Smart guy, that Harvey Fierstein. Facing the playwright's perennial problem of getting the show over smoothly and in one piece, Fierstein solves it admirably in "La Cage aux Folles," which opened a two-week run last night at the Fox. With a stage cluttered with careening characters and no sensible solution in sight, George Hamilton, as Georges, calls a halt to the action.
"Time for the finale," he says, and the show sweeps into a noble one, with Lynne Page's fabulous choreography and reprises of four delicious songs by Jerry Herman bringing everything to a tuneful and happy conclusion.
Loose ends? Leave 'em backstage, sweep 'em out in the morning.
With Herman's score and Fierstein's brittle, zingy dialogue leading the way, "La Cage" is a delightful play with a lot of charm and a gay-rights anthem, "I Am What I Am," sung beautifully and with great power by Christopher Sieber. He's Albin, the flamboyant drag-queen entertainer at a gay night club on the French Riviera. It's a stunning first-act finale. Sieber is superb as a man who has struggled all his life and now feels betrayed by his long-time partner (Hamilton). By the way, he played Georges opposite Feinstein in the 2010 Broadway revival, to very good notices.
And then, Fierstein lightens the tone. "La Cage" does not become a political polemic, but returns to its light-comedy status, though retaining its stance as a plea for human rights and ridiculing a homophobic politician who might have taken a night off from the Republican caucuses in Iowa.
Herman, whose musicals include "Mame" and Tony winners "Hello, Dolly" and "La Cage," is at the top of his form here. The original production was in 1983, starring George Hearn and Gene Barry. It was a Tony winner as Best Musical, and also won the same honor in the revival category in 2004 and 2010.
Terry Johnson directs the current version, with Page's choreography and costume design by Christopher Wright. All are exciting, and nicely updated from the original work by Arthur Laurent, Scott Salmon and Theoni V. Aldredge, respectively. The fabulous Cagelles, danced by Matt Anctil (Angelique), Logan Keslar (Bitelle), Donald C. Shorter Jr. (Chantal), Mark Roland (Hanna), Terry Lavell (Mercedes) and Trevor Downey (Phaedra) are exactly that — fabulous — and Jeigh Madjus mostly charms as Jacob, hired as a butler but much preferring to be the maid.
Billy Harrigan Tighe is a proper ingenue as Jean-Michel, son to Georges, and Allison Blair McDowell is a visual treat as Anne, his girl friend and the object of a sweet love song, "With Anne on My Arm." Georges' winsome "Look Over There" and Albin's powerful, "A Little More Mascara," and "I Am What I Am," ("and what I am is an illusion") are better songs, but there's a personal appeal as Jean-Michel sings of the girl he loves.
Hamilton works hard under his fashion-magazine tan. There were a couple of flat spots, but his singing was generally acceptable and he was ideally costumed and cast as a nightclub master of ceremonies. Not for "Cabaret," of course, but just right for the charming, fast-moving, highly entertaining production provided by "La Cage."
La Cage aux Folles, a touring company, opened at the Fox Theatre Jan.3 and continues through Jan. 15