Personal hygiene is not optional if you want to be an active participant in the modern world. How is it that we can govern small countries from our cell phones, but can’t get everyone to use soap? The foul stench emanating from a fellow audience member seriously hampered my enjoyment of the current Broadway revival of La Cage. For most of the second act, I had my jacket pulled up to my nose as a makeshift gas mask. Obviously, I couldn’t quite give my full attention to the action on the stage.
That said, I still wasn’t totally overwhelmed by this British import. My biggest disappointment was the choreography. The production numbers lacked a sense of style and exoticism. I want my drag queens glamorous and fabulous, damn it, and the Cagelles seemed a bit rough and unsophisticated. I guess that might have been a directorial concept, but come on, this is La Cage, I want to see rhinestones, feathered headdresses and high kicks! Enough with these “pared down, gritty” re-thinking of the classics. Producers should just admit they’re cheap and get on with it. And while we’re talking about cheap, the orchestra (and I use the term loosely) sounded like a couple of kazoos and a washboard. Sad, just sad.
Frasier…er…Kelsey Grammer was impressive in his Broadway musical debut. He can carry a tune well enough and is convincing as the butch half of the central couple. The jury’s still out for me on Brit Douglas Hodge’s take on the flamboyant Albin. Although he had some hysterical line readings and has a wonderful gift for physical comedy, his singing voice is almost unbearable. A.J. Shively is a boring Jean-Michel who doesn’t sing or act especially well. His love interest, Anne, was saddled with an ugly Donna Pescow wig a la “Angie.” I kept waiting to see Maureen McGovern’s head poke out past the proscenium and belt out “Let the time flow, let the love grow…” (anyone…anyone? Am I that old?).
I loved Robin DeJesus in In The Heights, but the set’s covered with his bite marks. He hijacks “Anne in My Arms,” upstaging Shively at every turn. Although I’ll bet this blocking is intentional, given Shively lack of voice and charisma. Hopefully, I just saw him on an off night.
Still, the revival had its moments and the chemistry between Grammer and Hodge is always believable. I only wish the production around them reflected the same glamour and finesse. Please, no more Broadway-on-the-cheap.
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