans, Richard White and David Edwards, starring respectively in the roles of Georges and Albin. Richard White plays the masculine part of the duo with great aplomb and tenderness and displays a strong melodious singing voice, especially in that very poignant number, “Look Over There.” David Edwards spends the majority of the evening dressed or dressing as his alter ego, ZsaZsa, the female nightclub chanteuse and carries this very difficult role magnificently. From his first big number, when he sings about putting on, “A Little More Mascara” while making himself up and donning his gown and high heels, to the iconic number “I Am What I Am,” which he delivers with a passion and a feeling I have never seen or heard equaled. This is a consummate display of acting. Between them, there is a chemistry, a rapport, that makes for an electrifying night. If you allow yourself to be drawn into their world, you will laugh and cry with them – I did!
No nightclub could exist without its dance troupe and La Cage has “Les Cagelles.” These are a wonderfully athletic, high stepping beautiful troupe of “ladies.” You have to guess who is who and what is what, all part of the illusion before the wigs and the gowns reveal the truth. At the end of a side-splittingly funny rendition of a can-can, at the finale, where all the dancers perform flying full splits, you could almost hear the men in the audience wince in sympathy!
In supporting roles, James Duane Polk was hilariously camp as Albin and Georges’ servant, Jacob. Mark Fisher and Hanna-Liina Vosa made a charming and tuneful couple and Daren Kelly and April Woodhall convincingly bigoted in-laws.
Director DJ Salisbury, Artistic Director Robin Joy Allan, Scenic Designer Kelly Tighe, Producer Paul Allan and all of the Gateway staff should be very proud of this production. The sets are functional and well designed and the costumes are appropriately glitzy. This show confirms the depth of musical talent we have and it is just a pity that today we have no one writing musicals of this quality.
If you truly love the musical theater do not miss this production – it is world class standard and deserves to be a total sell out with lines round the block!
La Cage aux Folles is at the Patchogue Theater until September 9th. The box office number is 631 286 1133.
–Roy Bradbrook