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The origins of La Cage aux Folles go back to a boulevard comedy by French actor, director and screenwriter Jean Poiret. He wrote the play in 1973 and starred in it as Georges, with Michel Serrault as the other leading character and female impersonator Albin. When the film was made as a French-Italian co-production in 1978, Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi replaced Poiret as Georges, Albin's lover (and the character's name was changed to Renato). It proved an immense hit and there were two (less successful) sequels and eventually an American musical by Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein. This opened on Broadway in 1983 with George Hearn as Albin and Gene (Burke's Law) Barry as Georges.
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The show is kept together by Philip Quast as Georges, a voice of sanity in this mad world of drag and temperament. In his efforts to do his best for everyone, he tries to please Albin but gets nowhere. He tries to maintain some sort of order, keeping the home going for his lover and their recalcitrant servant and then having to smooth over his son's worries over the awful in-laws. Quast, like Georges, keeps his cool and gives a subtly nuanced performance of a quiet man whose life is one long trip to the end of the nearest tether.
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