Pierrot Productions stages this feel-good music at Kelsey Theatre.
By: Stuart Duncan
For the spring show, staged at MCCC’s Kelsey Theatre, Pierrot Productions has picked La Cage aux Folles, and the Jerry Herman musical, with book by Harvey Fierstein, is a happy choice. The show began as a 1973 French play, and in 1978 became a French-Italian film. It was turned into a 1983 Broadway musical, and in 1996 was adapted as a movie (non-musical) titled The Birdcage and directed by Mike Nichols.
It focuses on two middle-aged men whose committed relationship plays out against the background of a St. Tropez nightclub. It may no longer break new ground as it did during its Broadway performances, but then it never was intended as a political statement, but rather a feel-good musical with much the same theme as Mame. In that Jerry Herman show, a young boy learns to admire and adore his somewhat bizarre parent.
And whereas a quarter century ago the first-act closing number, "I Am What I Am," was an ode to an alternative lifestyle, now, with changing mores and better understanding, it would seem to encourage family values as firmly as any right-wing, anti-gay marriage group in the land. Now the second act song, "Look Over There," would apparently suggest the show’s intent better.
Director Pete LaBriola has assembled a brilliant company. Steven O’Kane-Murin plays Georges, as fine a performance as he has given in many years. Incidentally, 17 years ago he played Albin, the other member of the duo who doubles as Zaza, a nightclub performer. That role is played by Tom Chiola; the pair are long-time friends and it shows in the stunning performances. The lovely "Song on the Sand" is beautifully sung, and Chiola is superb in both the title tune and "I Am What I Am."
Brendan Burns plays Georges’ son, Jean-Michel, young and in love with Anne (Blaire O’Leary), daughter of the state’s czar of purity. Ruth Markoe plays Jacqueline, friend and the owner of a fancy restaurant in St. Tropez. Paul Saunders and Virginia Barrie play the sticky-wicket do-gooders from the state, intent on ferreting out sin wherever it might rear its ugly head. In such a musical, they are doomed to get their comeuppance.
But the heart of this show is with the Cagelles, or chorus girls, and since it is set in the French Riviera, one cannot always tell the gender of the performers. Abbey Newell, Kristina Mancini, Victor Ruiz, Joanna Woodruff, Alessandra Farina, Korenzander James duBeq, Alwyn Baskin and Tara Wood strut their stuff in costumes created by Ruth Rittmann and her daughter, Michelle. Meanwhile, the veteran Louis Woodruff conducts one of the best pit orchestras at Kelsey in years 22 pieces, including eight woodwinds.
La Cage aux Folles continues at Kelsey Theatre, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor, through May 21. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $16, $12 seniors, $10 students/children. For information, call (609) 584-9444. On the Web: www.kelseytheatre.net

