Searching for a festive present for the vacation season stuffed with heartwarming household feeling? Then you definately’re in luck. A brand new revival of “La Cage aux Folles” opened on the Pasadena Playhouse on Sunday, and the present is as glittering as a Macy’s store window at Christmastime.
Lengthy earlier than same-sex-marriage was a sensible chance, Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman’s 1983 musical introduced a message of acceptance of nontraditional households to Broadway. The household on the middle of “La Cage” consists of two deeply dedicated males, Georges (Cheyenne Jackson), who owns a nightclub on the French Riviera, and Albin (Kevin Cahoon), the star attraction of this drag institution. Collectively, they’ve raised Georges’ organic son, Jean-Michel (Ryan J. Haddad), and a cozier, kinder home unit could be laborious to seek out outdoors of a Hallmark film.
Cheyenne Jackson, left, and Ryan Haddad in “La Cage aux Folles” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
Farcical havoc ensues when Jean-Michel requests Georges and Albin play it straight when his future in-laws pay a go to. He’s not ashamed of his mother and father, however Anne (Shannon Purser), his fiancée, is the daughter of Edouard Dindon (Michael McDonald), a conservative politician with a rabid anti-gay platform. Jean-Michel is in love, and doesn’t wish to lose this opportunity at happiness.
With a rating by Herman (“Hello, Dolly!,” “Mame”) stuffed with irresistible melodies, a guide by Fierstein (“Torch Song Trilogy”) as comically outrageous as it’s sweetly relatable and a flock of drag performers (often called Les Cagelles) in flamboyant feather, “La Cage” gained over audiences who might need been reluctant to journey in from the suburbs for an providing constructed on such an unconventional premise. Theatergoers, nevertheless, turned out in droves for a present that gave them that quaint musical feeling.
Kevin Cahoon and Les Cagelles in “La Cage aux Folles” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
The unique Broadway manufacturing ran greater than 4 years, successful six Tony Awards, together with finest musical. What “Will & Grace” did on tv, “La Cage” did years earlier within the theater, depicting homosexual folks as human beings, simply as lovably blended up as extraordinary of us, solely with higher comedian timing and a very good deal extra leisure worth.
Director Sam Pinkleton turns up the get together quantity in a revival that typically permits the comedian ambiance to get the higher of its emotional by way of line. Spectacular to take a look at, the manufacturing is unfailingly exuberant, a parade of coloration and catchy chanson. It’s a welcome time to reencounter “La Cage,” even when the manufacturing finally delights the senses greater than it grabs the guts.
Nicole Parker and Les Cagelles in “La Cage aux Folles” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
The performers are inspired to play their roles to the comedian hilt. Maybe that’s why I appreciated Cheyenne Jackson’s tender portrayal of Georges, the proprietor and emcee of the membership referred to as La Cage aux Folles, which is downstairs from the place he lives with Albin. Flaunting his ripped physique, Jackson is costumed to resemble a Tom of Finland stud. Nevertheless it’s the beautiful sincerity of his singing that seduces.
Zaza, Albin’s drag alter ego, often is the membership’s marquee draw, however on this revival, Georges is the actual famous person. I might hearken to Jackson croon “Song on the Sand” and “Look Over There” on an everlasting loop. Nevertheless it’s not simply his approach with a Broadway present tune. Jackson grounds Georges and Albin’s de facto marriage in adoring love.
Cheyenne Jackson and Les Cagelles in “La Cage aux Folles” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
Albin, after all, has essentially the most well-known quantity within the present, “I Am What I Am.” This homosexual anthem of self-acceptance turned a disco hit for Gloria Gaynor. However for the track to work its magic within the musical, Albin’s inside life should poke by way of the make-up, attire and temperamental diva histrionics.
Cahoon’s method to the function is so stuffed with zany affectations and mannerisms that it’s laborious to really feel on intimate phrases with Albin. Think about a Randy Rainbow parody of Tracie Bennett’s efficiency as Judy Garland within the musical “End of the Rainbow” and also you’ll have an approximation of what Cahoon is as much as right here. (He was terrific, by the way in which, as Peanut within the 2023 Broadway musical “Shucked,” receiving a Tony nomination for his hilarious efficiency.) I hoped the music would reveal softer qualities in Albin’s nature, however Cahoon’s singing solely continued the comedian stridency.
Kevin Cahoon in “La Cage aux Folles” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
His rendition of “I Am What I Am” that brings the primary act to a detailed emphasizes Albin’s rage. It’s a sound alternative, however it doesn’t depart a lot room for different emotions. The English actor Douglas Hodge, who gained a Tony for his efficiency as Albin within the 2010 Broadway revival, delivered the quantity like a stark cry from the guts, with out neglecting the rousing life-affirming place from which the lyrics and music emerge.
George Salazar, who performs Jacob, Albin’s sassy, stage-struck maid (don’t name him a butler!), and Nicole Parker, who performs Marie Dindon, Edouard’s weary and more and more fed-up spouse, carry recent specificity to the comedy. An excessive amount of of the manufacturing’s humor has a normal anything-for-a-guffaw obviousness, however Salazar (who has turn out to be an everyday at Pasadena Playhouse) and Parker (who has actual bodily comedy chops) make their roles their very own.
Cheyenne Jackson, left, George Salazar, Michael McDonald, and Nicole Parker in “La Cage aux Folles” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
There’s a number of French shtick thrown in for affordable laughs. What’s ironic concerning the Pepé Le Pew accents and rubbery baguettes is that the setting seems to be extra like Florida than the St. Tropez of the musical, which is predicated on the play by Jean Poiret that gave rise to Édouard Molinaro‘s 1978 film. (American moviegoers are probably more familiar with the tale from “The Birdcage,” the 1996 Mike Nichols film, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, which relocates the action to Miami’s South Seaside.)
The confection store scenic design by David Zinn doesn’t draw back from kitsch. (That is Las Vegas’ thought of the South of France, which locations us kind of in Sunshine State territory.) David I. Reynoso’s costumes add to the scenic glitter. When Les Cagelles comes out to sing “We Are What We Are” early within the first act, they’re hid in tents of disco ball sparkle.
Cheyenne Jackson, left, and Kevin Cahoon in “La Cage aux Folles” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
Pinkleton — who directed Cole Escola’s present hit Broadway comedy, “Oh, Mary!” and co-directed (with Jenny Koons) the retooled Pasadena Playhouse manufacturing of “Head Over Heels,” which reworked the theater right into a Eighties dance membership — places his imprint on “La Cage” most notably within the inclusive casting. This can be a revival that extends the present’s lesson about wanting previous variations to incorporate bodily varieties and even bodily capacity.
Haddad, an actor with cerebral palsy who makes use of a walker on stage, performs Georges and Albin’s earnest son Jean-Michel with grit. It could actually’t be straightforward for Jean-Michel to have turned out so sq. when his mother and father are so defiantly curlicued, however Haddad lends the younger man each an iron will and a conscience.
Purser’s Anne isn’t the demure ingenue of extra conventional productions, although McDonald’s Edouard Dindon has no drawback enjoying the farcical parental heavy. Shea Diamond’s Jacqueline, proprietor of the fashionable restaurant the place Georges and Albin take the Dindons for dinner, might give any of the performers at Georges’ nightclub a run for his or her cash.
Cody Brunelle-Potter, from left, Ellen Soraya Nikbakht, Salina EsTitties, Kay Bebe Queue and Paul Vogt in “La Cage aux Folles” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
Les Cagelles, in the meantime, clarify that typical magnificence requirements don’t have anything to do with cabaret prowess. Set in movement by Ani Taj’s choreography, these performers flaunt their individuality like nothing may very well be extra magnificent. They’re proper.
And the way might anybody resist letting go of pesky inhibitions with Herman’s empowering rating filling up Pasadena Playhouse with pure effervescence. Kudos as soon as once more to producing inventive director Danny Feldman for reminding us what a stay orchestra seems like in a regional theater and to music director Darryl Archibald for drawing out the rating’s elegiac shadows and romantic uplift.
This revival succeeds maybe most totally within the welcoming embrace it extends to all. Albin’s epiphany in “I Am What I Am” is easy but profound: He desires neither reward nor pity, however solely to be seen as his “own special creation.”
What higher message for the vacation season, and what an ideal time to be reminded of this hard-won reality.
‘La Cage Aux Folles’
The place: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena
When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 7 p.m. Thursdays, 2 and eight p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. and seven p.m. Sundays. (Examine for exceptions.) Ends Dec. 15
Tickets: Begin at $44
Contact: (626) 356-7529 or PasadenaPlayhouse.org
Working time: 2 hours, half-hour