NY Observer is a
Rave.
The revival of La Cage aux Folles is showing that simply doing the same old Broadway thing—when doing it affectionately, accessibly, movingly and joyfully—can produce a thrilling night of theater. This La Cage, a Menier Chocolate Factory production starring Kelsey Grammer as Georges, is perhaps the best musical I’ve seen all season.
Mr. Grammer—resplendent as the curtain rises in a purple, crushed-velvet tuxedo jacket, frilly pink tux shirt, and, most surprisingly, hair—has all his usual affected mannerisms, and they work wonderfully here portraying an aging, controlling queen. He’s even got a passable voice. Douglas Hodge, an Olivier-winning Pinter specialist new to New York stages (and, presumably, drag), is vulnerable, charming and genuinely hilarious as Albin.
From the breathtaking opening number—with the drag-queen chorus boys, the Cagelles, singing and posing in red-lit silhouette—to Hodge’s devastating “I Am What I Am” at the close of Act I to the slapstick farce of Act II to the touching Georges-Albin kiss that closes the show (moving in 2010; daring, I presume, in 1983), La Cage is continually delightful and also continually eloquent: Being who you are, and being loved for it, is what matters, not any moralist’s labels or standards. The best of times is—well, you know.
http://www.observer.com/node/125527
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
