The Stratford Festival Theatre Review: La Cage Aux Folles

By Ross

Surrounded on all sides by an excited opening night crowd, that’s not exactly gaudy, but certainly glittery, Stratford Festival gloriously presents a thrilling production of the 1983 Tony Award-winning musical, La Cage Aux Folles. With a delightful endearing book, written by the wonderful Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song), showcasing all those memorable songs by Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly!), the production soars with just the right balance of comedy and tragedy, dressed up in heels and draped in sequins. Based on the 1973 French play and 1978 film by Jean Poiret (Douce Amère) of the same name, the show hilariously and tenderly tells the story of an older gay couple hopelessly in love and trying to survive change and hurtful propositions. All the while forever trying to hold it all together for the sake of family and their Saint Tropez nightclub which features a cascade of drag queens that will amaze and entertain. 

Opening up the stage like a glorious, glamorous French version of that dirty M.C. at Cabaret, Georges, played lovingly by Sean Arbuckle (Stratford’s Casey and Diana), gestures us into the glittering space, dazzlingly designed by set designer Brandon Kleiman (Theatre Rusticle’s The Tempest), with spectacular lighting by Kimberly Purtell (Crow’s The Master Plan) and a solid sound by Brian Kenny (Musical Stage’s Kelly v. Kelly), with gentle loving coaxing. When not leading the show forward, Arbuckle’s Georges spends his days and nights taking care of his self-created family; namely a stable of queens called the fabulous Les Cagelles, played electrically by Eric Abel (Stratford’s Frankenstein Revived), George Absi (Toronto’s Chris, Mrs), David Ball (Shaw’s Sweeney Todd), Josh Doig (Stratford’s Spamalot), Jordan Goodridge (Drayton’s The Music Man), and David Andrew Reid (Shaw’s Brigadoon), kicking it up high and hilarious during every spectacularly show-stopping number. The dancers, masterfully giving it their all in acts choreographed by Cameron Carver (Stratford’s Richard II), are a special kind of tucked treat, dressed deliciously by costume designer David Boechler (Stratford’s Spamalot). They are fierce and funny, finding unique characterizations within each, but the true star of their stage is Albin, or should we say, Zaza, Georges’ romantic partner and the club’s premier attraction. And a lot of Georges’ work is managing, loving, coaxing, and fawning over the delicate demeanor of his temperamental but captivating star. 

Now “chase me!” Albin cries out in the giddiest of girlish ways possible as Steve Ross (Stratford’s Something Rotten!) gives us a touching and vulnerable Albin this is as impossible as he is adorably sweet. Ross sensationally shows us what a wonder he is, playing it wild and free, while also finding a way to sneak into our emotional hearts. The show is ultimately a farce of epic sweet, gay proportions, that unwraps the emotional truths of these two behind a story stitched with some very solid ideas about shame and the pain of hiding oneself authenticity. With Albin at the core of this show, feeling vulnerable and hurt, but standing tall for his truth, the show unpacks layers upon layers of emotional truth, pain, maternal love, and disappointment, while also gifting us a whole lot of reasons to laugh.

Outrageously funny and deeply lined in love, La Cage Aux Folles gets this high-wired balancing act right, not only in its great one-liners, but in its gentle unwrapping of homophobia and the farce of the straight ‘normal nuclear‘ family. Thanks to the fine work of music director Franklin Brasz (Stratford’s Chicago) bringing it all solidly to life, the show, the ideas, and the musical numbers blend in and shine as bright as can be. “I Am What I Am” is no accident, it’s a rallying cry and a song of determined visibility that feels as powerful today as it did when it first made its way to the stage. And the song “The Best of Times” feels as solidly engrained in our culture as any other.

Opening on Broadway in 1983, La Cage broke all kinds of barriers, giving over the center stage spotlight to a gay couple, the first of their kind in a hit Broadway musical. The show lovingly focuses its heart on a long-term homosexual gay couple who aren’t dealing with tragedy or sickness. They are a couple like any other, in a way, just living their love in full support of one another. Georges and Albin are presenting their gay lives as authentically as possible, being as glamorous and feminine as they so desire. It might not feel as radical as it must have back in 1973 when the original play premiered in France. But the grand anthem and the emotional truth still hit home, reminding us all that hiding and disguising who we are is as relevant and as hurtful as ever. 

The framing never feels overly pointed or heavy-handed, yet when Georges’ grown son, Jean-Michel, solidly portrayed by James Daly (Off-Broadway’s Dracula – A Comedy of Terrors), returns to his familial home to the two parents who raised him, he comes in with an announcement that is embraced, after a bit of wrangling, and an ask that is sharper and more hurtful than most kitchen knives. Jean-Michel finds himself in a bind, announcing to his father Georges that he is engaged to be married. And announces that the woman, Anne, gorgeously portrayed by Heather Kosik (Toronto’s Chris, Mrs), he has fallen in love with is the daughter of a dangerous close-minded, right-wing politician by the name of Edouard Dindon, played well and clear by Juan Chioran (Stratford’s Something Rotten!). Dindon, his Puritan wife, Marie, played obediently and wisely by Sara Jeanne Hosie (Musical Stage’s The Wild Party), and their lovely daughter are on their way to meet Jean-Michel’s parents so they may give their blessing. 

Naturally, there are more jokes and jabs than one can imagine on all sorts of reversed formulations that keep us laughing along the way, but it’s also hard not to notice, and feel, as the son stabs forth the kicker of the evening. Jean-Michel wants and thinks he needs Albin, who basically raised this young (now very handsome and tall) man as his own, to hide himself away from the judgmental eyes of the overly righteous parents of the woman he loves. Daly does a fine job presenting this cruel idea to Georges as if he’s asking for a small simple favor. But for his true parents, and for anyone who knows, it’s a shameful, cruel thing to ask. For a moment or two, mainly because of some fine performances, we only mildly hate this young man for asking the impossible, of his father Georges, and his pseudo-mother, Albin. 

To further shove the knife in deeper, he requests George to ask his biological mother, “Sybil who?” to come to the dinner party and stand in for Albin when Ann’s parents arrive. And when she cancels at the last minute, as she always does, it seems, Albin finds the courage and determination to rise up and engage. And for anyone, which is almost all of us who has seen the magnificent film adaptation, “The Birdcage”, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, we have a good idea how this will all play out and end. There will be gorgeous laughs from within and from us, centered around inappropriate dishes flying through the air, courtesy of their faithful and fierce manservant, Jacob, effervescently portrayed, sometimes a bit too big, by Chris Vergara (Rainbow Stage’s Rent), and automatic physical reactions to moments that give it all away, thanks to their neighbor, Jacqueline, played gloriously well by Starr Domingue (Stratford’s Something Rotten!). And the whole thing will be quite the drag, in the best and most glittery way possible. 

With all that glamorous glitter and high kicks by men in heels, those fiendishly fun flashy numbers, and all those wild laughs delivered by a pained pseudo-mom (and ourselves), La Cage Aux Folles still rings engagingly honest, touchingly endearing, and endlessly entertaining as it plays itself out, beautifully and hilariously, on the Stratford Festival stage. I’m not sure what the old-time festival audiences will think of it all, but, as directed by Thom Allison (Stratford’s Rent) with care and a grand eye for fun and all those complex feelings, it would take one cold dark heart to not walk out of Stratford’s Avon Theatre singing those songs and feeling completely invigorated by their visit to La Cage Aux Folles. The cabaret might be the pride of Saint Tropez, but this revival has to now be one of the joys of Stratford. It truly is the best of times in this small Ontario town, with this show and that other hilariously well-done musical, Something Rotten!, together, walking down Ontario Street arm in arm, feeling as handsome and tall as a Festival could.

For more information and tickets, go to the Stratford Festival website, or click here.