"La Cage" at City Center

Rehearsal BTS

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8gDSwJs/

Melissa25 said: "Orchestra seats are $205!"

….not for this cast.

Also, considering how much this is produced regionally (I recall a really good production in the Berkshires a couple of years ago), is there really much interest?

Updated On: 4/15/26 at 08:58 PM

It doesn't appear to be selling well, so hopefully ticket prices go down.

I adore this show and I like Wayne Brady. I would be down to see it for a reasonable price. This is absurd.

I really, really loved the last two Jerry Herman Encores! and given the current Broadway landscape I can't find a reason to complain about seeing this show again, so count me as excited and hopeful. Okay, so Billy has not been the most consistent actor in recent years, but he's due for a comeback and given how well Douglas Hodge and Harvey Fierstein managed to do in the role with *their* singing voices, I'm not that concerned with his vocal shape either. It's a happy show with a beautiful score, it will feel like a hug to me in these dark times if it's any good.



I expect more affordable options soon.

Updated On: 4/16/26 at 12:27 AM

Turns out this is selling QUITE well in the dates I'm looking at compared to most recent Encores! at this point. Turns out it was a smart choice for Pride 2026 when we could use some comfort. We'll see how the cast does but yes, honestly just the full arrangement is reason enough IMO.



Definitely going access club for this though. $$$. I was wrong about cheaper options popping up, though TDF is currently still down...

Updated On: 6/16/26 at 05:56 PM

quizking101 said:
Apparently, the all-black concept has been on ice for a while because Arthur Laurents and Jerry Herman dug their heels in refusal. First day of rehearsal though, Harvey apparently came in and said “Well, they’re both dead now.”"

I wonder what their (Arthur and Jerry) thinking was behind refusing an all black concept. It worked for Dolly back in the day.

I mean, according to Harvey, Laurents didn't even want gay men in the leads. Or for them to kiss.



A fascinating man.

Scarywarhol said: "I mean, according to Harvey, Laurents didn't even want gay men in the leads. Or for them to kiss.



A fascinating man."

I don't think those were Laurents' espoused views, though.

I'm under the impression that those were thoughts resulting from his fear of offending the audience - especially Bostonians in the early 80s.

Bottom line for me is that I'm very happy that there will be an all-Black production of La Cage. I hope it will get an eventual Broadway run.

Updated On: 6/16/26 at 08:39 PM

We all know Harvey’s stories about Arthur Laurents and his attitude towards the dos-and-don’ts of LA CAGE, but we have to remember that when LA CAGE came along, Laurents was in a fallow period. As a director, his longest-running show up to that point only lasted 8 months (WHOLESALE, 20 years prior). He hadn’t written a stage hit since GYPSY in ’59, though had two 70s screen successes as a writer.

I think his LA CAGE insecurities came from wanting to prove to himself and to the larger community that he could be a Big Boy Director at a time when some of the greatest musical theatre directors ever had shows running (Prince, Bennett, Fosse, Tune, Champion, etc). And that the crossover success of the film LA CAGE was not a fluke: it could work on Broadway too.

I’d never heard mention of possibly recasting LA CAGE with an all-Black cast during its original run. Sometimes it can come across as insensitive or gimmicky, but in the case of LA CAGE it makes complete sense to me since the Dindons, Georges, and Albin all have to be the same race for the 2nd act to work without major suspension of disbelief.

Updated On: 6/16/26 at 11:53 PM

I never knew about the under 40 $28 tickets, so I swiped a ticket for next week.

east side story said: "No one’s so-called tea is ever as fictional as someone who knows someone in the cast."

I mean, I’ve been friends with this person for enough time where I have no reason to suspect such a detail would be false as they were in the room, but go off I guess

To my understanding, Arthur was just crab-assy about everything, but Herman, with regard to La Cage, was very precious about the material and basically was the anti-Lloyd Webber - not comfortable about any potentially radical reinterpretation

I presume Billy Porter is insufferable in this?