LA CAGE Reviews — Page 3

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.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/theater/reviews/19cage.html

and he's spot on about Hodges - the Tony race for Best Actor seems over.

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Updated On: 4/19/10 at 01:12 AM

Well, if PROMISES follows suit with the mixed reviews it's been getting on here, we've found our Best Musical Revival and Best Actor in a Musical winners in LA CAGE.

Updated On: 4/19/10 at 01:17 AM

ljay, I think he meant if the Promises official reviews are mixed in a similar fashion to the unofficial BWW poster reviews of Promises (not the official reviews of La Cage), La Cage will be the sure winner.

Brantley flat-out calls the material "less than great". But I'm glad he loved the production, and I'm glad to see the that the majority of the critics do, too.

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How it looks so far..

RAVES
Toronto Star - "“The best of times is now” indeed, especially for La Cage Aux Folles."

Associated Press - "Could not be more timely and enjoyable; Douglas Hodge is giving the most exuberant musical-comedy performance of the season."

Entertainment Weekly - "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."

Time Out New York - "Tuneful, touching, tacky and bedazzling, La Cage aux Folles is what it is. And what it is is a sensation."

The Hollywood Reporter - "Bottom Line: This scaled-down "La Cage" is even more endearing than the original."

NY 1

The Observer

Positive
The New York Times - "Mr. Hodge breathes fire during "I Am What I Am", 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."

New York Post - "An absolute thrill"

New Jersey News Room - "Cozy interpretation of the musical that glows with easygoing warmth. It's easy to fall in love with this diminutive charmer of a production."

Variety - "The supporting cast is almost uniformly excellent. Director Johnson is warmly welcomed back to Broadway."

Backstage - "With a Tony-worthy performance from Hodge, few could steal the spotlight."

TheaterMania - "Under Johnson's sassy direction, the entire cast gives the show its all. Robin De Jesus stands out as fey maid Jacob."

USA Today - "They all seem to be having a swell time, as will you — so long as you can keep up with them."

Newsday - "'La Cage' revival a happy surprise with Grammer"

Daily News - ""We are what we are," they sing. What they are is the fiercest bunch of wigged wonders in town."

Bergen Record - ""La Cage aux Folles" may not be a great musical, but its exemplary musical-comedy recipe of lots of laughs, a very tuneful score and a little heart – along with zesty performances – makes it a perennial pleasure."

Mixed-to-Positive
New York Magazine - "This La Cage clearly feels cleansed and energized, almost to the point of mania."

Bloomberg - "Terry Johnson’s smart, tight, rough-edged and slightly tacky production gets closer to the sort of scene one might actually find in a transvestite club on the French Riviera."

Talkin' Broadway

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Updated On: 4/21/10 at 02:33 AM

Brantley is getting worse and worse as a theatre critic. It's like he doesn't know how to review a revival. He spends a disproportionate amount of time deconstructing and "rolling his eyes" at the book and score, gives his opinion of only the top two performances, and calls it a day.

Lousy writing! If he hadn't commented on Hodge and Grammar's work, I would be hard-pressed to believe he'd actually seen this show and wasn't just reviewing a copy of the script, a CD, and some production photos.

He should know better than to review a revival the same way you do an original production. His audience reading this knows the show already. They don't need three paragraphs about the plot again. How about spending some time on the performers? Did you like them? Dislike them? I can't tell. He inserts their names into his plot summary as though he were writing liner notes for their CD, nothing more.

I give this critic one star out of five.

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"ljay, I think he meant if the Promises official reviews are mixed in a similar fashion to the unofficial BWW poster reviews of Promises (not the official reviews of La Cage), La Cage will be the sure winner."

Oops, sorry if that came across weird, I was under the effects of Tylenol PM.
I think I was agreeing with Rocks. I don't think Promises will be as well received as La Cage.

"He should know better than to review a revival the same way you do an original production. His audience reading this knows the show already. They don't need three paragraphs about the plot again. How about spending some time on the performers? Did you like them? Dislike them? I can't tell. He inserts their names into his plot summary as though he were writing liner notes for their CD, nothing more. "

I agree with you best12bars ! I found it very odd that he couldn't even squeeze a line out for any of the supporting performances. I was there the night he was reviewing and he seemed to be having a grand old time. From this review I would assume he didn't care for some of the performers so instead of saying something negative he chose to say nothing at all. He did say that he found the characters "cartoonish" . It looks like he enjoyed the two stars, the director and the design team more than anything else.

What's Tylenol PM - is it like Mephedrone?

So thrilled for these reviews.

Fingers crossed for that recording...