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As La Cage Aux Folles heads for the West End, its stars talk to Matt Wolf about the hit musical's emotional rawness - and its enduring shock value
These have been grim times of late for the West End musical. Desperately Seeking Susan, The Lord of the Rings, Gone With the Wind and Marguerite have all done a fast and unprofitable fade, prompting concern that a cherished art form may have lost its way.
But that's to ignore the power of musical revivals that consider a piece afresh. With Carousel and A Little Night Music both due in new productions next month, London first gets the West End transfer of La Cage Aux Folles, the 1983 Broadway musical from composer Jerry Herman and book-writer Harvey Fierstein that was revived to considerable acclaim last winter at south London's Menier Chocolate Factory.
A flop in its original London run at the Palladium, the musical simply seemed reborn at the Menier in a deglamourised production that laid bare the sometimes bruised, ultimately buoyant relationship at the show's tuneful heart: the love between two gay middle-aged men that's tested at a time of crisis.
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