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James Scarborough Gazette Theater Critic
High Energy "Folles" Worth Viewing
You get Paul Garman's spectacular production of the Jerry Herman musical, "La Cage Aux Folles," from Musical Theatre West at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
Director Nick DeGruccio and Choreographer Lee Martino have this cast dancing, jumping and running in a high-energy two hours. The already-large Carpenter Center stage is added to with a runway that takes the performers out into the crowd.
This is the story of Albin and Georges, your typical atypical couple who live on the south coast of France. Albin is the star of "La Cage Aux Folles," St. Tropez's glamorous cross-dressing revue. Georges is the proprietor, the dealmaker, and the ego-assuager. They have worked and lived together for 20 years. Albin is the self-professed wife, Georges is the husband by default.
They have a son, Jean-Michel, the result of Georges' one-time curiosity into what it would be like to spend a night with a woman. Despite his decidedly unromantic conception, Jean-Michel has been raised by Albin and Georges with all the love and compassion of a, well, normal family.
So, when Jean-Michel brings
home his new fiancee, Anne, whom he met on a vacation, all hell breaks loose.
Not that Anne wouldn't approve of the lifestyle of Jean-Michel's parents,
although she has yet to meet the parents. And her mother, Marie, is game
for anything.
It's her father. Her father, the imposing and sanctimonious Edouard Dindon, is the minister of the campaign to wipe out immorality. A proponent of family values, he would veto the marriage were he to know the nature of the relationship of his future son-in-law's parents and the way they made a living.
What ensues is a hilarious collision of the future in-laws. The ill-conceived attempt to replace Albin with Jean-Michel's birth mother backfires when she doesn't show up. Albin's surprise solution is both ingenious and one of the funniest things imaginable.
The cast was stunning. Without being over the top, David Engel's Albin captured with brio, campiness and compassion the idiosyncrasies and complexities of the adorable Albin. Norman Large played Georges with tenderness and humor, not to mention endearing exasperation. Ralph Cole, Jr. in his treatment of Jacob, the butler who insisted on being called the maid and who wanted just one chance to perform on stage, stole a couple of scenes, especially with his Tina Turner wig. And mention must be made of Les Cagelles, Albin's 10 accompanists who danced and sang and slinked across the stage like barroom angels in high heels.
Gary Wissmann's set design was a wonder. I especially liked how he staged simultaneous cross sections of something happening on stage at the club and something going on behind the scenes.
La Cage Aux Folles runs through Nov. 16
with performances at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, matinees on
Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and a Sunday evening performance on at 7 p.m.
Nov. 9. The Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center is located
at 6200 Atherton on the CSULB campus. For tickets and information call 856-1999,
ext. 4.
11/6/2003
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