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Context is everything. When it was first staged in 1983, Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's musical appeared exuberantly subversive. Based on a 1970s French play, it had the temerity to suggest that not only could homosexuals form stable relationships, but that they might also successfully raise children. It also contained a song, 'I Am What I Am', that was adopted by the gay pride movement as a kind of rallying cry.
Twenty-five years later, the revolutionary sparkle has worn off and what remains is a rather leaden and sentimental farce with songs.
Georges (the excellent Philip Quast) runs a St Tropez drag nightclub with his long-time lover Albin (a game, if slightly Les Dawson-ish, Douglas Hodge), who nightly takes to the stage as entertainer Zaza. When Georges' son announces that he wants to get married, he begs his father to banish Albin for the occasion and reinstall his biological mother in order to win the approval of his fiancée’s moralistic father.
Cleverly designed by David Farley, the action in Terry Johnson’s intimate production moves seamlessly between on- and off-stage locations. But the French setting is awkwardly negotiated (shades of 'Allo 'Allo) and no amount of smart sets and energetic hoofing from the chorus can conceal the piece's lack of inherent emotional heft. Post-Amodóvar, it all seems very stagy and tame.
© 2008 Associated Newspapers Limited
