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Lively drag dancers, big songs and fun-filled farce make The Birdcage a mischievous musical treat.
Take a strong vein of farce, add a combination of pastiche, pazzazz and pathos, mix with a tuneful, memorable score, and you have a truly winning combination as Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's 1980s musical La Cage aux Folles proves.
The show has been revived in an ambitious, marvellously entertaining new production directed by Terry Johnson at the Menier Chocolate Factory, near London Bridge.
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The two leads are splendid - Philip Quast, proving adept at both singing and acting, fully convinces as Georges, and Douglas Hodge, who initially seemed to over emphasise his gayness, quickly won me over by the sheer depth and emotion of his performance. There is also excellent support from, among others, Tara Hugo as the proprietor of a fashionable restaurant and regular habitué of the club, who comes to the rescue when things go disastrously wrong.
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