February 6, 2010 - Veanne Cox, Christine Andreas and Others Join the Cast of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES Go On Sale - "Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge — Georges and Albin of the new Broadway production of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES — will be joined by A.J. Shively, Veanne Cox, Robin de Jesús, Chris Hoch, Christine Andreas, Elena Shaddow and more, the producers announced Feb. 3.

The transfer of the Olivier Award-winning London Menier Chocolate Factory production will begin previews on April 6 and open April 18 at Broadway's Longacre Theatre.

Hodge won the Olivier Award for his London turn as Albin, the drag performer who stands up against intolerance in the musical by Harvey Fierstein (book) and Jerry Herman (music and lyrics). The production won the Olivier as Best Musical Revival.

Shively, a recent University of Michigan graduate, will make his Broadway debut as Jean-Michel, the son of Georges and Albin; Tony nominee Cox (Company, Caroline, or Change) will play Mme. Dindon/Mme. Renaud; Tony-nominee de Jesús (In the Heights) will be "maid" Jacob; two-time Tony nominee Andreas (My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, On Your Toes) will play Jacqueline; Shaddow (Fiddler on the Roof, The Woman in White, Fanny at Encores!) will be Anne; Hoch (Beauty and the Beast, Spamalot, Shrek the Musical) will play stage manager Francis; Heather Lindell (Hairspray) will be Colette; Bill Nolte (The Producers, 1776) will play Tabarro and David Nathan Perlow (White Noise) will play Etienne.

Also starring "as the notorious and dangerous Cagelles" (the drag-happy kickline at the titular St. Tropez nightclub) will be Nick Adams (A Chorus Line, Guys and Dolls, Chicago), Nicholas Cunningham (La Cage aux Folles - West End), Sean Patrick Doyle (Fiddler on the Roof tour, Wig Out!), Yurel Echezarreta (West Side Story), Terry Lavell (Hairspray in Las Vegas, Smokey Joe's Café tour) and Logan Keslar (West End's West Side Story, Paper Mill's On the Town). The production also features Christophe Caballero, Todd Lattimore, Dale Hensley and Cheryl Stern.

January 1, 2010 - Whatever Happened to MISS SPECTACULAR? - "Chances are you've never met Sarah Jane Hotchkiss, or heard her singing about her dreams of "the audience roaring, the people adoring me so ... "

But someday, Jerry Herman hopes, you will.

That's because Sarah Jane Hotchkiss is none other than "Miss Spectacular." And "Miss Spectacular" boasts the most recent score by the Broadway legend who brought you, among other musicals, "Hello, Dolly!" and "Mame."

In June, Herman won a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. He'll be back on Broadway in April with a transfer of the hit London "La Cage aux Folles" revival. (The original earned six Tonys when it debuted in 1983.)

And while some think "Miss Spectacular" also should be on Broadway, Herman maintains that the Strip is exactly where she belongs.

Like its title character, "Miss Spectacular" has yet to realize her Vegas dreams -- even though, in the beginning, the show seemed poised to hit the equivalent of a first-pull Megabucks jackpot.

Curtain up: Las Vegas, in the last few years of the 20th century.

Spotlight on: Steve Wynn, casino magnate.

Then as now, Wynn rules a casino empire. As our story begins, however, that empire is Mirage Resorts: Bellagio, Treasure Island and The Mirage, which feature a gallery showcasing Wynn's art collection, an exploding volcano and battling pirate ships.

But there's no all-singing, all-dancing Broadway musical to wow the crowds -- which is exactly what Steve Wynn told Jerry Herman.

"He gave me this whole list of things he owned," Herman, now 78, recalls in a telephone interview from his Beverly Hills home. "And then he stopped and looked at me and said, 'The only thing I don't have is a Jerry Herman musical.'"

Not surprisingly, Wynn's pitch worked.

"Well, how can you not respond?" Herman says, chuckling.

Sparked by Wynn's enthusiastic invitation, Herman hatched an idea for "a musical with a thread of a story," one devoted to Midwestern dreamer Sarah Jane Hotchkiss' efforts to metamorphose from "Miss What's Her Name" to "Miss Spectacular" by winning a contest to represent the Strip's newest megaresort.

For the musical, destined for The Mirage, the composer wrote a bouquet of hummable melodies designed to accompany eye-popping production numbers, most of which were to unfold in Sarah Jane's vivid imagination, triggered by that patented Vegas sound of a slot jackpot.

Think "Jubilee!" with "a thread of a story," Herman says.

While the score sets the stage for "exciting production numbers," from ballads to bawdy comedy songs, the project also features the one ingredient "that's the secret of all my shows," Herman explains. "Somebody to root for." Somebody who follows in the iconic footsteps of Dolly and Mame, characters who embody the "strong need for an audience to connect to a great character."

Wynn's reaction to "Miss Spectacular" was everything Herman had hoped for -- and then some -- because he asked the composer to "put together a group of people who would be willing to record it," Herman says.

That preproduction "concept" CD, featuring Herman's handpicked lineup of singers, was recorded in a Southern California studio in 1999.

On the CD (released in 2002), veteran Strip headliner Steve Lawrence swings a Rat Pack-worthy "Las Vegas," saluting "Fantasy Island on land." When Lawrence first heard "Las Vegas," he was very impressed, he recalls. "I thought it possibly could become the unofficial theme song of Las Vegas," the way "New York, New York" has become associated with its title town. (Wynn was so enthusiastic about the number that he joined Lawrence in the recording booth during the session.)

Other featured performers on the CD included Christine Baranski, Michael Feinstein and Debbie Gravitte (whose credits include the London concert revival of Herman's "Mack and Mabel"), who gives voice to Sarah Jane herself.

After the "wonderful, joyous, exhausting" process of recording "Miss Spectacular," Herman "cried like a baby," he admits, because "I felt like I had a new score" -- his first stage musical since "La Cage" 16 years before.

In Wynn's view, producing "Miss Spectacular" was "like spittin' and hittin' the floor. That's how easy this show's gonna be in Las Vegas," Wynn said, as quoted in Wall Street Journal columnist Christina Binkley's 2008 book "Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman and the Race to Own Las Vegas." (Repeated attempts to interview Wynn for this story proved unsuccessful.)

"I will always be grateful to Steve Wynn and to all the people on that album who gave their time and talent," Herman says of the "Miss Spectacular" CD recording. "It was quite a love fest."
But in Las Vegas, everybody knows love's no substitute for money.

In May 2000, Wynn sold Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand; while that sale is often cited as the beginning of the end for "Miss Spectacular," Herman also mentions another cause.

"At the very moment we were ready to do it," he says, "Cirque du Soleil fever came over the city." (Cirque now has six productions running on the Strip, with a seventh, "Viva Elvis," opening soon.)

Which may help explain why, for the next few years, Herman unsuccessfully tried to interest other casinos in producing the show, triggering periodic rumors that "Miss Spectacular" would be making her Vegas debut after all.

One rumor had multiple Tony-winner Tommy Tune (who once headlined "EFX" at the MGM Grand) directing, with Vegas veteran Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle in Disney's animated classic "Beauty and the Beast," who's now appearing in "Menopause: The Musical" at Luxor) mentioned for the title role.

So far, however, the closest O'Hara's gotten to "Miss Spectacular" is one of its songs: the comic "Where In the World Is My Prince?," which she frequently performs as part of Herman's touring "Hello, Jerry!: Celebrating the Music and Lyrics of Jerry Herman."

Every time O'Hara sings "Where In the World Is My Prince?" the number "pretty much stops the show," she says.

Herman believes that someday, some way, "Miss Spectacular" will find her way onto a Vegas stage.

"It does frustrate me that it's never been seen or produced," acknowledges Herman, who considers it "some of my best work."

He's received "lots of requests to think about it as the basis of a Broadway show," but "I know it belongs in Las Vegas."

Then again, the Las Vegas Herman had in mind when he wrote the show's score -- symbolized by sequined, strutting showgirls -- isn't what it used to be.

And despite the success of some musicals on the Strip (including "Phantom of the Opera" and "Jersey Boys"), Las Vegas has yet to become the "Broadway West" that Wynn envisioned when he presented the Tony-winners "Avenue Q" and "Spamalot" (both now closed) at his namesake casino.

Yet O'Hara still believes "Miss Spectacular" would "definitely be a huge hit," with "a wide range of appeal" -- in part because "it was written for Las Vegas by one of the greatest Broadway composers of all time," she says. "I think Vegas would really be sad if it doesn't get produced."

For his part, Herman's not sad, just resigned that he, and "Miss Spectacular," must wait to hear "the audience roaring, the people adoring me so ... "

But he remains confident that "there will be a place for 'Miss Spectacular,'" even if he's "letting fate take over" to determine when, and where, that place will be."

in Las Vegas Review-Journal by Carol Cling

October 2nd, 2009 - Portuguese Production of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES to Open in Lisbon in November - The Portuguese production of Jerry Herman’s LA CAGE AUX FOLLES will open in Lisbon next November.

The show played its 100th performance in Oporto last September and it’ll close on October 18th. Then, the entire production, will travel to Lisbon, where it’ll open in the Politeama Theatre.

This production of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES is directed by Filipe La Féria, a Portuguese theatre impresario who also produces his own shows. Previously, he produced and directed the Portuguese adaptations of MY FAIR LADY, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, A FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and, more recently, WEST SIDE STORY.

The show stars José Raposo, who recently played Tevye in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, as Albin/Zaza and Carlos Quintas, who played Prof. Higgins in MY FAIR LADY and Captain Von Trapp in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, as Georges. The cast also includes Rita Ribeiro (Golde in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF), Joel Branco (MY FAIR LADY), Helena Afonso (Mrs. Lovett in SWEENEY TODD), Hugo Rendas and Alexandre Falcão.

For tickets and more information on the show visit the official site by clicking here.

by Jorge / Photos © João Camilo & Marta Ferreira

That's not completely true. He makes appearances at concerts and has sat down recently for public conversations (with songs) with Michael A. Kerker, head of musical theatre for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

"We do something called 'The Red Chairs,' where we sit in two red chairs and he interviews me," Herman explained. "When we get to a specific song, a marvelous Debbie Gravitte or Jason Graae or Ron Raines comes out and sings that particular song with Don Pippin at the piano. It's a lovely format. Eventually, I get up and go to the piano myself."

Herman also plays piano for joy at his two California homes, when he's not keeping tabs on his "kids," as calls them — productions of his many licensable properties, including the revue SHOW TUNE and the musicals MACK AND MABEL and DEAR WORLD, both of which, like THE GRAND TOUR, have been revised since they first played Broadway. (LA CAGE AUX FOLLES is an Olivier Award-winning hit in its current London revival.)

"I just find myself at the piano, playing everything that I can think of," Herman said. Does he play the work of his musical hero, Irving Berlin? "Oh, God, yes. And Kurt Weill and Porter and even some classical things. I just love to play. And at this age it's good for my fingers to keep busy."

At the Palm Springs, CA, home he shares with Terry Marler, his partner of 11 years, there is a 61-foot swimming pool. "That's my exercise," Herman said. "I'm there a great deal of the time; I swim and swim and swim as often as I can."