Glitzy 'La Cage Aux Folles' Lacks Detail At Marriott Theatre
By Melody Udell in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 12, 2015 4:30PM
'La Cage Aux Folles' at the Marriott Theatre.
La Cage Aux Folles is a grand, flashy, large-scale musical production that seems both ahead of its time and a little dated. Certainly when the musical was first produced on Broadway in 1983, a story about two gay nightclub owners raising a son wasn’t quite as mainstream of an idea as it is today—even among the theater-going crowd (a stereotype itself, I know). Yet in a musical filled with several worthy themes—acceptance, tolerance and respecting families of all stripes—some of the characterization is a little too broad, and the storyline a bit lacking in detail. But just as you start to detect some of the cracks in director Joe Leonardo’s spirited production at the Marriott Theatre, a chorus of bedazzaled and befeathered drag queens (with opulent costumes by Nancy Missimi) swish by and drag you back into the high-spirited, campy musical that La Cage is aiming to be.
The story begins and ends with Albin (Gene Weygandt), who headlines the eponymous nightclub in Saint-Tropez as his alter-ego, the fabulous chanteuse Zaza. The nightclub is run by Albin’s longtime boyfriend, Georges (David Hess), and the two of them have spent the last 20 years raising Georges’ son, Jean-Michel (Brian Bohr), in between acts. (Sound familiar? You’ve probably seen the movie adaptation, The Birdcage, starring Nathan Lane and Robin Williams. Or maybe you’ve read the 1973 French play that originated the storyline for both.)
The 24-year-old Jean-Michel is bringing home his new fiancée, Anne, (Elizabeth Telford in a thankless role), and her parents for a family dinner. The only problem is Anne’s father, a high-ranking conservative politician with old-fashioned notions of family values, who certainly won’t approve of Jean-Michel’s parentage. Jean-Michel’s solution? To ask Albin to disappear for the evening, and for Georges to feign heterosexuality. And to further complicate things, Jean-Michel also requested that his biological mom, a former showgirl who left him in Georges’ sole custody, make an appearance. Albin, needless to say, is both hurt and surprised that Jean-Michel leaves him out of such an important family gathering, and his 11th-hour ballad, “I Am What I Am,” reflects his pain perfectly—not only current pain, it seems, but pain from a lifetime of intolerant moments.
As his other half, Hess’ Georges plays the “exasperated husband” opposite Albin’s penchant for melodrama, which, like many well-used characterizations, quickly wears out its comic effect. But just like the glittering show itself, La Cage is aiming for spectacle and laughs first, and poignancy afterward.
The show runs through Sunday, March 22 at the Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Dr., Lincolnshire, 847-634-0200 or online.