One last visit to La Cage aux Folles

I saw the 2004-5 revival of La Cage aux Folles and I saw the current revival last spring. I had been itching to see the production with the replacement leads of Christopher Sieber and Harvey Fierstein, so when producers recently posted a closing notice for May 1 I knew I had to get to the theater.

Dara and I attended a Wednesday matinee over school vacation. The blue haired ladies were replaced by families with middle school and high school aged children. I love to see teens in Broadway theaters, especially when they're not there for a Disney show or Daniel Radcliffe.

As usual, the Cagelles were absolute show stoppers. It's amazing to me that anyone can be that flexible, but especially men and especially muscular men. At intermission there was audience buzz about how one of the Cagelles was a woman. The teens and their moms were flipping through their Playbills scoping out ambiguous names like Terry and Logan, trying to figure out who was the woman. "Wow, these Cagelles are passing as women. They have the suburbanites tricked," I thought. As I opened by Playbill to verify, a little slip of paper fell out, "At this performance the role of Bitelle will be played by Caitlin Mundth." One of the swings, Mundth, was in as a Cagelle. A woman playing a man, impersonating a woman. Total genderfuck - wrap your heads around that on the way back to your hotel.

As amazing as Douglas Hodge was as Albin, there was something very sweet about having Harvey Fierstein and Christopher Sieber, two gay men, play the leads in La Cage. In addition to being heterosexual, Kelsey Grammar is also a Republican, who dodges gay marriage questions by saying it should be up to churches. At the very end of the play, Georges and Albin share a single kiss. With Hodge and Grammer is was a polite peck, but with Sieber and Fierstein is was a grab-the-back-of-the head-and-hold-on kiss. Sieber is also a stronger singer than Grammer and much more charming.

I would be dismissing my inner fangirl if I didn't confess that I was also delighted to see Wilson Jermaine Herdedia back on a Broadway stage as Jacob. He looked exactly like his Tony award winning Angel in RENT, despite being forty. He was lithe and flexible, with a baby face (and a six pack). I hope we get to keep him in New York and see more of him on stage. He would probably like a role that didn't involve wearing heels and a skirt, but he sports both so well.

You have ten days left to see La Cage aux Folles. It is definitely worth revisiting. Harvey Fierstein wrote the book! How often do you get to see the writer act in a play when he didn't write the part for himself? And Chris Sieber is a dream. Go!