And so what, if I love each feather and each spangle?

Our second trip to Wilton's Music Hall in a week was another joyful evening - in the company of the London Gay Big Band and a whole array of marvellous guest vocalists, as they treated us to A Night at the Musicals.

Although a little late for Gay Pride month [no idea when it became a month-long event, but hey ho], the focus was on songs that have had significant meaning for gay audiences over the years, and/or sung by gay icons - so it was fitting that the show opened with an overture of numbers from musical films starring Judy Garland, and the bill was peppered with anthems such as MegaBabs Don't Rain On My Parade, Liza's Cabaret, Dinah Washington/Noel Coward's Mad About the Boy, and songs from West End, Broadway and film musicals old and new - everything from Sondheim to Six!

In the role of MC, as well as one of our performers, was the simply marvellous Mr Carl Mullaney (who was superb as "Albin" in the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production of La Cage Aux Folles). His voice is remarkable, as is that of another of our singers Mr Tom Duern (a regular in Sacha Regan's all-male Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, we saw him (at Wilton's, again) in both HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance). What better way to showcase all that talent than with a very camp number from the aforementioned Six: The Musical, in which both boys appear?

Idriss Kargbo, Tom Duern, Carl Mullaney, Pearce Barron, Luke Bayer, Lucas Piquero - Ex-Wives [from Six]

An alumnus from the original production of that show, Ms Renée Lamb was also on the bill last night. Her voice is powerful [even if she does suffer a bit from the dreaded "Whitney Wibble" (melisma)], and, even though there is no online footage of her singing it, she did rather well on this modern gay anthem:

Kaela Settle - This Is Me [from The Greatest Showman]

The London Gay Big Band, tootling away.

Another of last night's performers, the rather glamorous Miss Emma Hatton has a magnificent voice - and put it to particularly spectacular use, on this uplifting [geddit?!] number, that she first performed in Wicked ten years ago:

Emma Hatton - Defying Gravity [from Wicked the Musical] - live on ITV's This Morning

However, it was the uber-talented Alison Jiear who we were looking forward to the most of all! She unfortunately didn't perform I Just Wanna Fucking Dance for us (although she did read out a few of the lyrics), but every time she appeared on stage, she showed the young 'uns what it means to be a true legend. And speaking of "camp musical classics":

Alison Jiear - Over The Rainbow

One of the songs she performed was a completely new one on us, but she did it brilliantly - here's the original:

Megan Hilty - They Just Keep Moving The Line [from Smash!]

And then - there's this:

Alison Jiear - Never Enough [from The Greatest Showman]

The last word must, of course, go to the faboo Carl Mullaney (again) - who did indeed close the show with this, the biggest and best gay anthem of them all!

Carl Mullaney - I Am What I Am

We absolutely adored every minute of this show - what a fab way to end a week!

Face life, with a little guts and lots of glitter

It may be Monday again - but the countdown to this Saturday's Gay Pride in London has begun!

Indeed, it begins on the remarkable - and heartening - note that the embattled Pride celebrations in Budapest, Hungary (under the thumb of that nasty piece of work Viktor Orban, whose regime has brought in draconian anti-gay legislation) went ahead on Saturday just gone... and an estimated 200,000 people joined the throng, many of whom had never turned out before!! [To put things in perspective, last year just 35,000 took part.]

A reminder, indeed, that Pride isn't just a carnival celebration - it is a protest that has real meaning!

Turning full circle, it is a Tacky Music Monday - a day for a song-and-dance "wake-up call" - and this classic number fits the bill perfectly:

Original London Cast 1985 - La Cage Aux Folles

Have a good week, dear reader - and keep cool. It's forecast to be up to 34C/93.2F in London today!

So hold this moment fast

Wednesday was a dreadful, wet, miserable one - some of the heaviest downpours of the summer so far. So it was, with trepidation, that we (Madam Arcati, Baby Steve, Alex and I) - cagoules, brollies and all - made our way to Regent's Park to meet up with John-John, Sally, Hils and Crog to see if that evening's performance of the new (fortieth anniversary) revival production of La Cage Aux Folles at the Open Air Theatre was going to go ahead...

...and lo and behold, the clouds faded away and we were indeed able to take our seats! [Having wiped them down with kitchen roll, of course.]

So over-the-moon.

What a show!! [Unfortunately, as this is merely week #1 of the run, there is no footage of our production, so you'll have to make do with videos from other performances...]

La Cage the musical is, of course, based upon the classic 1970s French film of the same name (which was later remade in English as The Birdcage) and is the product of two of theatre's all-time greats Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein. A pair of ageing queens Albin and Georges, who run a drag club on the French Riviera, have their lives turned upside down when "their" son announces his engagement to the daughter of a right-wing politician, and farce follows...

We saw the sumptuous Menier Chocolate Factory production way back in 2007 (and again in its West End transfer in 2008). This new production by the Open Air Theatre's outgoing director Timothy Sheader is every bit as stunning, but in a more down-to-earth fashion - not so much the glitz of the Riviera, more like a club in a British regional seaside town in all its "faded glory".

Albin aka "Zaza" (played to perfection by Carl Mullaney) is heavy-set, has a broad Northern accent, and certainly gives off "Elsie Tanner/Bet Lynch" vibes as he/she throws diva flounces and almost disrupts the nightclub's show for the umpteenth time, then reluctantly gives in and gets ready - with this, just one of the gay anthems in the show [here performed by Australia's Wayne Rogers]:

A Little More Mascara

The uber-talented Cagelles are all a bit - ahem - common under those flouncy, sparkly costumes, and can often be spotted in the "wings" eating chips or smoking a fag. The owner of the quayside cafe regularly frequented by our protagonists, Jacqueline (Debbie Kurup) is a Geordie, and so on.

All this makes for splendid entertainment, of course, amongst the sheer magnificence of the chorography, the glitter and the accomplished performances themselves. As the plot thickens however, and Georges (Billy Carter) reluctantly gives in to the selfish whims of his son Jean-Michel (Ben Culleton) and agrees that in order to hide the truth of their sexuality from the "future in-laws", the apartment - and Albin - need to be cleared out, he reflects on their long relationship with a love song that never fails to make the Madam and I cry [here sung by the original "Georges", Gene Barry]:

Song On the Sand

Oblivious to all these machinations, Zaza and the Cagelles make sure the show (finally) goes on! [Denis Quilley, George Hearn and the original West End cast version.]

La Cage Aux Folles

The joy soon turns to defiance when Albin discovers the truth, however - and that's where this all-time-classic number comes into its own [Carl Mullaney was brilliant, but here's Walter Charles' version]:

I Am What I Am

Now that is how to close the first half of a show!

After the interval, the opening scene has Albin/Zaza playing up brilliantly to type, all "widow's weeds" and funereal veil, bemoaning her lot, as Georges tries to placate her with a compromise proposal - perhaps Albin might make an appearance after all, but as a man? This is one of the funniest scenes in the original film, the remake, and in this production. Trying to butter toast "in a manly fashion", trying to "walk like John Wayne" (with the help of some lesbian "sailors"), trying not to squeal and flap her hands; Albin/Zaza almost manages it, but is uncomfortable. Knowing Albin's humiliation, Georges decides to remind Jean-Michel of a few home truths with another tear-jerker [here sung by Robert E, Wills]:

Look Over There

At the eleventh hour, however, Albin runs off - and "Maman" makes an appearance to greet the nasty bigot Edouard Dindon (played amusingly as a Scot by the estimable John Owen-Jones) and his wife! As they all get along famously, so it's time for a show-stopper... [Denis Quilley and George Hearn again]

The Best Of Times

Of course, once "Maman" gets over-excited, her wig falls off and the whole charade is revealed, it could all go terribly wrong - but for the scheming Jacqueline, who has tipped off the paparazzi that Dindon is lurking around a drag club of the sort he'd pledged to close if he came to office!

So, to the dénouement - "nasty Mr Dindon" is forced to awkwardly don a wig and a frock to mingle with the Cagelles and make his escape, the boy gets the girl (with a reprise of Look Over There, directed at the shamed parents-in-law) and all live happily every after with the rousing finale - and a much-deserved standing ovation.

We laughed, we cried, we utterly, absolutely loved it!

La Cage Aux Folles runs at the Open Air Theatre until 16th September 2023. Worth every penny.

---

STOP PRESS:
RIP, Walter Charles.

Just take a deep breath, a sip of champagne

Oh dear. Not only has it been a gloomy, drizzly start to the week, but we lost two cultural icons in one day - from very different ends of the spectrum, admittedly.



First off (and following in the footsteps of the slew of "national treasures" who went last year), another of the mainstays of British light entertainment for the past seven decades, a master of the quick-fire gag (he made the Guinness Book of Records in 1974 for telling jokes at a rate of 10 a minute for more than three hours) as well as of slightly surreal comic lunacy and even ventriloquy, Sir Ken Dodd died at the ripe old age of 91. A true all-rounder, he was not only renowned for his crowd-pulling (and often five hours long) stand-up shows, but also had a massive career as a singer - his song Tears outsold everyone except the Beatles, becoming the third biggest single of the 1960s! And here he is:

Ken Dodd - Hits Medley

He was followed in his journey to Fabulon today by the master of the art of "smart, wearable couture", favourite designer of style icons such as Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy, Hubert de Givenchy.



Inevitably, I have featured the great man as an "exhibit" over the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp before - see here, here and especially here.

Obviously, he never sang. However, on this Tacky Music Monday, we feature the most famous song to name-check him...

George Hearn and Company - La Cage Aux Folles

Here at La Cage we live life
How should I put it? On an angle
Just take a deep breath, a sip of champagne
Open your eyes and what do you see?

It's rather gaudy but it's also rather grand
And while the waiter pads your check, he'll kiss your hand
The clever gigolos romance the wealthy matrons
At La Cage Aux Folles

It's slightly forties and a little bit new wave
You may be dancing with a girl who needs a shave
Where both the riff-raff and the royalty are patrons
At La Cage Aux Folles

La Cage Aux Folles
The Maitre d' is dashing
Cage Aux Folles
The hat check girl is flashing
We import the drinks that you buy
So your Dom Perrier is Canada Dry

Eccentric couples always punctuate the scene
A pair of eunuchs and a nun with a marine
To feel alive you get a Limousine to drive you
To La Cage Aux Folles

It's bad and beautiful, it's bawdy and bizarre
I know a Duchess who got pregnant at the bar
Just who is who and what is what
Is quite a question at La Cage Aux Folles

Go for the mystery, the magic and the mood
Avoid the hustlers and the men's room and the food
For you get glamour and romance and indigestion
At La Cage Aux Folles

La Cage Aux Folles
A San Tropez tradition
Cage Aux Folles
You'll lose each inhibition
All week long we're wondering who
Left a green Givenchy gown in the loo

You go alone to have the evening of your life
You meet your mistress
And your boy-friend and your wife
It's a bonanza, it's a mad extravaganza
At La Cage Aux Folles

Hubert was probably incredibly proud...

A little guts and lots of glitter

How life should be.

It's that "bit in-between", folks. The weather is foul; all cold winds and sleet. The shops (even in "Chav Central" aka Wood Green) are not especially busy, despite the half-price sales that have inevitably started everywhere. Methinks most people have wisely opted to stay indoors and mong out on leftovers while watching crap TV; unfortunately that includes the Demon Spawn from Hell upstairs, whose screeching and crashing began at 6am today! Oh, golly gosh, I said. As you might imagine...

Having missed out on our regular Tacky Music Monday this week thanks to the bloody Festering Season, I think it only right that we mark the fact it would have been the 90th birthday of the fantabulosa Denis Quilley yesterday - and cheer ourselves up with a healthy dose of feathers, foof and faff. Don't you?

Take it away, girls!

Dennis Quilley as "Georges" introduces the original London cast of La Cage Aux Folles at the 1987 Laurence Olivier Awards

We are what we are, and what we are is an illusion.
We love how it feels
Putting on heels causing confusion.
We face life though it's sometimes sweet and sometimes bitter;
Face life, with a little guts and lots of glitter.
Look under our frocks: Girdles and jocks,
Proving we are what we are!

Amen to that...

Denis Clifford Quilley, OBE (26th December 1927 – 5th October 2003)

Dame Commander

One of the greatest of our Patron Saints Dame Angela Lansbury - who we had the privilege of seeing for the first time on stage this year in Blithe Spirit - is 89 years old today!

All hail.

To celebrate, in a most suitable fashion, here she is - together with two other great ladies from our Pantheon, Miss Chita Rivera and Miss Carol Channing, and a cast of thousands - giving her own nod to a man who did so much for her Broadway career (at the 2010 Kennedy Honours Gala) Mr Jerry Herman...

The Best Of Times Is Now? If I had been in this audience, you bet!

Angela Lansbury, Chita Rivera, Carol Channing, Christine Ebersole, Christine Baranski, Kelsey Grammer and company - I Don't Want to Know/The Best of Times is Now (Jerry Herman's Kennedy Center Honors tribute)

Many happy returns to a fantabulosa lady - and remember, I am Angela Lansbury!

Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury, DBE (born 16th October 1925)

Give me the hook or the ovation

Dear old Jerry Herman was 83 yesterday.

It's also the end of a particularly tortuous week back in work after a week off for the move.

So what better way to celebrate the coming weekend than with the former "friend of the gays" (now, sadly, yet another diva-turned-god-botherer) Miss Gloria Gaynor [here, incomprehensibly, accompanied by what appears to be a collective of prostitutes...] and her version of one of the Great Man's most anthemic numbers - I Am What I Am?

Gloria Gaynor - I Am What I Am

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Jerry Herman (born 10th July 1931)

Fanny, Stella, Jerry and me

I went to a very special event yesterday (in my role as co-Chair of Islington LGBT staff forum) in an unassuming back street in Bloomsbury.



Public recognition is bestowed at last upon two favourite gay heroes/heroines of ours - those Victorian pioneers of gay resistance Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park, better known (of course) as Stella and Fanny.

Read my entry in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp about them.

The eponymous stars of a tremendous tome by Neil McKenna (the launch of which we attended during LGBT History Month this February), it was fitting - in the absence due to ill-health of the scheduled Bette Bourne - that he was asked by the sponsoring Marchmont Association to do the honour of unveiling a blue plaque to the pair.

As he said to the sizeable crowd (that included authors Rictor Norton and Neil Bartlett and representatives of gay history research organisations and Gay's The Word bookshop): "Unaccustomed as I am to pulling things in public..."



Given the outrageous behaviour of Fanny and Stella during their time in the "house of accommodation" [aka brothel] in Wakefield Street - cross-dressing, soliciting gentlemen in public, blatant homosexuality, arrest and trial - it was ironic indeed that the current site (the terrace was flattened during WW2) is occupied by the headquarters of the Unitarian Church!

However, as everyone mentioned in their speeches (not only the wonderfully entertaining Mr McKenna, but also Camden's Mayor (our friend) Jonathan Simpson, Ricci de Freitas of the Marchmont Society and the host Rev Roberta Rominger) times have changed since Fanny and Stella's day.

Sometimes, however, I wish we had more characters like Fanny and Stella these days...

Yesterday was also the birthday of another idol here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Mr Jerry Herman. And here is a marvellously apt song from the great man's La Cage Aux Folles that might have been written for our Victorian doyennes of drag - A Little More Mascara!

Randy Roberts - A Little More Mascara

Fanny and Stella - The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England by Neil McKenna is published by Faber & Faber.

Define yourself!

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.”

Whew! A person who is still alive to celebrate!

Happy birthday today to the lovely Harvey Fierstein, one of the gayest of gay men in theatre, rights champion and a personal icon of mine... [I have blogged about him before, of course - read my tribute to the man back in 2009.]

So without further ado, here is the great Broadway Queen, on the eve of taking over the role of "Zaza" in La Cage Aux Folles (a show he wrote!) this year, reminiscing about his life:

Harvey Fierstein - Show People with Paul Wontorek

Harvey Fierstein on Wikipedia

Harvey Fierstein takes over in La Cage

Jerry Herman honoured in style

On Sunday 5th December, the 33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honours celebrated, among others the talents and contributions of one of our icons here at Dolores Delargo Towers, none other than composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, the genius behind Hello, Dolly!, La Cage Aux Folles, Mame and Mack and Mabel, among other camp classics.

Speaking of camp - the line-up of stars who turned out (or were wheeled out in some cases!) sounds tremendous!

Our divine mother Angela Lansbury introduced the tribute. Kelsey Grammer (as Zaza) led a chorus of dancing "girls" on We Are What We Are from La Cage.

The triumph of art over nature that is the wonderful Carol Channing then sang Hello, Jerry (Hello, Dolly) with lyrics especially adapted for the occasion.

The sexy Matthew Morrison of Glee (who is apparently not gay - as these pictures prove) performed It's Today from Mame, and two of our favourite showgirls, none other than Christine Baranski and Christine Ebersole, teamed up for Bosom Buddies.

A host of Broadway stars did their turn - Laura Benanti sang the beautiful Time Heals Everything from Mack and Mabel, and returning to Hello Dolly!, Sutton Foster performed Before the Parade Passes By, and Kelli O'Hara and Matthew Bomer duetted on It Only Takes a Moment.

Leading the finale, living legend Chita Rivera sang and danced to I Don't Want to Know (from Dear World) and the tribute concluded with two of Mr Herman's greatest songs, I Am What I Am and The Best of Times.

Now if that isn't a celebration, then I don't know what is!!

The show is not going to be televised in the US until December 28th so there is no footage of this glittering gala available yet - and somehow I doubt it will even get a mention on telly here in the UK. But I'll be looking out for it!

PS Apparently also honoured on the night were Sir Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Merle Haggard and choreographer and director Bill T. Jones.

Kennedy Center Honours 2010

---

STOP PRESS

Here it is!

Kennedy Centre Honours 2010 - Jerry Herman

Memories, like the corners of my mind

My MySpace friend DJDaddums set an interesting challenge this morning. Apparently there is a new Radio 2 show, presented by the gorgeous Dermot O'Leary, called Time Capsules coming to the airwaves, and it sounds like a trendier version of Desert Island Discs. Guests are invited to submit ten songs, in the following strict categories: “Family Favourite”, “Teenage Kicks”, “Tearjerker (aka “our song")”, “Ultimate Time Capsule Song”, “Funeral Song”, and FIVE free choices.

So, rising to the challenge, here's mine...

Family Favourite - Given that my closest family member is my sister, I would have to feature this classic number we used to dance to at the "Bowie/Roxy" nights at "Lasers" club in Newport way back in the early 1980s. The Cure still make a regular re-appearance at every house party, and Hils and I still dance to it - albeit a bit more wheezily these days...

The Cure - The Lovecats

Teenage Kicks - Ah, this one is a given. My obsession with Blondie as a young closet queen is well-documented, and this song above all others was a personal obsession of mine when I was a teenager...

Blondie - Picture This

Tearjerker - A much more difficult one, this - for many of the songs I would class as "tearjerkers" (Wild is the Wind, Somewhere (A Place For Us)) stem from times way before I met Madam Acarti. However, this song (on the sand) is indeed one of "ours":

Davis Gaines - Song in the Sand (La Cage Aux Folles)

Free choice #1 - Now we're really into indulgence... First up, one of the best Disco songs ever recorded. RIP, Sylvester:

Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

Free choice #2 - From one of the most influential gay pop stars of the late 20th century Mr Tom Robinson, here's a most beautifully crafted song that has had a lasting influence on my life...

Tom Robinson - War Baby

Free choice #3 - Speaking of huge influences, here's my theme tune Queen Bitch by the greatest of all artists, ever, Mr David Bowie:

David Bowie - Queen Bitch

Free choice #4 - I really don't need any excuse at all to include this work of genius by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour on the list!

Youssou N'Dor and Neneh Cherry - Seven Seconds

Free choice #5 - Now here's a close-run contender for the "Family Favourite" entry, from one of my all-time favourite artists - an absolute classic. Just thinking of the first time I saw Marc singing Tainted Love on Top Of The Pops sends shivers down my spine...

Soft Cell - Tainted Love

Ultimate Time Capsule Song - Difficult, very difficult - there are so many of them! However, since You Spin Me Round was one of the very earliest records that sums up my coming out, and the "Tunnel" club in Cardiff in 1984,here's the top memory-jerker in my collection. I can actually smell the poppers as we speak...

Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round

And, finally, the Funeral Song - Now I was toying with the idea of Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead!, or more seriously Pet Shop Boys' Being Boring. But in the end, there is only one winner in this category - it is, after all, a cabaret, old chum!

Liza Minnelli - Cabaret

Now it's over to you...

Everything’s ankle straps, Marabou, Shalimar

We all turned out for the new Playhouse Theatre run of La Cage Aux Folles last night to help celebrate our friend John-John 's birthday. We had been to see the original run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and at the time I predicted this would get to the West End - so how did the two compare?

Read my review

Well, when we saw the original, the star Douglas Hodge was unwell so we didn't experience his take on the part [it was "played to quivering perfection by (the understudy) Spencer Stafford", as I said in my blog]. So it was a bit of a surprise to find Mr Hodge had decided to play Albin/Zaza as a sort of Alan Carr/Dick Emery character...

This was disconcerting, to say the least, and inevitably meant that much of the subtlety and pathos of the show was lost. As the gurning, stereotypical gay (and particularly "telly star gay" - Barrymore, Carr, Norton) humour went on, the largely ignorant audience bayed with laughter at the visual gags, and missed the subtlety of important parts of the story.

Personally I was fuming when Hodge threw in a "chase me, chase me" gag into what should have been a far more interesting scene about the relationship between Georges and Albin. [I hate Duncan Norvelle and his brand of "playing-to-the-tabloids" homophobia, and cannot see why doing this kind of impression is in any way relevant to the show.]

And in consequence of this "dumbing-down" we sometimes felt that the general sympathies of the audience lay with the machinations of the erstwhile son rather than the put-upon gay "parents".



Anyway, in its favour this production does have its merits. Much of the brilliance of the DV8 production remains intact - the "birdcage" dance choreography, in particular the scene where Albin stirs the cocktail as the dancers whirl about him, for example. Douglas Hodge, when he stops playing up for laughs, is vocally superb in his big numbers - I Am What I Am, and The Best Of Times in particular.

And as Michael Billington in his Guardian review says, "Denis Lawson may not possess the massive dignity that Philip Quast originally brought to the role of Georges", but he is remarkable in revealing his singing and dancing talents, which we all found impressive.

The ultimate conclusion that everyone came to after the "post-match analysis" that accompanies these occasions, is that Jerry Herman is a genius, La Cage Aux Folles is one of the best musicals of all time, and if this had been the first time we'd seen the show in its current form, we would have thought it marvellous. Had we not been spoiled by seeing it first at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and had we not had to put up with the stupid drunken ignorant West End audience, it would have been a far better night. But all-in-all it was great fun and worth seeing nonetheless!

A Little More Mascara
Once again I'm a little depressed by the tired old face that I see,
Once again it is time to be someone, who's anyone other than me.
With the rare combination of girlish excitement and manly restraint,
I position my precious assortment of pencils and powders and paint.

So whenever I feel that my place in the world is beginning to crash,
I apply one great stroke of Mascara to my rather limp upper lash.
And I can cope again, Good God! There's hope again!

When life is a real bitch again, and my old sense of humour has up, and gone
It's time for the big switch again, I put a little more Mascara on.
When I count my crow's feet again, and tired of this perpetual marathon,
I put down the loo-seat again, and put a little more Mascara on.

And ev'rything's sparkle dust, bugle beads, ostrich plumes,
When it's a beaded lash that you look through,
'Cause when I feel glamorous, elegant, beautiful,
The world that I'm looking at's beautiful too!

When my little road has a few bumps again,
And I need something level to lean upon,
I put on my sling pumps again,
And wham! This ugly duckling is a swan!
So when my spirit starts to sag,
I hustle out my highest drag,
And put a little more mascara on.

And everything's ankle straps, Marabou, Shalimar!
It's worth sucking in my gut, and girdling my rear.
'Cause ev'rything's ravishing, sensual, fabulous!
When Albin is tucked away, and, ZaZa is here!

When everything slides down the old tubes again,
And when my self esteem has begun to drift,
I strap on my fake boobs again,
And literally give myself a lift.
So when it's cold and when it's bleak,
I simply rouge the other cheek,
For I can face another day
In slipper satin lingerie.

To make depression disappear,
I screw some rhinestones on my ear,
And put my brooches and tiara,
And a little more mascara on

Sparkle dust, bugle beads,
Ankle straps, Marabou...On! Ankle straps, Marabou,
Ostrich plumes, Shalimar,
Ravishing, fabulous, on! Ravishing, fabulous, on!

Randy Roberts - A Little More Mascara

La Cage Aux Folles at the Playhouse Theatre

You're lookin swell, Dolly

"There is never an evening when, somewhere in the world, the music and lyrics of Jerry Herman are not being sung by a lady in a red headdress, or a lady with a bugle, or a middle-aged man in a wig and a boa."

The grand-daddy of the high-kicking, sequinned camp showbiz number Jerry Herman celebrates his 77th birthday today!

We love Jerry - another of those wonderful out gay men who keep Broadway and the West End alive with shows such as Mame, Hello Dolly and La Cage Aux Folles. He provides a complete balance against the likes of Sondheim and Bernstein - they do the clever, the thought-provoking and the symphonic, but leave it to Jerry to provide the va-va-voom!

Lucille Ball - Mame

Caroline O'Connor - Look What Happened to Mabel

Original London Cast 1985 - La Cage Aux Folles

Louis Armstrong and Barbra Streisand - Hello Dolly!

Happy birthday sweetie...

Go for the mystery, the magic and the mood

It's rather gaudy but it's also rather grand.
And while the waiter pads your check he'll kiss your hand.
The clever gigolos romance the wealthy matrons
At La Cage Aux Folles.

It's slightly forties, and a little bit "New Wave".
You may be dancing with a girl who needs a shave.
Where both the riffraff and the royalty are patrons
At La Cage Aux Folles.

La Cage Aux Folles,
The Maitre d' is dashing,
Cage Aux Folles,
The hat check girl is flashing,

It's bad and beautiful,
It's bawdy and bizarre.
I know a Duchess who got pregnant at the bar.
Just who is who and what is what
Is quite a question at La Cage Aux Folles.

Go for the mystery, the magic and the mood.
Avoid the hustlers,
And the men's room,
And the food.
For you get glamour and romance and indigestion
At La Cage Aux Folles.

La Cage Aux Folles,
a Saint Tropez tradition,
Cage Aux Folles
You'll lose each inhibition,

All week long we're wondering who
Left a green Givenchy gown in the loo.
You go alone to have the evening of your life.
You meet your mistress
And your boy-friend and your wife.

It's a bonanza, it's a mad extravaganza,
At La Cage Aux Folles.

Ten of us went to see the new production of La Cage Aux Folles at the Menier Chocolate Factory last night, full of anticipation. The show has seemed ill-fated, with several bouts of illness forcing the previews to be delayed three times - and indeed the intended lead Douglas Hodge is still unwell and was replaced by his understudy. But we were definitely in for a treat!!

Everyone should be familiar with the plot - whether from the original (brilliant) French film, its US remake The Birdcage, or indeed this, the Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical. Two ageing queens Albin and Georges, who run a drag club on the French Riviera, have their lives turned upside down when "their" son announces his engagement to the daughter of a right-wing politician, and farce follows...

Star of the show at La Cage Aux Folles is Zaza, alter-ego of the ultra-camp Albin, who was played to quivering perfection by (the understudy) Spencer Stafford.



Despite a bit of a shaky start, he really came into his own in the first half when Zaza's stage show begins. Spencer commands a breathtaking presence when, during the show's title number, he stands among the troupe stirring a Martini. The faster he stirs, the faster the "Cagelles" spin around him. When he stops stirring they stop twirling. When he eats the olive, they fall to his feet, and he/she stands there, queen of all he surveys. Genius!

The interplay between Albin and Georges (played subtly and skilfully by Philip Quast) provides a wonderful insight into the complexities of relationships, no matter who they are. Torn between his love for his son, and his loyalty and love for Albin, Georges has some of the most emotional and stirring numbers in the show, Song on the Sand and Look Over There - and Philip's beautiful renditions had several of us in tears. Even I welled up...

As the story unfolds, Albin's reaction to being told he is not welcome at the eventual meeting with the prospective in-laws leads him to sing the show's most famous and triumphal number I Am What I Am - revealing with bitterness just how strong and resilient he is, and providing us with an insight of just why the couple have stayed together so long.

Then the real farce ensues - Albin's attempts to "play it straight" as the boy's "uncle", and the eventual meeting with the girl's nauseating father and his dim wife (played by Una Stubbs), where Albin emerges as "Maman". The interplay between the characters (and their fabulous "maid" Jacob) is hilarious. And the restaurant scene, when Albin sings the show's most brilliant number The Best Of Times Is Now, is an absolute joy!

As in all classic shows there has to be a dazzling denouement, and the closing sequence where the politician father has to escape the paparazzi is played to glittering sequinned perfection. And there is a lovely happy ending...



I cannot fault this show! Every one of us enjoyed it so much - the tears and the laughs, and the sheer feeling of uplifting exuberance it gave us - that we are even talking about going to see it again before it closes in March 2008...

Given the Menier Theatre's record of success - their productions of Little Shop of Horrors and Sunday in the Park with George have both gone on to West End and worldwide acclaim - I sincerely hope that La Cage Aux Folles will see the same level of success. West End - here we come!

David Gaines - Song on the Sand

Menier Chocolate Factory

Footnote:

And for the homosexual in your life...

Camp Classics Collection: Some Like It Hot, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, La Cage Aux Folles and The Birdcage.

The Best Of Times Is Now...

Coinciding with the announcement that the Menier Chocolate Factory's showpiece musical this November will be a revival of La Cage Aux Folles, we went to a special BBC Friday Night Is Music Night gala celebration of the life and work of Jerry Herman on Sunday.

The gorgeously flamboyant Mr Herman is almost single-handedly responsible for some of the most brilliant and memorable musicals to hit Broadway and the West End (and in many cases the big screen too): Hello Dolly, Mame, Mack & Mabel and La Cage among them...

For anyone who loves musical theatre, Sunday's show (recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 2 this Xmas) was a real treat. The beautiful John Barrowman was both Master of Ceremonies and performer, singing the gay anthem I Am What I Am among others, and was joined by stalwarts of the stage Maria Friedman, Debbie Gravitte, Clarke Peters and Don Pippin, accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra and the chorus Capital Voices. Whew! Even Jerry himself joined us live (by phone, unfortunately being too unwell to travel to appear in person, as had been advertised).



Jerry Herman is a phenomenal writer of big showtunes as well as pithy torch songs, and provided a career boost to luminaries like Barbra Streisand, Angela Lansbury, Louis Armstrong, Carol Channing, Barbara Cook, George Hearn, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford among many others. All our favourite hits were here, including Put On Your Sunday Clothes, Before The Parade Passes By, I Won't Send Roses, Tap Your Troubles Away, and of course my all-time favourite The Best of Times is Now.

A brilliant night (needless to say)!

Jerry Herman on Wikipedia

Menier Chocolate Factory

Adieu, Zaza

Sad news today - Michel Serrault, unabashed star of that marvellous camp classic film La Cage Aux Folles, is dead.



As the outrageous drag queen Albin (whose alter ego Zaza was queen of the nightclub run by her boyfriend Renato), Serrault set a superb precedent of hysterical camp that could not be matched by any future pretenders to the throne - not even the fab Nathan Lane, who reprised the role for The Birdcage with Robin Williams.

The film itself was ground-breaking stuff in 1978. Its sympathetic portrayal of two ageing gay men and their relationship with each other - and their cultural clash with so-called "normal" life as Renato's son prepares to marry the daughter of an ultra right-wing politician - was practically unheard of in its day and quickly became a cult hit, even though it is entirely in French. It was nominated for three Oscars, and won several awards including a Golden Globe.

Those giants of Broadway Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein were inspired to make a hugely successful musical out of the story, which spawned an uber-gay anthem in I Am What I Am, and one of my favourite songs The Best Of Times Is Now.

And of course without La Cage, where would such films as Torch Song Trilogy, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo be?

Farewell, Zaza!

The Best of Times is Now (from La Cage Aux Folles the musical)
The best of times is now.
What's left of Summer
But a faded rose?

The best of times is now.
As for tomorrow,
Well, who knows? Who knows? Who knows?

So hold this moment fast,
And live and love
As hard as you know how.
And make this moment last
Because the best of times is now,
Is now, is now.

Now, not some forgotten yesterday.
Now, tomorrow is too far away.

So hold this moment fast,
And live and love
As hard as you know how.
And make this moment last,
Because the best of times is now, is now.

So hold this moment fast,
And live and love
As hard as you know how.
And make this moment last,
Because the best of times is now,
Is now, is now
Is now, is NOW!

La Cage aux Folles (film) on Wikipedia

La Cage aux Folles (musical) on Wikipedia

Michel Serrault - BBC article