‘La Cage’ a fun, flashy show
About a half-hour into this show, I realized that the best way to describe “La Cage aux Folles” is “old-fashioned.”
Really? A show that features a stage full of men in brassieres and bustiers? A show about a gay couple who own a drag club? Old-fashioned?
I am not referring to its politics or social views, although in this era of “Brokeback Mountain,” “La Cage” is far from a groundbreaking shocker. Georges and Albin (whose stage name is Zaza, drag queen extraordinaire) barely do much more than hold hands and hug.
I am referring strictly to its theatrical style.
The costumes and production numbers are right out of Busby Berkeley’s musicals of the ‘30s, if not the Folies Bergere in the ‘20s. Jerry Herman’s songs are straight out of “Mame” and “Hello, Dolly!” in the ‘60s, both of which Herman wrote. The comic banter is so old, it may be Neolithic.
In other words, take away the gay and transvestite themes, and “La Cage” is a straightforward example of the glitzy, headdress-heavy, tap-dancing, featherweight entertainment that Broadway and Hollywood specialized in during most of the 20th century.
It is also, I should add, a successful example of that time-honored genre. The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s version, directed and choreographed by Tralen Doler, features two Broadway-seasoned talents in Chris Thompson as Georges and Jerry Christakos as Albin/Zaza. It also features a stunning – and may I say shapely – line of chorus girls, most of whom are not actual girls. They are Les Cagelles, and they fly on ropes, crack whips, chew bubble gum and do a mean can-can line.
Thompson embodies the suave owner of St. Tropez’s most notorious nightspot. He looks like a man born to wear a white dinner jacket, and he has a world-class voice, shown off to excellent effect in “Look Over There.”
Christakos has the bigger challenge, to say the least. He has to play two characters: the insecure and effeminate Albin, whose default exclamation is a squeal, and the grand and fully feminine Zaza, every inch the regal and imposing diva. Zaza is a star, and Christakos demonstrates her power in two engaging scenes: one in which she comes into the audience and charms with her banter, and later in a wonderful restaurant number called “The Best of Times,” in which she consents to sing a song for her adoring public.
However, Christakos also shows us that Albin is painfully aware that he is considered an embarrassment, even by Georges’ son. This contradiction is at the heart of “La Cage” and both Doler and Christakos ensure that this production brings it to the forefront. The worthwhile, if not exactly revolutionary, question this show asks is, quite simply: Do you have the generosity of heart to accept people as they are?
Which is hardly to say that this is any kind of “message” musical. The show’s default tone is unabashedly silly, and never so much so as in the character of Jacob, the butler who would much rather be a French maid. Tim Louma plays Jacob with so much skittering comic energy that he is like a Disney animated character – a meerkat, maybe, or a chipmunk, bouncing off doorways, ricocheting off walls.
The sets by Michael McGiveney have a warm Riviera feel in the exteriors, and a flashy, shimmering feel in the nightclub. This is one show, however, in which the costumes steal the show. Some were designed by Judith McGiveney and others were rented from an Arizona theater. All are never less than bright, gaudy, twinkling and over-the-top. The pit orchestra, directed by Max Mendez, sounds bigger and fuller than anything a real St. Tropez nightclub could dream of.
If you go to musicals for spectacle and hummable tunes – and most people do – then you should have a great time at “La Cage.” Unless, of course, you get hung up on the fact that these tall, long-legged beauties are mostly guys with strategic padding. Judging from the opening night reaction, this just heightened the “wow” factor for most people.
Me, I’m not so enamored of pure spectacle. I would put “La Cage” squarely in the category of “Mame” and “Dolly”: effective, fun, but lightweight. Call it an appetizer for the main course in this French meal, “Les Miserables,” which is coming up at the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre in August.