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What a terrific couple of nights for the West End. At the start of the week, Roger Allam, surely Britain's most versatile actor, proved sensational as the drag queen Albin in Terry Johnson's exhilarating production of the musical La Cage aux Folles.
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Dressed in shocking pink, he puts one in mind of Barbara Cartland at her dottiest, only to reveal a touch of Margaret Thatcher's steel a few seconds and a costume change later. But beyond the extravagant drag, Allam also captures the character's underlying decency and generosity of heart – and his real love for his partner and his partner's son, to whom Albin has always been surrogate mother.
With Philip Quast back in the cast as Albin's lover and the club's urbane master of ceremonies, and the chorus boys/girls as screamingly outrageous and brilliantly choreographed as ever, this remains one of the most blissfully entertaining shows on the London stage.
© Telegraph Group Limited
