I wasn’t wild about the original movie, La Cage Aux Folles, which came out when I was a freshman in college. Maybe it was the subtitles, but no matter how many friends told me between guffaws that the guy buttering the toast was pee-leaking comic perfection, I just didn’t laugh that much.  Then, in the 80’s I was aware of the original Broadway musical version, but it wasn’t on the top of my list and the revival in 2004 was not that highly regarded. Now, a year into its ecstatically received third incarnation, I finally scored half-price tickets and made the visit.

First, the good stuff.  After being enchanted by the feisty drag performer who did the warm-up before the show, I was knocked out by “The Notorious and Dangerous Cagelles,” the showgirls with something extra who work the club where much of the musical is set. These performers are graceful and joyful jocks who look feminine on the one hand but are simultaneously as tough as tanks. It creates a wondrous dissonance. Here is a clip of them on Regis.

The leading performers are also fun to watch.  Sitcom favorite Kelsey Grammer plays the club’s emcee and co-owner, Georges, as an amusing, gay variation on his usual persnickety persona. It delighted me to learn that he has a commanding singing voice. As Albin, Georges’ more effeminate better half, Douglas Hodge (from the Royal Shakespeare Company and other prestigious organizations) is responsible for the more obvious, mincing humor. I didn’t like him at first, but he grew on me. Perhaps it’s the structure of the play. Albin starts out as the irrational sissy diva, but in Act Two he becomes the courageous mother figure who wants to make her adopted son happy. This Tony Awards clip, which includes bits not in the actual show, gives a clear idea of that motherly warmth.

The main reason to see La Cage Aux Folles, however, is the wonderful Jerry Herman score. Throughout his career, Herman has taken a back seat to the more adventurous and more cynical Sondheim, but one has to give the man his due. After all, he wrote Hello Dolly!, the titular song of which is one of the few show tunes in the last fifty years to have crossed into the mainstream outside the context of the show it was in. And in La Cage, there are at least two numbers that are among Herman’s very best, and possibly among the best show tunes,  period: “The Best of Times” and “I Am What I Am.”

So, why am I ambivalent? Well, a lot of the humor is based on characters’ extremely effeminate behavior (and their lack of awareness of it). So, the less effeminate guy tries to teach the more effeminate guy how to act more masculine, they try (and fail) to tone down the absurdly gay environment in their home to prepare for the holier than thou future in-law, etc.  Amused as I was in parts, I was never entirely comfortable. Aren’t we past this? Then, I think of current events, and it becomes clear that maybe we aren’t.

Even with the caveat, I am glad to have finally seen this excellent production. If you want to see it with the present cast, the best of times to get tickets is now. In February, Jeffrey Tambor (“Hey, Now” from The Larry Sanders Show) and Harvey Fierstein (who also wrote the book to La Cage) are replacing Grammer and Hodge in the lead roles.

“Broadway Fred” appears every Wednesday.

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