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La Cage aux Folles is more frou-frou than ever, while across town a belly dancer titillates on a bare stage
Pink ruched curtains; a line of sashaying silhouettes; moues and pouts and flounces. La Cage aux Folles is frou-frou with a good heart. Terry Johnson's new production doesn't make Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's musical look more than a forward-looking period piece, but that doesn't much matter. The subject isn't really gay rights, though it waves some banners in the right direction. This is a show about performance, about making yourself up. The biggest number, 'I Am What I Am', is both posture-striking, in a 'My Way' kind of way, and genuinely defiant. It could just as well be called 'I Am Not What I Seem'.
The discreetly gay proprietor of a drag club has brought up his son (product of a one-night stand) with his orchidaceous lover, star of the show: the son gets engaged to the daughter of a homophobic politician called Dindon ('fall guy' in French). A meeting of the families is planned: the drag queen dresses up as the boy's mother. There's chaos and a happy ending.
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