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| Last update: August 7, 2010 |
The recording is produced by PS Classics co-founder Tommy Krasker. PS Classics co-founder Philip Chaffin serves as executive producer. The recording is currently available for pre-orders at www.psclassics.com. PS Classics is distributed by Image Entertainment. A Sept. 28 release date has been set. Music supervision, orchestrations and dance arrangements are by Jason Carr. Todd Ellison is music director. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES features music and lyrics by Herman and book by Harvey Fierstein, based on the play by Jean Poiret. The production, which is choreographed by Lynne Page and directed by Tony Award winner Terry Johnson, originated at London's Menier Chocolate Factory. Herman's tuneful score includes "The Best of Times," "Look Over There," "I Am What I Am," "Song On the Sand" and the title song. The musical earned the 1984 Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Musical. An original cast album was made, but the 2004 revival did not get a disc. Hodge, who originated the role of Albin in the London revival, earned both the Olivier (in London) and the Tony Award (on Broadway) for his performance. It was announced on Aug. 4 that Hodge would extend his stay in LA CAGE for another six months, to February 2011. He is joined on Broadway by Tony Award nominee Grammer as his devoted partner Georges; Grammer was already committed to early 2011. The cast also includes Fred Applegate as Dindon; A.J. Shively, a recent University of Michigan graduate, making his Broadway debut as Jean-Michel; Tony nominee Veanne Cox (Company, Caroline, or Change) as Mme. Dindon/Mme. Renaud; Tony nominee Robin de Jesús (In the Heights) as Jacob; two-time Tony nominee Christine Andreas (My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, On Your Toes) as Jacqueline; Elena Shaddow (Fiddler on the Roof, Fanny at Encores!) as Anne; Chris Hoch (Beauty and the Beast, Spamalot, Shrek the Musical) as Francis; Heather Lindell (Hairspray) as Colette; Bill Nolte (The Producers, 1776) as Tabarro and David Nathan Perlow (White Noise) as Etienne. Appearing as the Cagelles are Nick Adams (A Chorus Line, Guys and Dolls, Chicago), Nicholas Cunningham (La Cage Aux Folles in the West End), Sean Patrick Doyle (Fiddler on the Roof national tour, Wig Out!), Yurel Echezarreta (West Side Story), Terry Lavell (Hairspray in Las Vegas, Smokey Joe's Café national tour) and Logan Keslar (West Side Story in the West End). The production also includes Christophe Caballero, Todd Lattimore, Dale Hensley, Caitlin Mundth and Cheryl Stern." The production plays Broadway's Longacre Theatre. Visit www.LaCage.com. in Playbill On-Line by Kenneth Jones and Andrew Gans |
July 26, 2010 - HELLO JERRY! at the Jermyn Street Theatre - I’ve just received this information on email, thanks to Urs Marttmann. I hope it’ll interest you: “Sunday 15th August at 7.30pm Leanne presents her classic cabaret show celebrating the works of Jerry Herman. Featuring songs from such shows as “Hello Dolly”, “Mame”, “La Cage Aux Folles” and “Mack and Mabel”. His wonderful melodies and lyrics will have you tapping your feet and singing along. For more information click here. by Jorge |
Calvin Remsberg directs a cast that includes David Allen Jones as Horace Vandergelder, Bryan Feldman as Cornelius Hackl, Taylor Simmons as Barnaby Tucker, Viva Weber as Irene Malloy and Hannah Simmons as Minnie Fay. The revival is produced by 3-D Theatricals. Williamson's Broadway credits include revivals of “Guys and Dolls”, “The Music Man”, “La Cage aux Folles”, “Little Me”, plus “Epic Proportions”, “Smile” and “Irving Berlin's White Christmas”. She was a Drama Desk nominee for “The Green Heart” Off-Broadway. The production team for HELLO, DOLLY!, the 1964 musical based on Thornton Wilder's “The Matchmaker”, at the OC Pavilion, includes producer/artistic director TJ Dawson, choreographer Kami Seymour, musical director/conductor Jerry Sternbach, production stage manager Nicole Wessel, assistant stage manager Jenny Jacobs, lighting designer Jared Sayeg, sound designer Julie Ferrin, set designer John Iacovelli, production supervisor Gina Farina, costume designer/coordinator Sharell Martin and production assistant Kiana St. Laurent. The company also includes Garrett Deagon as Ambrose Kemper, Dani Kerry as Ermengarde, Clare Solly as Ernestina, Jay Wallace as Rudy, John N. Butz as Judge, Sheila Karls as Mrs. Rose, and ensemble members Paul Romero Jr., Ami Russ, Archer Altstaetter, Brittany Hammond, Jenny Rose Hobbs, Dennis Bendersky, Jenn Aedo, Jenna Wright, Karlee Ferreira, Kevin Ling, Maggie Howell, Michael Milligan, Nathan Wise, Neil Starkenberg, Shannon McFarland, Stephanie Draude and Zsolt Banki. The OC Pavilion is at 801 N. Main Street in Santa Ana, CA. For more information, call (714) 550-0880 or visit www.ocpavilion.com." n Playbill On-Line by Kenneth Jones / photos © Alysa Brennan |
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Playbill Backstage is part of Playbill's new and expanding multimedia section. Our video guide backstage at LA CAGE at the Longacre Theatre is Chris Hoch, who plays Francis, the masochistic stage manager; he also understudies stars Kelsey Grammer (a Tony nominee here as Georges) and Douglas Hodge (a Tony winner as Albin). Part one introduces the ladies who greet the patrons of St. Tropez's most notorious nightclub; part two offers more "Cagelles" and a tour of dressing rooms; parts three and four introduce Grammer, Hodge and their co-stars backstage. High heels! Beefcake! Wild wigs! Six packs! Backstage wisdom! Playbill Backstage at LA CAGE AUX FOLLES — edited by Playbill video producer Mark Ezovski — offers it all. To see it, click here." in Playbill On-Line by Kenneth Jones |
June 26, 2010 - LA CAGE Revival at Bryant Park - “The 2010 Tony-winning Best Musical "Memphis" and the Tony-winning Best Revival of a Musical, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (Aug. 12), will be part of this summer's Broadway in Bryant Park concert series. Presented by New York radio's 106.7 Lite FM, the free midday events feature musical performances by Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. The series will launch July 8 at the midtown greenery at 12:30 PM and will continue Thursdays through Aug. 12. Bryant Park is located on 6th Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets. All performances are free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. In the case of rain, check the radio's website for changes. For more on Broadway in Bryant Park, visit 1067newyork.com. in Playbill On-Line by Andrew Gans |
Best Musical Revival Here is the link to the terrific number (“The Best of Times”) they did at the Tonys Awards. It was the highlight of a lackluster evening. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. And here is a link to the funny “With You in My Arm” the cast performed at Good Morning America. by Jorge |
The article title is "Jerry Herman: Enjoying the Latest “La Cage” Ride" and to read it you just have to click here. In that article, Jerry asks for suggestions regarding which actresses we think could be the new Mame or Dolly. In my mind I can imagine Marin Mazzie as Dolly and I believe Donna Murphy would be an amazing Mame. What do you think? by Jorge |
The show won three Drama Desk Awards: The show won 4 Outer Critics Circle Awards: And it also won the Drama League Award for DISTINGUISHED REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL For tickets, priced $36.50-$132.50 with premium seats at $251.50, go to Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200 or at www.telecharge.com/lacage. Also visit www.LaCage.com for a special video introduction from Kelsey Grammer and the Cagelles. by Jorge |
The tour will feature the work of the production's entire Tony-nominated creative team: director Terry Johnson, choreographer Lynne Page, set designer Tim Shortall, costume designer Matthew Wright, lighting designer Nick Richings, sound designer Jonathan Deans and orchestrator/musical supervisor Jason Carr. No casting has been announced. The tour will be produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, David Babani and Fran and Barry Weissler. The revival — co-starring Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge — was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, earlier this week." in Playbill On-Line by Andrew Gans |
Prior to the opening of the production, the Emmy-winning actor told the New York Post, "So the way we're doing this is, when we open I'm doing the role of Georges. In six months, I switch over to playing Albin [the role played by fellow Tony nominee Douglas Hodge]. It really means I must memorize the whole show." Following his recent Tony nomination, Playbill.com asked the singing actor whether that plan was still in action. Grammer stated, "Well, we're trying to figure out what would be the wisest way to do it. Honestly, my preference at this point is to play out [my current contract] . . . with Doug in the role of Albin and myself as Georges. And then maybe, six months down the road after that, after we both leave the show, I could come and try Albin for, like, three months . . . once they start doing replacement casts. You hope that the show will have extended life, and it would be really fun to be able to do something like that. But I think that's the more appropriate way to do it, because honestly, I can't see myself doing the show and rehearsing the [other role] at the same time. I just don't think that's going to be possible." About his Tony nomination, the award-winning "Frasier" and "Cheers" star said, "Well, I was certainly thrilled. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to make it on the Great White Way, you know? It's pretty great, so I was excited. . . . I started out singing when I was a kid, right? And that's what made me think I could at least have the nerve to try to be in a musical. It just had to be the right kind of music and the right kind of show, but I've always had it in my back pocket, to pull out that dream and give it a shot." Grammer, who said the realization of that dream has been "a presumptive joy," has great respect for the character he plays. "This is a man who loves deeply and who would do anything to try to avoid hurting either of the people he loves in this play, his son and his significant other. And they have a terrific relationship. . . . [It's] the kind of relationship we all dream of. It's full of all kinds of tempestuousness and silliness, but there is such a deep, deep affection, and I think that's the key to Georges. He is stuck in such a difficult place for a man that cares as deeply as he does, and that's what I think maybe has elevated his presence in this production, and I love that about him." For tickets, priced $36.50-$132.50 with premium seats at $251.50, go to Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200 or at www.telecharge.com/lacage. Also visit www.LaCage.com for a special video introduction from Kelsey Grammer and the Cagelles. by Jorge and in Playbill On-Line by Andrew Gans |
I had the pleasure of seeing the West End production and it was simply terrific, one of the best nights I had in a theatre. You can read my review by clicking here. Anyway, here are excerpts of some of the Broadway reviews. |
Hodge is the primary reason this riotously funny and, yes, emotionally affecting revival of the Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical has returned to Broadway only five years after its last New York appearance. Yet there is more to the show than Hodge's star-making performance... ... Herman's score is his most atmospheric and that's saying something since the man also wrote "Hello, Dolly!" and "Mame." The songs for "La Cage" ooze Gallic charm, unabashed romance and melodies that are impossible to get out of your head. Try not singing "The Best of Times" in the shower. Impossible... ... The club setting is more appropriately downscale than in the musical's two previous Broadway incarnations. And so are Les Cagelles, the chorus of female impersonators who entertain with Zaza. These guys are equal parts naughty and tawdry, particularly Nicholas Cunningham who portrays the whip-cracking Hanna from Hamburg. They perform Lynne Page's ambitiously athletic choreography with abandon.” in Associated Press by Michael Kuchwara |
Hodge is the primary reason this riotously funny and, yes, emotionally affecting revival of the Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical has returned to Broadway only five years after its last New York appearance. Yet there is more to the show than Hodge's star-making performance... ... Herman's score is his most atmospheric and that's saying something since the man also wrote "Hello, Dolly!" and "Mame." The songs for "La Cage" ooze Gallic charm, unabashed romance and melodies that are impossible to get out of your head. Try not singing "The Best of Times" in the shower. Impossible... ... The club setting is more appropriately downscale than in the musical's two previous Broadway incarnations. And so are Les Cagelles, the chorus of female impersonators who entertain with Zaza. These guys are equal parts naughty and tawdry, particularly Nicholas Cunningham who portrays the whip-cracking Hanna from Hamburg. They perform Lynne Page's ambitiously athletic choreography with abandon.” in Associated Press by Michael Kuchwara |
Terry Johnson’s inspired revival of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s musical, starring a happily mismatched Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge (in a bravura Broadway debut), delivers the unexpected lesson that in theater, shabby can be not just chic but redemptive. This deliberately disheveled show, incubated at the tiny hit-spawning Menier Chocolate Factory in London, is a far cry from the high-gloss original production of 1983 or the glamorous, soulless revival that opened less than six years ago... ... What makes this version work — transforming a less-than-great musical into greatly affecting entertainment — is its insistence on the saving graces of the characters’ illusions about themselves and, by extension, the illusions of the production in which they appear. As presented here “La Cage” is (you should pardon the expression) a fairy tale, a sweet, corny story that asks us to take people (the good-hearted ones, anyway) at their own valuation... ... You don’t realize how much pain and anger have gone into this self-construction until you hear him (Douglas Hodge) do “I Am What I Am,” the show’s signature anthem, at the end of the first act. Mr. Hodge breathes fire here, his hitherto scratchy, campy voice growing into a white-hot blaze. It is — and who’d a thunk it? — the most electric interpretation of a song on Broadway right now... ... And the athletic production numbers, choreographed to embrace manly clunkiness by Lynne Page, are a tacky delight, especially that slipshod beach-ball number. ... In another context these down-at-heel people who live on their illusions might be pathetic. But don’t worry. This is not “La Cage” as “The Iceman Cometh.” Even tripping over themselves, the Cagelles exude the raw pleasure of people being exactly who they want to be. That’s showbiz, folks. And when Albin leads the company in a beaming version of “The Best of Times,” a song that usually gives me hives, you’re likely to feel that a cramped, decrepit nightclub has become the coziest sanctuary in the world.” |
...Director Terry Johnson succeeds so well here by putting on both more and less mascara simultaneously. More mascara by letting Douglas Hodge, in the guise of the flamboyant drag-queen Albin (aka Zaza), play the role like, well, more of a flamboyant drag-queen than in prior major productions. Less mascara in that this is a stripped-down, mid-budget production; all those sequins and all that glitz that characterized Broadway's prior visits to St. Tropez have been toned down, allowing the audience to concentrate more on the tender and relatively simple story at the heart of the piece. (But not simplistic; "La Cage" is a masterpiece of dramaturgy compared to the similarly plotted musical they made out of "The Addams Family.") The heart of the piece: that's what we get in this "La Cage," and that's what makes Johnson's production so tenderly affecting. The original -- acknowledging the socio-political temper of the times -- seemed to go to great lengths to present its leading men as not actually a (sexual) couple. The first revival, for offstage reasons, seemed to feature leading men who actively hated each other. Here, finally, we have a realistic and believable pair who have been devotedly living with each other for a quarter century. And that makes "La Cage" more emotionally effective than before... ...Choreographer Lynne Page keeps those Cagelles amusingly busy, whipping the title song to a delightful frenzy, while the U.K. design team's compact but effective production perfectly suits the directorial concept. Musical director Todd Ellison capably leads his eight-piece band from a pair of balconies flanking the set. Jason Carr did the reorchestration, which is considerably more successful than his reduction of "A Little Night Music" across the street. So chalk up this almost-too-soon revival as a victory for its producers. Director Johnson, last here in 2002 with Kathleen Turner and that ill-begotten "The Graduate," is warmly welcomed back to Broadway. But mostly one should raise a glass of champagne -- not the watered-down stuff -- to Herman and Fierstein. Their big, glitzy musical comedy hit of 1983 turns out to have a tender heart.” in Variety by Steven Suskin |
Hodge and Grammer provide a solid grounding for the show, but the rest of the cast offers all the flourishes you'd expect from a show rooted in drag performance. The six Cagelles are an impressively lithe and acrobatic ensemble (the choreography is by Lynne Page), and Robin de Jesus (In the Heights) is uproarious as Albin's devoted butler/maid who aspires to be Cagelle himself. By the end of this well-paced production, it's hard not to concur with the refrain of Albin's second-act number: The best of times is now.” in Entertainment Weekly by Thom Geier |
in nypost.com by Elisabeth Vincentelli “Why mount another Broadway production of “La Cage aux Folles” when we just had one in 2004? The answer is that Terry Johnson’s London staging and its Olivier Award–winning star, Douglas Hodge, inject this 1983 Jerry Herman–Harvey Fierstein musical version of the 1978 French film with ingenious razzmatazz and a heartbreaking humanity that its immediate predecessor lacked. Despite scaled-down production values and a smaller cast and orchestra—a trademark of the tiny Menier Chocolate Factory, where this edition started—Johnson creates a credible and entertaining drag show presented by Georges, the owner of the titular Riviera establishment, and headlined by his lover, Albin. (Set designer Tim Shortall even extends the showroom atmosphere into the audience by replacing the first few rows of seats with cabaret tables and chairs.) You could take the onstage numbers out, plunk them down in any gay-themed nightclub, and rake in the cash. There are only six Cagelles this time out, but each is a gorgeous vision and expert dancer, performing Lynne Page’s campy choreography with abandon and pizzazz. Kudos to Matthew Wright’s dazzling costumes and Richard Mawbey’s wig and makeup design.” in Backstage by David Seward |
For tickets, priced $36.50-$132.50 with premium seats at $251.50, go to Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200 or at www.telecharge.com/lacage. Also visit www.LaCage.com for a special video introduction from Kelsey Grammer and the Cagelles. in Playbill On-Line by Krissie Fullerton |
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March 25, 2010 - LA CAGE AUX FOLLES Poster Art - "“REMEMBER when a poster with a little French street waif or a pair of cat’s eyes was enough to sell a Broadway show? Now, with advertising trying to stand out on television, the Internet and mobile devices, choosing the right Broadway campaign often means finding a look that is flexible enough for different platforms, and one that also catches attention quickly. For the coming revival of “La Cage aux Folles,” Sonia Friedman, one of the producers, hung poster candidates on her office walls for a week, then asked herself, “Do I want to live with this for the rest of my life?” Ms. Friedman and Drew Hodges, chief executive of the advertising agency SpotCo, discussed SpotCo-designed posters that were rejected for “La Cage,” which begins previews on April 6 at the Longacre Theater. An interactive feature on these and other options, including the final version, is here.” in The New York Times by Erik Piepenburg |
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May 27th, 2007 - An Email from JERRY - When you’re passionate about something and willing to build a tribute to that, you do it out of love and not to, like they say in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, “show off”. With his permission, here is Jerry’s email: |
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“Dear Jorge, by Jorge |
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August 7, 2010 
July 16, 2010
June 26, 2010 
June 19, 2010
June 12, 2010 
May 29, 2010
May 8, 2010
May 8, 2010 
April 24, 2010
