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Panto dames and Michael Ball in Hairspray may make cross-dressing on stage seem common, but it takes more than a frock to be a successful drag queen. As a new revival of La Cage aux Folles and the upcoming transfer of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, celebrate the art of drag, Roger Foss looks at the men behind the mascara.
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But the Saint Tropez drag club setting for the New Menier Chocolate Factory production of the Jerry Herman-Harvey Feinstein musical La Cage aux Folles goes back to drag basics. When middle-aged drag queen Albin (played by Douglas Hodge) dabs on a little more mascara while singing about feeling special in feathers and bugle beads, he emerges as 'ZaZa' to perform in a far less extravagant club than in the original 1978 film's Las Vegas-style night spot, of in the original Broadway and London productions of the musical.
