PicksInSix Review: La Cage Aux Folles - Music Theater Works
“Open Your Eyes. You Have Arrived.”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy
The universally uplifting musical “La Cage Aux Folles” with its message of overcoming prejudice and embracing acceptance is currently playing in a superb Music Theater Works revival at the North Shore Center for Performing Arts. The show, under the direction of Kyle A. Dougan, is every bit as fresh, buoyant and necessary today as it was nearly 40 years ago when it made a definitive statement about gay rights and won over Broadway. With soaring melodies, high-stepping heels and bursting with heart, this production features a blistering performance by Ginger Minj as Albin, the famed headliner of a drag nightclub who together with her 20-year manager/partner/lover Georges, played magnificently by Jason Richards, redefine the meaning of love.
“La Cage” is the brainchild of Harvey Fierstein(book) and Jerry Herman(music and lyrics) that received six 1984 Tony Awards including Best Musical. The show became an international hit over the years, receiving accolades including the Tony Award for Best Revival in both 2004 and 2010 and the Olivier Award. Director Dougan’s casting of Minj, a seasoned stage performer and finalist in RuPaul’s Drag Race, with Richards, whose musical and comedic talents have been seen regularly throughout Chicagoland, is inspired.
To the story, it's summertime in France and love is in the air. Georges son, Jean-Michel(Christopher Ratliff), returns to tell his parents that he will be marrying Anne Dindon(Heather Banks) the heir to a considerable dowry from her father, Edouardo Dindon(Thomas E. Squires). All that sounds like good news at first, but Jean-Michel is concerned that the dinner party with the family will expose the conservative Dindon and his wife Marie (Michelle Hackman at Saturday’s matinee) to the flamboyant Albin, so he asks Georges to invite his real mother to be in attendance for the night. In response to the painful rejection, Albin sings the declarative anthem “I Am That I Am”—a gripping and powerful high point in the show that Minj knocks out of the park.
As Georges attempts to negotiate a solution to allow Albin to attend as Jean-Michel’s uncle Albert, the musical comedy forces at work allow the butler/maid Jacob (Dane Strange) to burn the meal, and Albin, in a clever disguise, to book dinner at a trendy café owned by Jacqueline(Honey West). It all leads to the rousing reveal in the iconic number “The Best of Times” followed by some chaotic maneuvers to set things, well, straight.
The North Theatre has been transformed by set designer Scott Davis into the St. Tropez nightclub from the moment you enter the theater with high-top tables and patrons around the perimeter of the thrust stage and towering set pieces that define the Club’s over-the-top atmosphere. The setting, framed in Andrew Meyers elaborate lighting design, showcases Christopher Carter’s high-stepping dance routines for a bevy of drag beauties aptly named “Les Cagelles.” Decked out in Project Runway designer Justin LeBlanc’s stunning costumes, David Ian Grant’s makeup/hair and Alexis Bevels’ wigs, the stage is aglow throughout and every time Minj appears, including a hilarious nod to Princess Leia.
Music director Kyra Leigh and conductor Linda Madonia keep the lively Herman score rolling all night long. Anthony Whitaker has a nice featured role as Frances. Ratliff’s “With Anne on My Arm” is a treat, to which Richards delivers a beautiful reprise “With You on My Arm” and two other standout numbers—“Song on the Sand” and “Look Over There”—all part of a stellar performance that solidifies the actor as one of Chicago’s top musical theatre talents. And that’s no easy task when you are sharing the stage with a force of nature like the resplendent Ginger Minj.
PHOTO|Brett Beiner
Music Theater Works
presents
La Cage Aux Folles
North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie
9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie
through April 3, 2022
BOX OFFICE
(847) 920-5360
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