My 2015 Rochester Fringe experience began with sequins, high
heels, and wigs a-plenty when I took in RAPA’s production of “La Cage Aux Folles” (helpful pronunciation tip: it sounds like “La Cahhge ah Fall”) on the School of the Arts’ Allen Main
Stage.
Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s
Tony Award-winning musical is based on Jean Poiret’s
original 1973 play. The French farce was also adapted into a film in 1978,
which in turn inspired two sequels and a popular American remake in 1996 (you
know it as “The Birdcage,” starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane).
The musical is being performed for the first time in Rochester in 22 years,
according to director Eric Vaughn Johnson.
The title “La Cage Aux Folles”
comes from the name of a nightclub on the French Riviera run by Georges (Roy
Wise, playing the not-so-straight man), which offers drag cabaret performances
starring his longtime partner Albin (Billy DeMetsenaere). Georges’ biological son — the result of a
one-night stand with a showgirl — Jean-Michel (Kyle Critelli,
going a long way in making his bratty character seem bearable) returns home to
announce that he’s getting married. He was raised by Georges and Albin, and wants them to meet his fiancée, Anne (Ariana
Rivera), but her father happens to be an ultra-conservative politician who
claims to uphold traditional family values. It seems clear that their
flagrantly nontraditional lifestyles just won’t do, and so Jean-Michel begs
them to pretend to be a “normal” family just for one night. Needless to say, things
do not go according to plan.
Both the French and American film adaptations built to a
hilariously screwball sequence centered around the chaotic dinner at Georges’
and Albin’s home, so audience members used to those
versions may be in for a surprise (as I was) to find that the original play and
musical versions take an ever-so-slightly different course. You could have
knocked me over with a feather boa when, shortly after things devolve, Albin declares that they will be dining out for the
evening.
With the character’s hysterical theatricality, the role of Albin is one that all but begs its performer to chew the
scenery, and Vaughn Johnson’s lively production rightfully allows DeMetsenaere’s marvelous performance to take center stage.
His Albin is one-of-a-kind and makes no apologies for
who he is. He perfectly encapsulates the show’s ultimate message that, though
we may try to hide it, ultimately there’s no escaping that “We Are What We
Are.”
“La Cage Aux Folles” will be
performed again on Saturday, September 19, 8 p.m.; Sunday, September 20, 7
p.m.; Tuesday, September 22, 7 p.m.; Wednesday, September 23, 7 p.m.; and
Saturday, September 26, 8 p.m. at the School of the Arts Allen Main Stage.
$22-$25.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2015.
