La Cage Aux Folles 1987 Tour with Larry Kert and Harvey Evans

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 3:31pm

Camcorder clips from when the best of times was now and tomorrow was too far away.


Larry Kert and Harvey Evans sing and dance "With You in My Arms":

http://youtu.be/GHpBaiBdfqU






Part One:

http://youtu.be/DaouHWj2QFw


Part Two:

http://youtu.be/oeO1L59nKuQ



Part Three:

http://youtu.be/JhfE-xWBiww



Four years later, Larry Kert was gone, at the age of 60. The best of times is now.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 3:34pm

Wow PJ, this is a gem I thought I'd never see. Thank you so much. :)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 3:39pm

An interview with Larry Kert from the LA Times at the time of the tour:

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-10-16/news/hl-6309_1_la-cage-aux

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 6:02pm

Great to see this posted, PJ. This was the Bus & Truck tour, the last I ever got to send out. No treadmills, no riser levels in Zaza's apartment set, no trapezes for the title number, I think we only had 10 Cagelles to save on costumes and salaries, but great to see so many details of the show intact. And to see Larry and Harvey play parts they were always meant to play.

Lovely.



Updated On: 5/18/13 at 06:02 PM

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 6:26pm

Thanks for sharing these clips. It's been exactly 30 years since I saw Larry Kert in a summer stock production of BARNUM. He was one of the most energetic performers I have ever seen. It's so great we can enjoy his talent time and time again on video.

[DAME]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 6:29pm

Thank you so much. Any info on who is who in the rest of the cast? Thru the years some other "captures" of the show has fallen into my lap. I always try to figure out what theater it might have been taken and at what point in the tour.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 7:18pm

Thank you very much, PJ!

A production of LA CAGE with two, openly gay men in the leads!

Who knew that was allowed?

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 9:32pm

Well, now that you've remarked on it, Mr. and Mrs. Broadway will ensure that it doesn't happen again.

Coming next season to Broadway, George Clooney and Eric Stonestreet in La Cage!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:00pm

That bus and truck was my first in-person exposure to the material and I have to say, I really thought it was terrible. There were *plenty* of preview articles in my city that were a lot like the one PJ linked. "This isn't about homosexuality, this isn't about homosexuality, this isn't about homosexuality." Ugh. I guess it wasn't about two men in love, it was about two people in love who just so happened to be men.

I remember liking aspects of Kert's performance, and respecting his esteemed past. But at times he came across like a game show host. Also, I don't really actually recall anything official, anywhere, about them being two out gay men. Perhaps they were to those in the know or something, but in all the chatter about the tour it was just about how it wasn't about homosexuality! And while everything Kert says is true about how it might have changed people after seeing the show, I cringe now when I read the line about AIDS. Maybe he was aware at that point and he was legitimately trying to deal with something that had come up, but to me it came across as callous.

And honest to God, for all its running away from the very idea of homosexuality in all the press material, wouldn't you know, they cast the biggest screaming queen in the company as the straight son. There was a point I was just giggling at the number of "s"es he seemed to put in Zaza. I probably wouldn't have laughed at all if it didn't come across as the perfect illustration of what the show was vs. how they tried to sell it.

I remember loving The Best of Times is Now, however.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:09pm

Fair point, Namo: Larry and Harvey were certainly "out" to people who knew them, even casually and even before it was trendy (I worked with each in the mid-70s), but I don't honestly know if either was/is "out" in the press.

(As for the show, well, I love the original French movie. But I know it's an important show to a lot of people, so why should I bitch about it?)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:13pm

Maybe he was aware at that point and he was legitimately trying to deal with something that had come up, but to me it came across as callous.

Yes, he was. And, yes, he was. And, yes, you were right to take it that way.

But that was 1987. That was as good as the Best of Times got back then. All some people could do was put a big musical-comedy smile on their faces and keep on bucking and winging until they died.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:18pm

Isn't that what Jerry Herman did with his score?

I mean, the original film is a brilliant and breathless farce; the show is a sentimental wallow. (Damn! And I said I wasn't going to do that!)

Well, none of the above is to say I don't like numbers from the score.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:27pm

"But that was 1987."

Gurrrrl, I totally hear you, I do. And lord knows I am sure the official talking points were well established by the likes of Arthur Laurents that the one and *only* way to sell the show was to keep telling everybody over and over about how homosexuality was practically the furthest thing from the show's mind! It was so straight and normal. even a couple of the drag queens were girls! (What the hell was THAT all about, anyway?)

Updated On: 5/18/13 at 10:27 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:38pm

Read Arthur's books. He has a comeback to all your youthful activist objections.

Never mind, don't read them actually. You can probably figure out everything he has to say. He was the only one fighting to keep the man-on-man kiss blah-blah-blah, Song on the Sand was the first time two men blah-blah-blah, women in the audience thought it was so romantic blah-blah-blah...

I posted it only because it's Larry Kert, whom I adored, and Harvey Evans, whom I still adore, and who is chorus-boy royalty: he was in the original West Side, the original Follies, the original Applause, the original Anyone Can Whistle and he danced on The Goddamn Judy Garland Show.

And for all those Cagelles, now sadly nameless, most of whom were lost between that tour and 1996, when the meds arrived.

And reason for the two female Cagelles? That was so that the boys would be SO beautiful that no one in the audience could tell which were guys and which were girls. It was something that was very important to Arthur.

Updated On: 5/18/13 at 10:38 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:43pm

I can sort of kind of get it. The boy/girl thing, I mean.

I wish my youthful activist self had the knowledge of Harvey Evans then that I have now.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:49pm

And he posed for the cover of After Dark while he was in Follies:

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:51pm

Arf, as the dogbears say.

[Musical Master]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:53pm

Wasn't Harvey the original Young Buddy in Follies?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:53pm

Harvey in Follies via David Frost

[Musical Master]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:54pm

DOUBLE POST

Updated On: 5/18/13 at 10:54 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 10:59pm

^^ tres adorbs

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 11:08pm

He and Gwen did an adorable "Who's Got the Pain When They Do the Mambo?" on Ed Sullivan once.

http://youtu.be/BqK05A1SqIo

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/18/13 at 11:21pm

And with Lauren Bacall in Applause!

[dwirth]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 12:20am

Oh look.. somebody found my YouTube channel... Nice. Look at channel and you might find some other interesting things... and more coming soon.. Those are some great La Cage clips, aren't they?

y1t1b1w1a1ym1a1n

[carolineorchange21]

Posted: 5/19/13 at 12:57am

This is wonderful footage - I love how we are able to see the different, crazy and wonderful interpretations available of Georges and Albin over the years. This is an invaluable resource to younger people who are beginning to explore musical theatre.

In addition, those who may have performed in these various posted productions and their families certainly are enjoying the bits of video floating around - at least that's what my inbox says.

But, my dearest dwirth and Mr. PalJoey, beware as Jo-Jo and the boot police might scold you.

"Seriously. I can't stand people who upload these to Youtube. They should be taken out back and beaten with belt with rusty nails in it." per Officer Jordan - original spelling.

Gee, Officer Jordan!

Updated On: 5/19/13 at 12:57 AM